It's still the offense

Seattle offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell

Last week's demoralizing loss to Arizona means the 4-5 Seahawks probably need to win out to earn entry into the playoffs.

Seattle hasn't dropped two home games in a single season since going 7-9 season in 2011.

This is serious.

The Legion of Boom got torched by Carson Palmer and his receiving corps last week, but the run defense held, and our linebackers and linemen kept us in the game with two strip sacks deep in Cardinals territory--a scoop and score, plus another turnover inside the five to set up a touchdown run by Marshawn Lynch.

For the most part, the defense did its job. The problem was the offense's failure to sustain drives, which gave Arizona a 2:1 advantage in time of possession. No defense can be expected to contain the dynamic Cardinals offense for forty minutes.

At this point, Darrell Bevell should be coaching for his job. I feel like a broken record, but the biggest problem is predictable and unimaginative playcalling. 

Our offense works best when Russell Wilson establishes a run threat. The read option works particularly well, but we use it less and less. Why?

We were running the ball successfully against Arizona, but we abandoned the run prematurely and exacerbated the time of possession problem.

Stop wasting so many downs on low-percentage designed long bombs. We rarely complete them. Most of our long completions come on scramble drills.

Install some rhythm passing schemes and comeback routes for high-percentage completions.

Call designed rollouts compensate for our weak pass protection and give our receivers time to get open.

Dial up some screen passes to punish overeager pass rushers.

Use spread formations to give our receivers space to get open while opening more real estate for our runners to exploit.

Wilson should reconsider his commitment to abstinence if that's what's hurting his execution.