What's the definition of insanity

At least I didn’t fly across the country to experience the pain first hand. After flying from Manhattan to the West Coast for each of the past two Washington games, I watched this weekend’s debacle from my couch, which was more comfortable in a totally technical sense and just as miserable from a spiritual one.

If you do subscribe to my newsletter, I hope it won’t be so steeped in misery in the future, but I guess that depends on what the local squads do going forward in this horrible, no good, totally ill-begotten year.

What’s the definition of insanity?

Spending a weekend watching Seattle-based teams play football and expecting that this time you’ll see a competent offense. Nope. A shot of utter ineptitude from the Huskies on Saturday in Colorado chased by a glass of overall incompetence by the Seahawks on Sunday. Bartender, another round please. Like these two offenses, we’re not driving anywhere any time soon.

Good grief. We should all know better at this point, right? We have three months of data to demonstrate exactly how little in the way of production we should expect. And yet there I am, befouling my Saturday afternoon by watching this Washington offense, which decided to kill itself with turnovers in a 20-17 loss at Colorado. Then came Sunday, and I was just certain quarterback Russell Wilson would look significantly better than he did in his first game back from mallet finger. Nope. Arizona 23, Seattle 13. Thank you sir, may I have another in this year that will go down as our city’s worst in a football sense since 2008 when the Huskies and Seahawks suffered 12 losses apiece.

With Washington, it would be silly to expect anything different at this point. They’ve been awful from the jump, and while I would argue there are some signs of progress since John Donovan was prevented from doing further harm to his players, it’s not nearly enough. More than halfway through the fourth quarter, the Huskies offense had given away as many points to Colorado as it had scored. The Buffs returned a first-quarter fumble for a touchdown and a Huskies’ turnover in the second half set up a field goal. If you were shocked, you haven’t been paying attention. In fact, the biggest surprise on Saturday in Boulder, Colo., was that Washington’s offense outperformed Colorado in terms of yardage and decided to give away the game by giving away the ball.

The Seahawks offensive struggles are more of surprising. That was supposed to be the stronger side of the ball for Seattle. Wait. That’s not a strong enough statement. It had to be stronger side of the ball if this Seattle team was going to be any good. Seattle went and changed its offensive coordinator in the offseason believing a new voice would create a more effective run game specifically and a more consistent offense overall. That absolutely has not happened, but it’s hard to be too critical of the scheme given that Seattle played three and a half games without Russell Wilson and the past two games with an obviously compromised quarterback.

He is incredibly inaccurate right now. You see that in the throws that have sailed out of the end zone and into the stands. There was a throw he drastically underthrew. Wilson knows his accuracy is compromised, too, and it has made him less willing to place throws in traffic. Factor in Chris Carson being lost for the season as he’s going to undergo neck surgery and Rashaad Penny’s inability to carry the ball more than once without suffering an injury and it’s a very, very difficult situation. One that wasn’t made any easier by Cardinals defensive coordinator Vance Joseph, who consistently generated pressure off the right side of Seattle’s offensive line.

Seattle did manage a couple of field goals in the first half, which amounted to progress after being shut-out a week ago in Green Bay. Seattle even found the end zone in the final quarter, avoiding the dubious distinction of having Arizona kicker Matt Prater cost his team more points (seven) than Seattle scored.

So what comes next?

Depends on what team you’re talking about. The Huskies have decided on their fix. They’re opting to install an entirely new operating system, having already fired Jimmy Lake as head coach.

But what are the Seahawks going to do? Because in most situations, a team with Seattle’s track record of success would chalk this up as one of those years that happens even to perennial contenders. Their quarterback who never gets injured got injured and that makes it foolish to use this year as a basis for any long-term changes. This isn’t most situations, though. Wilson made it clear in the first months of this year he was unhappy with the fact that this team had gotten high-centered, good enough to make the playoffs but had only won two postseason games in the previous six years.

Even if Wilson didn’t ask to be traded, what’s the reason to think that Seattle be able to take the step in 2022 that it couldn’t this year? The Seahawks don’t have a first-round pick, that having been traded as part of the deal for Jamal Adams. This defense has looked better the past few weeks, but while there are several promising young players like Tre Brown and Darrell Taylor, nobody has made the leap to becoming a bona fide star this season. D.K. Metcalf is incredible and Tyler Lockett is the most efficient big-play receiver in the entire league, but this was not supposed to be a year of growth and development. The Seahawks were supposed to be capable of taking the next step, and instead they’ve stumbled.

So what’s the definition of insanity? Check back on Friday when I’m all hopped up for the Apple Cup and talking myself into the idea that the Seahawks should actually win next Sunday’s game in the other Washington.