Sad Sack Seahawks.

It's not looking good. Sure, we're 4-3, sure we have the tie-breaker edge over St. Louis for the Division lead, sure we're not the Pittsburgh Steelers, losing to the TERRIBLE Oakland Raiders and sharing a 2-5 record with them. But, it's not looking good.

We've got a quarterback who's about to make his second start ever on Monday Night next week. A quarterback who thinks it's a good idea at the end of the game, on a 4th & 15 play with no more opportunities to stop the clock, with little to no pressure coming from the other team's 4-man rush, to panic and throw a dump off pass to Mack Strong with plenty of defenders standing between him and the first down line to gain.

We've got a defense who has given up:

35 points to a Damon Huard-led Kansas City team (with Herm Edwards' run-first mindset, I might add ... just an awful coach)

31 points to Minnesota, who'd been averaging in the mid-teens beforehand

28 points to the Rams and damn lucky we were able to keep them under 30

37 points to Chicago in an utter dismantling that started this whole string off

30 points against the Giants in victory, with 27 of those coming in the final quarter

We're missing tackles, we're no longer getting pressure on the quarterback, we're giving up wide-open catches (Marcus Trufant getting burned just as much as anyone back there). Bottom line, we're not forcing teams to punt. That's gonna beat you every time.

We're getting our running back (hopefully) this week, but it doesn't matter because our O-line can't open any holes (Walter Jones getting beaten just as much as anyone up there).

What's going on? Are we believing our own hype too much? Do we think we can just turn it on in the final two months? Are we playing down to our opponents? Or, are we really that much worse? Does losing an offensive guard and an average cornerback and an average safety automatically make us that much worse?

Look, we need Alexander. Mo Morris is AWFUL. TERRIBLE! DREADFUL! Seneca Wallace, in spite of his un-clutch late-game bumbling, did well enough to win. The game should NOT have been as close as it was, but we got lucky with the bobbled snap on the field goal attempt that ended up being a fumble recovery for a TD. And we still had a chance at the end because a defensive lineman lost his mind and tried to return a fumble for some meaningless yards when they would've had the game wrapped up. The Chiefs should've beaten us by three scores EASY, but we caught some breaks. And since our defense played so poorly, we took ALL of those breaks and still lost by a touchdown.

To beat the Raiders, we have to do what Pittsburgh couldn't do. We have to keep their offense ON the field. We have to make their rookie quarterback, their piecemeal running game, and their inept playcalling beat us. If Seneca manages to hold onto the ball, if we can grind out some rushing yards, if we can handle the field-position battle and force some punts, we'll come out victorious in a VERY close game against a VERY bad team in the Raiders on Monday Night.

It's not a guarantee. No one should believe that we'll just walk in there and blow their house down just because we won a few games last season. We're playing badly right now, with pretty much the same team we had last year. That's a problem. I'm telling you, my heart can't handle many more of these losses.

P.S. Tony Romo's a bitch.