Last season, the Seattle Seahawks lost their Week 1 game. They went 17-2 the rest of the way.

This season, they’ve lost as many games by mid-October as they did in the final five months of last season.

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It’s not the end of the world to be 3-2 but there are more issues than you’d like to see. There are definitely more than we saw last season when Seattle steamrolled to a Super Bowl win.

The Seahawks’ running game without Kenneth Walker III is an issue. Seattle was a run-first team that played impeccable defense on its way to a Super Bowl last season. That’s hard to pull off when you’re 30th in EPA (expected points added) per rushing play. The decision to move on from Walker when he was a free agent looks awful. Walker is a star for the Chiefs early this season and the Seahawks are getting nothing from their ground game. Maybe Zach Charbonnet can help turn things around when he returns, but he is coming off a torn ACL and was never a star in the offense.

That puts more pressure on the passing game and there are issues there too. Riding Jaxon Smith-Njigba worked great last season but it’s a big challenge to have an effective passing game with just one viable option. Smith-Njigba has 50 targets and nobody else has more than 20. Smith-Njigba has 583 yards while nobody else is over 129. Smith-Njigba’s 37 catches are more than Seattle’s second, third and fourth top receivers combined. The rest of the wide receivers have 24 receptions total. JSN is a great player and that formula worked great last season, but it’s hard to maintain.

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When there’s no running game and a narrow passing tree, it can put more on the plate of a turnover-prone quarterback. Sam Darnold has come a long way and has shed the bust label forever now that he helped guide a Super Bowl championship, but he still will turn it over too much. Darnold has five interceptions already despite missing almost two full games due to injury. The defense is still elite, but it’s not great to be put in bad situations by the offense.

Seattle is still one of the NFL’s elite teams. Losing to the 5-0 49ers isn’t a terrible result, even at home. But it already looks tougher for them than it did for the entirety of last season.

Panic meter: Some alarms going off. but we’ll trust coach Mike Macdonald to figure things out.

Can the Rams overcome awful special teams?

Bad special teams might have cost the Rams a Super Bowl last season. The special teams made huge mistakes in the final two losses to the Seahawks, including the NFC championship game.

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And it’s happening again.

The Rams had a field goal blocked in overtime on Monday, allowing the Bills to steal a win. They also missed a field goal in regulation. Rams coach Sean McVay was obviously bothered with his special teams after the game.

“Offensively and defensively we battled. Thought some of the coverage units we did some really good stuff,” McVay said. “Then in the kicking game, especially with our PAT/field goal, not close to good enough. It cost us the game.”

But it’s not new. The Rams were bad on special teams last season and did little to fix it. Their special teams are 32nd in DVOA. Even if the Rams make a change at kicker it doesn’t change everything. This is going to be a problem McVay has to work around all season because he and the front office didn’t bother to address it sufficiently in the offseason.

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Panic meter: It’s hard to be an elite team when you can’t trust special teams to not blow games, and that’s a big issue for the Rams going forward.

How will Commanders react to horrible tie?

It’s fair to wonder how Sunday’s end-of-game meltdown will affect the Commanders going forward. Coach Dan Quinn was asked if he worried the management mess in the final minute would cause players to lose confidence in him or the staff, and it’s a fair question. Quinn said he didn’t think it would.

“I know how tough our team is, the resilience, the toughness,” Quinn said, via John Keim of ESPN. “They’re able to handle adversity. We’ve got to get our execution nailed down. We have to be the team that we’re capable of being. And that was the message that was loud and clear today.”

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The Commanders aren’t out of anything at 1-3-1 in a bad NFC East. But it will be interesting to track if Sunday’s debacle carries over.

Panic meter: The finish of Sunday’s game was so horrifically awful, it wouldn’t be a surprise if we look back on it as the moment the Commanders’ season unraveled.

Is Christian Parker in trouble?

Jerry Jones said it was too early to consider removing Parker as the Dallas Cowboys’ defensive coordinator. Then he hired a coach with 10 years of experience as either a defensive coordinator or head coach in the NFL.

The Cowboys announced that Mike Pettine was added to the staff as a senior defensive assistant. Had that move happened in the offseason, it would have looked like a smart move to support a 34-year-old coach who was a defensive coordinator for the first time. The move happening now, with the Cowboys struggling badly on defense, could be seen as a threat.

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But Parker and Pettine have a history. Parker was an assistant for the Packers for two seasons while Pettine was defensive coordinator there. Parker tried to talk Pettine out of retirement when he was hired by the Cowboys but Pettine said no, though there was a standing invitation to join him in Dallas according to an ESPN report in February. Still, having a longtime defensive coordinator on staff when the Cowboys are 31st in yards allowed and the owner is already being asked if he’s considering replacing the current coordinator is a combustible mix.

Panic meter: Pettine isn’t coming for Parker’s job, but the speculation will be relentless until Dallas’ defense turns it around.

How can Justin Herbert survive the season?

The Chargers’ offensive line situation is as bad as it gets. The five starters on Sunday were four rookies, none of whom were first-round picks, and veteran guard Cole Strange who ranks near the bottom of Pro Football Focus’ grades this season.

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It’s a horrible flashback to last season, when Herbert was the most pressured quarterback in the NFL behind a makeshift line. He was sacked five times on Sunday. There’s plenty more to come. Herbert has not played well this season, but with Rashawn Slater on injured reserve and Joe Alt dealing with a neck injury, it’s going to get worse.

Panic meter: The Chargers can’t protect their most valuable asset, which is a major problem. Again.

Can Michael Penix Jr. stay healthy?

The Atlanta Falcons are a different team with Penix in the lineup. We saw that in his three games back since he returned from ACL surgery. But then late in Sunday’s game there was another injury.

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Penix suffered a rib injury on a hard hit and it was bad enough that Tua Tagovailoa had to take over in overtime. Tagovailoa threw an interception on his second pass of overtime, which showed again how bad the Falcons are without Penix. Penix’s injury history is long, dating back to college and including three ACL tears.

Penix could return as soon as Week 6. But there is a growing question if the Falcons can rely on Penix to stay in the lineup, not just for the rest of this season but for when they consider whether to extend his contract.

Panic meter: It had to be disheartening for the Falcons to see Penix dealing with another injury, knowing that part of his story isn’t going away.