Seattle Seahawks: Offensive Line Injuries Hinder Offense

Matthew Emmons – USA TODAY Sports

The Seattle Seahawks were looking like a Super Bowl favorite after the first three weeks of the season. They traveled down South to take on the Houston Texans in a matchup of the top defenses in the NFL. Seattle handicapped themselves before the game even got started, however, with injuries to three starters on their offensive line. Their absence was felt in a major way as the Texans’ defense had their way with the Seattle offense.

With Russell Okung, Max Unger and Breno Giacomini sidelined with injuries, Seattle had to patch together a front five to try and handle one of the better defensive fronts in all of football. They proved they were not up to the challenge early and often as they were pushed around by J.J. Watt and the Houston defense making it almost impossible for the Seahawks to get their offense on track.

Marshawn Lynch was routinely getting hit in the backfield and couldn’t get a consistent rhythm going in the running game. Russell Wilson was running for his life on every drop-back and couldn’t find any easy completions. He was hit on each of his first five pass attempts, including two sacks, and didn’t have a single completion in the first quarter of the game.

Seattle was able to manufacture an impressive drive in the fourth quarter where Wilson extended some plays with his legs and ran for several first downs that cut the lead to seven points. Outside of that, however, the Seahawks looked stuck in neutral on offense when Lynch or Wilson wasn’t breaking a long run. Finding any consistency was nearly impossible.

The Seahaws still have a wealth of talent on this roster on both offense and defense, but their trip to Houston proves that they are just a few injuries away from getting manhandled. Getting healthy in the trenches needs to be a priority for Pete Carroll and the Seahawks so they can get back on track for a deep run in the playoffs.

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