A Grip on Sports: A rough Sunday on a few fronts but the main one played out at Lumen Field

A GRIP ON SPORTS • If you are looking for any one word to describe Sunday’s sports in the Northwest, we have a suggestion. Rough. It seems to fit.

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• We accessed the social part of social media yesterday only to gauge how folks in the Spokane area were watching the Seahawks’ season opener against the visiting Rams. After all, due to a carriage payment dispute between Comcast and the parent company of local Fox affiliate KAYU 28, those of us who still rely on cable were unable to watch by just turning on the TV.

The response varied, though some people didn’t really share their work-arounds. Only their anger. At first it concerned not being able to watch the game. But as the sun set in the west, the direction changed. They were mad about having to watch the Hawks’ performance in the 30-13 rout.

All we can say is, no one was forcing you. The off button is there for a reason. Heck, the Seahawks seemed to use it at halftime.

There were extenuating circumstances, certainly. While healthy, Pete Carroll’s team led 13-7 at intermission. Not great but only Jason Myer’s medium-range field goal miss kept the home team from a two-score edge at halftime.

The seeds of defeat had already been sown, though. Right tackle Abe Lucas was down for the count and we didn’t know it. A balky knee. Left tackle Charles Cross made it two-for-one sale on starting tackles early in the third, leaving with a sprained toe. A sputtering offense, already having trouble dealing with Aaron Donald and the L.A. front, was doomed.

The defense? Well, no matter where Clint Hurtt is during games, he seems overmatched in his role as defensive coordinator. At least against guys like Sean McVay and San Francisco’s Kyle Shanahan. And those guys are in the same division, so it’s important.

What is the defense’s personality? Forget the Xs and Os. What does it hang its hat on? An aggressive, go-for-broke approach? A passive, force you to move slowly down the field and tighten up in the red zone philosophy? Something else? Who knows? The past year (and one game) has featured all of the above at times. That’s not to say the defense can’t be good. Heck, there was a stretch last season when it limited five consecutive opponents to less than 24 points. Not surprisingly, the Hawks won four of those.

You can argue Seattle’s personnel deficiencies force a buffet of solutions, and there is some merit in that. The Seahawks don’t have enough pass rushers to impact the game with pressure and only one defensive back – corner Riq Woolen, who McVay studiously avoided Sunday – who can lock down a receiver in man coverage. Mixing things up seems an attempt to hide deficiencies.

It didn’t work.

And it shows a lack of faith. Trust your guys to get really good playing one way. In today’s NFL, if you don’t fly around and disrupt things, you’re going to be picked apart at some point. Besides, unless you give your offense a couple short-field chances, it’s hard to score a whole bunch.

Especially when your two young, solid tackles aren’t playing, limiting time for your talented receivers to work their selves open.

That’s a lot to improve. Quickly. A rough Sunday could easily morph into a rough season. But, hey, if the games are on Fox, you won’t have to watch.

• The Mariners began September – aka, the month that decides pennant races – with a 76-57 record, tied for the American League West lead. After playing for 10 consecutive days, all on the road, all in the Eastern time zone, they return to Seattle at 79-64 and in second, 2.5 games behind the Astros.

Admit it. If, on April 1, we had predicted where they would be today, you would have take in. Sept. 1? You would have been ticked. Forget the ticked part. The reality is the road trip was always going to be rough. So will the final 22 games.

Pitching, especially young pitching, wears down. Hitters, especially young hitter, have ups and downs. Managers, especially Scott Servais, make mistakes under pressure.

All are occurring right now. All were on display in three consecutive losses over the weekend against the Rays. It was rough. But not fatal.

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WSU: The 31-22 upset of No. 19 Wisconsin on Saturday paid even more dividends Sunday. The Cougars became one of eight Pac-12 schools ranked this week (at 23), tying a record held by the mighty SEC. Greg Woods delves into both of those subjects with his rewind and poll story. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and the nation, Jon Wilner rewinds the weekend, another good-to-great one for the conference. … The Athletic’s Nicole Auerbach ranked Washington State in her weekly top 10, mainly because of the off-the-field circumstances. The publication overall has the Cougars 22nd. … Eighth-ranked Washington keeps winning easily. But the Huskies’ running game is not producing. How will it hold up against a fired-up Michigan State team? (The Spartans suspended coach Mel Tucker on Sunday.) … With eight teams ranked, we’re going to have to put numbers in front of a lot of schools, including No. 13 Oregon. The Ducks are heavily favored against visiting Hawaii this Saturday. … Oregon State stayed at No. 16 after the Beavers easy win over UC Davis. … With Weber State coming to town, No. 12 Utah has a chance to get healthy. … Colorado will take its No. 18 ranking into a game with Colorado State. … USC is ranked sixth still and is trying to hone a killer instinct. … Though Chip Kelly has UCLA ranked 24th, he still hasn’t committed to a starting quarterback. … Arizona State lost but we learned a few things about the Sun Devils. … Arizona’s loss included Jayden de Laura throwing interceptions on three consecutive possessions. Is that bad?

EWU: Kendrick Bourne is back doing Kendrick Bourne things for the New England Patriots. His return to grace leads off the S-R’s weekly roundup of locals in the NFL.

Indians: It’s over. The 2023 season is in the record books. It wasn’t the best in Spokane’s history, capped by a 2-1 loss in Hillsboro. Dave Nichols has the particulars of the season finale.

Mariners: The M’s play three games with the Angels, at home, starting tonight. They are important. Thanks, Captain Obvious. … The bullpen has some fresh arms. … The M’s hold down the final wild-card spot today.

Seahawks: Our friend Dave Boling, who answered us on Twitter he was watching the game in the press box (how did that work out for you Dave?), calls Sunday’s defeat “stunningly unexpected to an embarrassing degree” in his column. That about covers it. It was rough. … And has to be better next week, in Detroit against a surprisingly 1-0 Lions team. … Some of the Hawks felt punched. Others, like Tyler Lockett and Geno Smith, were literally – in the head, though in Lockett’s case it was with a head butt. And, it appeared, on purpose. … Besides losing the game, some Seahawks lost their minds during the game. … There are always grades. And Sunday there were boos. … One Ram receiver, with connections to the area, ate up the Seattle secondary. No, Cooper Kupp didn’t play.

Storm: Jewell Loyd did set a WNBA single-season scoring record last night as Seattle ended its season with a loss to the Los Angeles Sparks. Her 939 points were 20 better than former teammate Breanna Stewart scored with New York this season.

Tennis: Novak Djokovic has won 24 Grand Slam singles titles. Most ever among the men and tied with Australia’s Margaret Court for best all-time. Djokovic’s 24th came Sunday in New York, a straight-set win over Russian Daniil Medvedev. And it came as a 36-year-old, making him the oldest man to win the U.S. Open in the Open era.

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• We nearly called it quits yesterday. It was quite possibly our longest and hardest day of working in this space in the nearly dozen years we’ve done it. And, for some reason we still haven’t been told, we were unable to get it to you as we usually do. After a phone call, whatever problem existed was taken care of and it appeared but at least an hour late. We’re sorry. And still a little miffed. Until later …