“It’s frustrating, but I don’t think it’s the case that we play clean football and lose games. We’re not playing well. We have some areas that need to be addressed,” veteran Seahawks safety Julian Love said after the game. ‘We had a 3-0 start, but we don’t dwell on that. We try to take it one game at a time.”

Even though the Seahawks defense played well, holding Los Angeles to 68 rushing yards and 3 of 13 on third-down conversions, it wasn’t enough. Smith’s three turnovers were game-changing and squandered opportunities for Seattle to take control of the game.

The Rams came out of halftime scoring 17 unanswered points, aided by those turnovers, and Seattle barely did enough to force an extra period of play. Once again, with chances to win, the ball bounced back to the Rams, and they capitalized.

Now the Seahawks enter their bye week with many issues to resolve, mostly rooted in the team’s inability to avoid self-inflicted mistakes.

The first half featured a slow start from Seattle’s offense, aided by stout defense. With less than a minute remaining on the game clock in the second quarter, the offense came alive.

Smith threw two touchdown passes 43 seconds apart, first to Tyler Lockett and then to Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who finished with a career-high seven catches for 180 yards and two touchdowns.

“I hate losing. Whatever, I’d rather win, 100 percent,” Smith-Njigba said after the match. “My confidence has always been the same. I’ve known I could break out at any time and play a great game, but it’s the wins that count.”

The second of two scores was set up by Seahawks cornerback Riq Woolen who pulled down his second interception of the season on a jump ball over Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua. Nacua, playing his first game since Week 1 after returning from injured reserve, was ejected after the play for punching Seattle linebacker Tyrel Dodson, who went to block him after the pick.

Seattle went to the locker room down 13-3, even if it wasn’t pretty.

But the Rams didn’t roll over. Stafford and the Los Angeles offense put together an 11-play, 75-yard drive that lit 6:32 of the third quarter clock on fire. Rams running back Kyren Williams had 28 rushing yards on the drive, after 15 the entire first half.

Stafford, aided by a pass interference call in the red zone on Seahawks cornerback Josh Jobe, connected with wide receiver Demarcus Robinson for a 1-yard touchdown to end the drive.

Both teams combined for seven penalties in the third quarter, including a huge third-down passing penalty that extended the Rams’ next drive and ultimately allowed Los Angeles to tie the game at 13–13.

One play after Seahawks wide receiver Cody White made his first regular-season reception since Nov. 28, 2022, Smith rolled to his left and had his arm hit by Rams linebacker Byron Young as he threw — redirecting the pass into the player’s waiting arms. safety Kamren Kinchens, who returned the ball 103 yards for a touchdown. It was the longest interception return score in Rams history.

“I tried to throw it out of bounds in the back of the end zone. A guy hit my arm. There are no excuses,” Smith said of the postgame. “I can throw that away, get it out sooner, be quicker in my decision-making. I tried to make a play there, held on for a second too long and it didn’t turn out well.

White, who was called up from the practice squad for the game, wasn’t done yet. He blocked Ty Zentner’s punt on the Rams’ next possession, setting up the Seahawks offense at the Los Angeles 19-yard line.

After advancing 15 yards, Smith threw his third pick of the game, targeting rookie tight end AJ Barner who was moving before the snap and ended up in traffic behind the line of scrimmage. Smith still threw it, and Kinchens waited for it again.

Still, both teams traded points as Seattle’s defense held its ground. Then, with less than two minutes to play, Smith looked like the quarterback the Seahawks have acquired for the past three seasons.

Consecutive completions late in the drive, both to Smith-Njigba, were as good throws as Smith has made in his Seattle career. He showed pinpoint accuracy on a touchdown throw between two Rams defenders that the former wide receiver hauled in from 14 yards out in the first round, and Myers’ kick tied the game at 20-20 with 51 seconds left in the regulations.

Seattle got the ball first in overtime. The Seahawks drove from their own 30-yard line to the Rams’ 16 before the offense melted down again. With two opportunities to gain one yard and extend the drive, running back Kenneth Walker III was loaded with back-to-back snaps.

“That was the play call we liked. We liked the look of it,” said Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald of their 4th and 1 bust. “We need to be able to score two yards in two shots. Great football teams go third, fourth and short, and right now we’re not doing that.”

The Rams, Stafford and Robinson won it on their next drive.

The Seahawks have lost 11 times in their five losses this season. Four of those losses have come at home, and seven of those giveaways were Smith interceptions.

The offensive problems run even deeper than Seattle’s, however, as rudimentary football operations like the center-quarterback swap have plagued this team over the past two games. The Seahawks can’t live and die in the final minute of every half if they hope to win NFL games.

Seattle has so much inconsistency on that side of the ball that even the best performances from the defense aren’t enough to save the team from its self-inflicted wounds.

“I want to start by apologizing to my teammates, and to the city, to the organization,” Smith said. “They have a lot of confidence in me in my decision-making, and if they put the ball in my hands, if my teammates play like they played today and give us a chance to win the game, then I have to make sure we do that. ..I’m going to step it up.’

Seattle would have benefited from a bye week in Week 5. Now the Seahawks need this week to potentially save their season. The team has faced injuries, setbacks and schematic issues that couldn’t be resolved in a week.

Unless a much more calculated and disciplined football team emerges on the other side of the bye week, this won’t be a team playing in mid-January or beyond. The players and technical staff understand that.

“At the moment we have an idea of ​​the symptoms, but what is going on process-wise, why we are not playing complementary football in 60 minutes. That is what we are going to attack this week and we will come back to it later.” work and move forward,” Macdonald said. “We have the right guys. We just have to bring it to life. But our backs are against the wall and we have to go.”

The Seahawks won’t play again until a Week 11 battle with the San Francisco 49ers on Nov. 17. Seattle lost to the Niners at home in Week 6, 36-24. The next match will be against their bitter NFC West rivals.

San Francisco (4-4) had its bye week in Week 9 after beating the Dallas Cowboys 30-24 on Oct. 27.

Quick reaction: Turnover haunts Geno Smith, Seahawks in 26-20 loss to Rams

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