The poor performance of Seahawks Week 1 is standard under Pete Carroll

The Seattle Seahawks were perhaps a 9.5-point favorite over the Cincinnati Bengals, but not only did they not cover the gap, they did not even dominate by more than four points. Of course, a 21-20 win looks much better than a defeat, and I'm afraid I do not know how we would react if they could not beat what was supposed to be a low. remains on the Bengals side.

But the Seahawks coming out of doors on opening day are not new to the Pete Carroll era. At the end of the first season of the regular season, Seattle normally gives two results:

– A very fragile victory, very frustrating:

2013: 12-7 at Carolina Panthers
2016: 12-10 vs. Miami dolphins
2019: 21-20 against the Cincinnati Bengals

– A very fragile and frustrating loss:

2011: 33-17 at the 49ers of San Francisco
2012: 20-16 at the Cardinals of Arizona
2015: 34-31 (OT) at the St. Louis Rams
2017: 17-9 at Green Bay Packers
2018: 27-24 in Denver Broncos

Exceptions to the rule came in 2010, when Matt Hasselbeck overcame a literal interception for the first game to guide the Seahawks to a 31-6 loss against the San Francisco 49ers, and the Green Bay Packers' 36-16 defeat for the opening of the 2014 championship season.

You may be wondering why I included the 2011 game against the 49ers among the "close" defeats despite the score of 33-17. For those who may not remember, the Seahawks returned 16-0 to return to 19-17 with 3:55 to go and two timeouts. All they had to do was hold the 49ers on a short trip and they would get the ball back with a chance to win an unlikely victory. Instead, Ted Ginn scored two touchdowns in less than a minute, and the 49ers offense did not even play another game outside of the win.

In terms of those three wins, all required fourth-quarter touchdowns from Russell Wilson. It was actually the first time since 2014 that Wilson did not have sales for the first week, so consider this improvement over previous seasons.

Pete Carroll firmly believes that "it's not how we start, but how we finish." This explains the Seahawks' reputation for playing in the playoffs after a record season between September and October, as well as the season-long season. spark of Russell Wilson. reputation as one of the best quarterbacks in the league. That does not mean that Carroll did not put any value in September – Seattle remains undefeated for all home games in September 2010 – but it's obvious that they are not playing away from their best football of the month. opening.

Even though the defense was better than not coming out of the back, the week-long attack in Seattle has always been mediocre under Carroll. Their hoped-for added points (EPA) were negative during seven of the ten seasons (including five consecutive years with Wilson). In isolating the numbers for Wilson, he accumulated 168/259 for 1662 yards (6.4 yards), 11 touchdowns, 5 steals and 4 fumbles lost. Not terribly good numbers, but even the sample size of eight games is not exactly Wilson's best job. Compare that with his numbers for Game 12, which is usually the first game of December in Seattle, and Wilson becomes a monster.

I certainly do not lose sight of the fact that many of the Seahawks Week 1 woes are attributed to playing mostly on the road. They have only played four home games this week and have not won a game of the week on offense since 2006. In the Carroll era, they are particularly awful when it comes to road openings. , whatever their week. bode badly for their chances of beating the Pittsburgh Steelers this Sunday.

So yes, it's a little frustrating that, year after year, the Seahawks do not look like the Super Bowl contenders of the opening shot. There is a lot of anticipation in the air, then they are booed for chasing the Bengals 17-14 in the third quarter because Wilson continues to get fired. Just remember that if this year's team resembles the Seahawks teams from previous years, it will soon be adding pressure. What we hope is that if they have trouble early in the season, they will still be good enough to win victories as we saw against Cincinnati last weekend.