Gut check time

Last week in Pittsburgh, we learned that Seattle's defense isn't as good as we imagined.
For me, the defining play of the game came early in the first quarter, when Ben Rapistburger completed a short slant to Emmanuel Sanders. Brandon Browner--the cornerback responsible for covering Sanders on that play--gave chase, but the receiver turned upfield, easily outpacing the defender.

When Kam Chancellor approached, Sanders froze him with a juke and then broke right, freezing the safety and eluding him niftily.

The move worked so well that the receiver used the same juke-and-break-right combination on Earl Thomas, who dived futiley and fruitlessly in the escaping wideout's wake.

Pressing his luck, Sanders tried the juke-and-break-right combination for a third time on linebacker Matt McCoy. It worked yet again.

The receiver might have juked eight more Seahawks and scored, if only the field had been wider. Mercifully, Sanders had neared the right sideline by now, and Kam Chancellor hustled to push him out of bounds.

That simple alchemy allowed Sanders to turn the dross of a 4-yard slant into the gold of a 30-yard gain.

As the drive continued, it underscored the frustrating inconsistency of our defense. Cornerback Brandon Browner committed pass interference in the end zone, giving Pittsburgh the ball on our one-yard line. (The difference between PI and great defense? Look for the ball, Browner.)

On first and goal from the one, defensive tackle Clinton McDonald smothered a run up the middle for no gain.

On second down, Atari Bigby sacked Rapistburger for a 10-yard loss, but the defense let Big Ben scramble within inches of the goal line third down.

On 4th and goal on the one yardline, little Earl Thomas stuffed Steelers running back Rashard Mendenhall, preventing a score and causing a turnover on downs.

Few other drives had such happy endings. Later, Mendenhall--not a particularly big back--stoned linebacker Leroy Hill with a stiffarm. (Of course, Hill has been stoned before.)

On the whole, however, the defense did not do too badly. Yielding 24 points to a capable offense like Pittsburgh is not a bad day...

Unless your offense can't score at all, which seems to be the case for Seattle.

In just two games, Brandon Browner has become more of a whipping boy than Kelly Jennings ever was. Targeted relentlessly by opposing offenses, the former CFL player continues to disappoint.

Not satisfied with our defensive performance, Gus Bradley has shaken up the starting lineup by benching linebacker Aaron Curry, who dropped a sure pick six last week. Bradley explained, "Competition is the theme here."

Except when it comes to the quarterback position.

Tarvaris Jackson will enter a hostile Seahawks Stadium, facing fans who have yet to see him impress, either in the preseason or in the first two regular season games. I'm expecting chants for "Charlie" before kickoff.

Our offensive schemes and playcalling actually made more sense last week, but it didn't matter, because our players failed to execute pretty comprehensively.

There is little cause to hope for improvement this week as we field our third offensive line in three weeks.

O-Line Coach Tom Cable promises a breakthrough soon, but we've heard that before.

Coach Carroll continues channel Tammy Wynette, standing by his man at quarterback, but the Seahawks faithful is not wrong about Tarvaris Jackson.

Little else has changed on offense.

Last year, we had a bad offensive line and no running game, but in Matt Hasselbeck we had a quarterback who was willing to take chances, who forced the ball sometimes to compensate for the lack of talent around him. Sometimes this led to disaster, but in other cases it led to victory.

Seattle doesn't need a quarterback who merely avoids mistakes if that means we can't score at all. You can't win with a goose egg on the board. The best you can hope for is a scoreless tie, and those don't happen in the modern NFL.

We need a passer who can make something happen. T-Jack needs to show that he's that guy, or the coaches need to let the Lord lay hands on our offense.

The special teams improved last week insofar as they did not hurt us.

Seattle needs to step up today against Arizona. This is the friendliest matchup in a tough early-season schedule. If we're going to eke out a victory before our October bye, this is our best bet. No one in the NFC West looks particularly good, yet, so--incredibly--we're not out of the division title chase at this point. But we will be soon if we start dropping division games at home.

We need the 12th Man more than ever this afternoon.

Go, Seahawks.