Heading into the showdown with the Cincinnati Bengals, the Seattle Seahawks were faced with the challenge of containing a multi-faceted offensive machine.

The team did do an exemplary job containing the Bengals dynamic running duo of Jeremy Hill and Giovani Bernard on Sunday. The two-headed monster ran for 93 yards on 23 carries, with no run going for more than 13 yards. However, they had trouble stopping Andy Dalton.

The Bengals' quarterback threw for 331 yards and two touchdowns to lead his team to victory. Tyler Eifert caught seven passes for 90 yards, including both of Dalton’s scores, while A.J. Green totaled 78 yards on six catches. Five different Bengals receivers had at least 60 receiving yards.

Despite Dalton’s gun-slinging heroics, the Seahawks were in control for a significant amount of the game. Cincinnati looked dead-in-the-water offensively at times as Seattle’s defense proved to be suffocating. This defensive showing included a crucial interception by Earl Thomas and a fumble forced by Michael Bennett and returned by Bobby Wagner for a touchdown.

At the team’s highest point, the Hawks were leading by 17. However, second-half drives consisting of back-breaking penalties and Dalton completions sunk Seattle.

Overall, Pete Carroll’s defense simply couldn’t stop Dalton. Nowhere was this more evident than at the end of regulation when the Bengals, out of timeouts and deep in the redzone, sprinted off the field with the clock ticking. With less than 10 seconds left, the kicking unit was able to get on the field and connect on a game-tying field goal.

Following that incident, the team squandered its chances in overtime and let Cincinnati move the ball overly efficiently.

Despite the rough defensive numbers, the offense racked up over 400 yards of total offense. Thomas Rawls was a significant part of that, posting a career day. The undrafted rookie ran for 169 yards and a touchdown on 23 carries. His biggest play came on a 69 yard run that gashed the Cincinnati defense and resulted in a touchdown across the field and down the left sideline.

The game was the Seahawks’ first road game of the year with Kam Chancellor, who missed the first two games due to his contract holdout.

Seattle played exceptionally well at home with Chancellor, forcing punts on 18 of 20 possessions. They seemed to be playing to those standards early against Cincinnati. However, penalties and timely passes by Dalton left the Seahawks with yet another loss on their record.

At times, the team showed better defensively than during the first two road games of the season, but they couldn’t hold on to a 17 point, second-half lead. The team played to a higher standard, but the game was more about what could have been. Seattle is now 2-3 on the season.

Coming Up: The Hawks will look to even there record next weekend at home against the Carolina Panthers.

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About the author
Ben Rosener
Ben Rosener is a sports writer born and raised in the greater Seattle area. He is a college who is the editor and founder of two sports websites, Kingdome of Seattle Sports and Know Hitter, the latter of which is a member of the BBA. Ben’s work can also be found on the digital pages of Bleacher Report, USA Today, World Soccer Talk and FanSided among others. He only refers to himself in the third person for bios.