The 5 O'Clock Club: Early reactions to the Seahawks game

The 5 o’clock club aims to provide a forum for reader-driven discussion at a time of day when there isn’t much NFL news being published. Feel free to introduce topics that interest you in the comments below.

I’ve written this post in advance — on Saturday night (my time) — since I won’t have time to write anything following the game on Sunday.

With the time change from Daylight Savings Time to Eastern Standard Time, my life gets complicated if the Redskins play the late afternoon game. I have to wake up at 3:45 am to watch the game, and since I have to leave for work by 6:50 a.m., I can only watch the game to about the end of the third quarter.

So, I’m sorry not be able to offer even cursory comments about the game, but I’ll be working all day, and won’t be able to watch the game until long after this 5 o’clock club post is published, but I felt like I should put some comments here to get things rolling.

Anyway, I wanted to start out by saying that, after I posted the Wildcard Watch article last week and got blown up in the comments, I realized that the commenters who read that post were right. The ‘Skins have no hope of beating Seattle, getting a wildcard bid, or having a successful season.

With the injuries across the board — but especially to the Offensive Line — there’s no way that this Redskin team can travel west to Seattle and take on a team that’s tied with the Rams at 5-2 for the lead in the NFC West. That stadium is too loud, and the Seattle offense is too high-powered. They put up over 40 points last week — and that was against a really good Houston Texans defense!

The Redskins defense can’t hold a candle to teams like Houston and Seattle. I read the 5 Answers from Ken, the Field Gulls writer, this week, and I have to accept that he was right when he wrote,

“ I don't expect to see more 9 and 12 point games [from Seattle] though, to be honest. Not with Brown added to the mix and Wilson already in his groove.”

There’s no way the Redskins, without Allen & Iaoniddis in the middle and starting an old and just-returning-from-injury Deangelo Hall at safety, can hold Russell Wilson and his monstrous offense under 50 points! We’re gonna get creamed!

I had been feeling alright about the Redskins defense earlier in the year, but Ken made it clear in his answer to question #1 that I was overrating the ‘Skins on the defensive side of the ball.

Jared Goff got off to a hot start against the Colts, Redskins, and Niners (two bad defenses and a meh defense)

I’m not sure whether the Redskins were one of the two bad defenses he was referring to, or the ‘meh’ defense, but either way, the Redskins can’t possibly control the high-octane, big-play passing attack of the Seahawks — especially in their home stadium with the “twelves” to cheer them onto victory.

I realize now, that I was wrong in my earlier assessment; by the time the injured players come back healthy, the season will already be lost.

We’re too screwed up on special teams. Our punt returner, Crowder, has had a bad year, and now he won’t even be able to play. Gruden will have to stick some scrub back there to return punts who will probably muff more punts than Crowder! I don’t even know who our backup returner is... probably a late round draft pick who’s been inactive every game this season and will be a bundle of nerves.

And of course I can’t forget about our lousy kicker. Nick Rose couldn’t kick a ball straight at home against Dallas last week, so he’ll certainly get outkicked by a veteran like Blair Walsh, who’ll be kicking on his home turf in front of a friendly crowd.

At least I can rely on Tress Way to kick flawlessly and control field position - even if it’s in a losing cause.

At the skill positions, I’ve finally given up on our receivers — Terrelle Pryor and Josh Doctson have proven that they can’t often get open and can’t catch the tough passes when they do. Doctson dropped the game winner against Kansas City; he dropped a third down pass against the Cowboys that killed a crucial drive. I’m sure that at some point in the Seattle game he’ll have a chance to make a crucial catch, and he’ll blow it... again.

I don’t expect the game to be close, but if we aren’t too far behind at the end of the half or the end of the game, I’m sure Gruden will screw up the clock management or Kirk will throw a crucial interception to give the ‘Hawks the ball at exactly the wrong time. It’s clear to me now that Kirk is no Russell Wilson. Once again, Ken from Field Gulls put the argument about the best quarterback in this game to bed eloquently and succinctly:

Since Seattle has no running game outside of Wilson, it's more of "his" team now than ever. The addition of Duane Brown should change some of that, as the Seahawks will be able to run behind the left tackle now, but it's still going to be Wilson's team as he develops an even better passing relationship with Paul Richardson, Tyler Lockett, and his recently-found on-field relationship with Jimmy Graham.

The Wilson I expect to see on Sunday at home against Washington is the Wilson who can put up 300 yards and a couple of touchdowns.

He's averaging 8.92 yards per attempt at home this season, with the Seahawks going 3-0 in those games.

Over his career, he has a rating of 104.2 at home with a record of 37-6.

There’s no way the Redskins can compete with that.

The Seattle quarterback showed in last week’s Texans game what a real QB does — three passes to drive the field in the final minute of the game to get a big win! Kirk simply doesn’t have the “it” factor that it takes to do something like that.

Commenters here have succeeded in convincing me that there’s no reason to get up in the middle of the night to watch 3 quarters of bad Redskin football, then race off before the end of the game to spend a depressing day at work. The Redskins just don’t have the talent to win against a Seattle team that’s superior in every way.

No, I’m better to avoid watching the game altogether. Maybe I’ll watch it on replay later in the week, or maybe I’ll just (figuratively) “burn the tape” by just not watching it.

It’ll just depress me.

But please go ahead and use the comments section and tell me how badly the Redskins got whooped by Seattle. I know that Washington can’t play a quality football team — especially a division-leading and playoff-bound team on the road -- and compete. I’d rather read about the Redskins failure than have to watch it — especially on replay, knowing that the loss is a foregone conclusion.

I promise, I’ve learned my lesson. After hearing from y’all about the butt-whipping we took from Seattle, I won’t write any more of those delusional Wildcard Watch posts. I have to agree with everyone — at 3-5, our season really is over.

Which sucks. If we could have won this game and gone 4-4, then I’ll bet a lot of analysts and fans would have suddenly changed their minds and felt like the Redskins weren’t quite dead yet.

If that had happened, I’d have smiled inside, knowing that the team still had some fight left in them, and that there was a reason why we actually play the games on any given Sunday.

Ah well. I guess I should start preparing for mock drafts instead.