THE FRONT ROW with JASON ELLIOTT: No need to panic quite yet, Seahawks fans

Last February, Seattle Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald stood on a podium in the middle of Lumen Field and had a simple answer to the question of all the critics. 

“We did not care.” 

And sure, there’s a lot of noise surrounding the team right now. 

Apparently two straight losses will cause some problems. 

Right now, things aren’t going well for those lovable defending Super Bowl champions right now.

LOSSES HAPPEN sometimes, especially when good teams come to town. 

San Francisco, that’s a good team. 

Sure, the 49ers have been snakebitten by injuries in previous seasons. But when healthy, they’re just as good as anyone else.  

Maybe better than anyone else. 

Seattle handed them 21 points in that loss last Sunday. 

Had Cooper Kupp jumped far enough to get a first down late in that game didn’t matter. Seattle was trying to play catchup most of the game and never could. 

It’s football and that’s going to happen sometimes. 

That being said. 

You can’t fumble the ball in the end zone with time running out in the first half, making the deficit you’re trying to overcome eight points instead of one. 

Oh yeah, and especially when the other guys are getting the ball to start the second half. 

Can’t win too much doing those kinds of things. 

Even Seattle’s first loss at Washington was something that shouldn’t have come as too much of a surprise. 

Commanders backup quarterback Marcus Mariota trying to prove that he’s still got some game left, with a head coach (Dan Quinn) that was playing against a team for which he’d previously been an assistant coach. 

Who wouldn’t have been excited to play that game? 

MAKE ANY excuse you want about Thursday’s letdown against Denver. 

Short week. Had to travel. Tough to win in Denver. 

Hey, the Broncos are still a pretty good team as well. 

Probably Bo Nix being healthy from being on the other side of the field for last year’s Super Bowl instead of New England. 

Yeah, the Broncos are a good team too. 

Just a few unfortunate mistakes late in the game cost Seattle the chance to get on the other side of that result. 

That didn’t happen. 

SOME MIGHT panic and think that Sam Darnold needs to be benched for Drew Lock, who led the team to wins over New England and Arizona earlier this year. 

Maybe those critics are right. 

All those coaches that helped Darnold find his success last year are now with previous offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, now the head coach in Las Vegas. 

Darnold didn’t play in the preseason, so Lock is more experienced running the offense at the moment. 

Speaking of running, not having their top two running backs due to injury isn’t helping either. 

Sure, help is on the way as both Zach Charbonnet and Jadarian Price are getting closer to returning. 

Nothing is easy anymore and don’t forget, those other guys, they get paid to play the same game that the Seahawks are as well. 

Things will get fixed. 

Trust me, they care about that. 

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for The Press. He can be reached by telephone at 208-664-8176, Ext. 1206 or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on ‘X’, formerly Twitter @JECdAPress.