Sure didn't feel like it to me
They had opportunities to put it away. But the Bengals pass-rush dominated our Oline when it mattered the most.
The Bengals defense pretty much did to the Seahawks what the Seahawks did to the Giants. Bengals like the Seahawks put everything on the line trying to stamp out a win before their bye week. They had like 5 different guys with at least 6 pressures and Hubbard straight up dominated Curhan. It could have been much worse than 4 sacks.
I think some people are overlooking that the Bengals are a quality team despite their record and are obviously capable of competing for the AFC and a SB with a healthy Joe Burrow.
Ive seen some people say the Seahawks had 13 days to prepare and what not but I think players are basically are on a paid vacation during a bye week, so if they are working they are doing it on their own time, so basically they just had a week to get their game plan in. And it’s also probably harder to get these guys back and ready to battle again especially when a lot of guys are banged up and hurting after 4 games in as opposed to deeper in the season when guys are more integrated, dialed in, and rolling on more cylinders.
Make no mistake these aren’t excuses, Seahawks had opportunities to win, so yeah there is a feeling of a let down.
But at the same time considering all the circumstances highlighted above doing it on the road in a 10 am start against a quality opponent that was more juiced up trying to get to their bye week on a positive note, the Seahawks still were able to go toe to toe and never let the game completely get away from them. This loss was night and day from the Rams loss, much more encouraging, much more positive.
The defense looks like it has foundation to potentially be elite again bouncing back from a poor start and then locking it down with a dominant performance after the first two Bengal drives.
Obviously, the offense left a lot to be desired. In my opinion, they need a coming to terms moment. They have so much talent that want touches and opportunities that it’s hindering decisions making process in a negative way for both Geno and Waldron especially when the Oline is running hot and cold.
Either two things have to happen,
1. The Oline gets healthier and stabilizes and Waldron and Geno figure out how to feed all these guys without forcing the execution.
Or 2. They scheme around an inconsistent Oline, these WRs take a step back and allow not only Waldron to coordinate his game plan to his strengths (looking at heavy TE/RB usage) but allow Geno to facilitate the offense in a way where he’s not in his head and forcing things caring about whether he’s making guys happy and fat. Play the hot hands, play team ball, especially with the Oline the way it is.
But all in all this team lost by 4 points against maybe the best QB and WR they’ll face in the regular season with the defense holding serve and while the offense left a lot on their table, the Bengals pass rush has been elite this season even if they don’t got big-time superstar and they were able to dominate. So while it was frustrating not to finish out quality drives with points, I just really can’t feel too demoralized by this loss and act like the sky is falling.
I’m with Carroll this is exactly the type of loss where you can still build off of and hopefully come out better in the end.