The Seattle Seahawks look nothing like the team that has been a consistent contender for a playoff spot in the NFC.
They lost their third straight game on Monday night, 17-15 to the Washington Football Team, but they had no business being in the contest until the final minute.
Russell Wilson looked off in the pocket and was unable to pick out his top target, DK Metcalf, for much of the night.
Seattle had no rushing attack to support the quarterback. The Seahawks ran for 34 yards to mark their fifth game in a row with under 100 rushing yards.
The defense deserves credit for not breaking and giving the offense a chance to tie the game at the end, but with the way Wilson played, it felt like the NFC West side was down two scores for most of the contest.
The worst part about Seattle being a 3-8 team is that it can't play for a high first-round pick. Its first-round selection belongs to the New York Jets as part of the Jamal Adams trade.
Wilson and Co. have little to play for and things could get worse before they better since the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams are on deck in two of the next three games.
DK Metcalf has recorded eight catches for 70 yards since the Seahawks emerged from their Week 9 bye.
And the 23-year-old recorded season lows in targets, receptions and receiving yards on Monday. He was not targeted until the second half and made one 13-yard catch.
Some criticism can be put on Metcalf because of his route running. He is an outside threat and defenders can put a cornerback and safety on him to take away the throwing lanes.
However, the Ole Miss product was open on a handful of occasions on Monday, and Nicki Jhabvala of the Washington Post and Warren Sharp of NBC Sports highlighted two separate plays in which he was clear.
Metcalf started the season with a touchdown in six of eight games and five performances with at least 60 receiving yards.
Wilson has done a poor job of targeting his No. 1 wide receiver, and it is one of the many factors that have killed the Seattle offense in the last three weeks.
If the Seahawks discover a fix for their passing-game issues, they might spring an upset over the 49ers, but any hope of a late playoff run was crushed on Monday.
Seattle is 15th in the NFC standings with only the Detroit Lions beneath it. It has a 1-2 NFC West record and a 1-6 mark inside the NFC. Division and conference record are two of the top tiebreakers, and no other teams in the NFC playoff race have records as bad as the Seahawks.
The Seahawks have nothing that resembles a rushing attack right now. They are averaging 70.8 rushing yards per game over the last five games and produced a season-low 34 ground yards on Monday.
None of Alex Collins, DeeJay Dallas and Travis Homer have taken control of the No. 1 running back slot left open by Chris Carson's neck injury.
The running back performance was made worse by Collins' second-quarter fumble off a short pass from Wilson. That came two plays after Jamal Adams intercepted Taylor Heinicke, who turned the momentum right back in favor of the home side.
Dallas caught all five of his targets, but he only managed four yards on three carries when he was called upon in the ground game.
After Week 12, Collins is the team's leading rusher with 395 yards and no other healthy running back has over 100 yards. Carson, who has not played since Week 4, is still the second best rusher on the roster.
Seattle's defense did not break while the offense failed to get anything going.
The Seahawks made back-to-back third-down stops on Antonio Gibson in the third quarter to give the ball back to Wilson and Co.
Both of the stops came on short-yardage third-down situations. Seattle also got out of a drive to start the fourth quarter after a holding call on Brandon Scheff.
Even after Gibson thrashed the Seattle defense on a long fourth-quarter drive, the Seahawks earned a fourth-down stop when Logan Thomas' catch on the goal line was ruled an incomplete pass. Washington went for it in that situation because kicker Joey Slye was injured earlier in the contest.
Seattle's defense found a way to keep the team within one possession and it was almost rewarded for its performance with Wilson's potential game-tying drive. The Seahawks came up short on the two-point conversion.
The bend-don't-break performance from the Seattle defense was the biggest positive the team could take from Monday night.
If the offense gets it together, the Seahawks could win a few games to end the season since the defense has held two of its last three opponents under 20 points.