Seahawks facing another formidable foe besides Aaron Rodgers and Packers: Time
The Seahawks now have another formidable opponent besides just Aaron Rodgers and the Packers, then Cam Newton and his Panthers.
Time.
Monday is usually a day-after recovery time for sore body parts like the repaired knee that kept K.J. Wright out for some of Sunday’s loss at the Los Angeles Rams. It’s usually also time for Wright and the team to go over film of the previous day’s game.
But on this Monday the Pro Bowl linebacker sat his locker before a mid-afternoon team meeting studying film on his players tablet — of the Packers.
No time to dwell on the five-point loss to the Rams on Sunday when they have a five-star quarterback arriving to face them on Thursday in a game where the loser will find their playoff chances go from questionable to remote.
“This is a very busy week as we get ready for a Thursday night game,” coach Pete Carroll said Monday. “I know we spent some time on the game yesterday, but we’re moving on and have to get rolling to get everything in order.”
Time is also against Seattle in the bigger picture.
The Seahawks’ 36-31 loss at the Rams Sunday dropped them to 4-5. Seven games remain in the regular season. Ten wins usually assure a playoff spot. Nine victories may earn a wild-card way into the postseason, but usually only with help then tiebreakers falling in that team’s favor.
Seattle went 9-7 last season and missed the playoffs for the first time in six years.
These Seahawks are two games behind the Panthers (6-3) and 1 1/2 games behind the Vikings (5-3-1), who are currently the NFC’s two wild-card holders. The Packers (4-4-1) are also ahead of Seattle, by a half game.
The good news big picture for the Seahawks: They will play Carolina, Minnesota and Green Bay. So they can control their own fate in catching them. Plus, five of the Seahawks’ final seven games and four of the final five are at home.
But two of those remaining home games are against the Vikings on Dec. 10 and the soaring Kansas City Chiefs (9-1) on Dec. 23.
With all five losses this season by one-possession scores, does Carroll think the Seahawks still have enough time to make the playoffs?
“I don’t think it,” the coach said. “I know it.”
Then he cited a Seattle precedent.
“What happened in 2015?” he said.
Indeed, the 2015 Seahawks were 4-5 in mid-November. They then won five consecutive games to clinch a wild-card playoff berth with two games still left in that regular season.
Two big differences between those Seahawks and these:
1. This defense is almost entirely different, with Richard Sherman, Kam Chancellor, Earl Thomas, Michael Bennett and Cliff Avril all gone now after being huge foundational pieces to that 2015 team that was coming off consecutive Super Bowl appearances.
2. Those Seahawks surged late that season by Russell Wilson throwing the ball in record-setting numbers, particularly touchdown throws to Doug Baldwin. These 2018 Seahawks are destined to win the way Carroll always wants to play, by running the ball first and most. They seem destined to lose if they try to throw it all over the yard like that 2015 team did, because of their ongoing issues trying to keep pass rushers off Wilson.
“I can’t remember in 2015 if we felt as clear about our way of doing it as we do now,” Carroll said Monday of this team’s will and skill to run. “So it gives us a great opportunity.
“But we have to go. We have to take these one week at a time and start piling up some wins. I like our style, and I like our style in playoff mode. I’d like to get that opportunity. So we’ve got a lot of ball to play here and there’s a lot of games coming at us. A lot of opportunities at home. ...
“Hopefully, we can stay healthy and give us a chance to play with the same guys.”
In that last regard, what the Seahawks lost Sunday in Los Angeles is likely to be what they gain Thursday against Green Bay.
Lead running back Chris Carson didn’t play against the Rams because of soft-tissue injury in his left hip that would have only gotten worse had he tried to go in L.A. He has rushed for 100 yards in three of the last five games he’s played.
“Chris is going to be healthy this week,” Carroll said, “and he’ll be excited to get back out there.”
D.J. Fluker may be joining Carson in returning Thursday. The mauling right guard missed the Rams game with a strained calf.
“The projection is that D.J. will play in this game,” Carroll said.
That can only make good even better in the running game that’s become essential to Seattle’s chances.
Without Carson and Fluker, the Seahawks used fill-in starting back Mike Davis, rookie first-round pick Rashaad Penny and right guard Jordan Simmons, a September waiver pick-up from Oakland making his first career start. Still, they gained an astounding 273 yards rushing. It was the most yards rushing the Seahawks ever gained in a defeat.
“To see Rashaad get his chance and really do something with it, he really jumped out and did a really nice job in the game,” Carroll said. “It’s great for him, for his confidence and all of that, and great to just see him have some fun playing football.
“Likewise, with Jordan up front, he did a really nice job. Simmons came through and came through against tremendous competition. We needed him to step in there and play some football. He’s tough and handled his assignments pretty well and had some miscues, but basically did a really good job against a really good guy. So that was really good for our depth and exciting for him, too.”
None of this has anything to do with a defense that continues to fail in getting pressure on opposing quarterbacks in this QB gauntlet the Seahawks are in the middle of. That’s resulted in allowing huge plays, particularly damaging ones on third-and-15 in consecutive weeks.
Los Angeles had third-and-15 from near midfield late in the third quarter, with Seattle leading 21-20. The Seahawks’ zone coverage with three cornerbacks, including nickel back Justin Coleman inside on the slot, and two safeties deep. That required Coleman plus linebackers Bobby Wagner and Barkevious Mingo to drop deep enough with the safeties behind them to take away the deep in route for 15-plus yards for the first down. The idea is to give up short passes in front of that underneath zone. The Seahawks even had defensive tackle Jarran Reed drop into that shallow coverage over the middle, putting eight men in coverage.
But the Rams converted anyway. Seattle’s linebackers and Coleman all stayed too close to the line and bit on relatively meaningless short routes. They didn’t drop deep enough to cover a dangerous in route by Robert Woods. Left cornerback Shaquill Griffin released Woods inside, as designed, but there was no Seahawk there to pick up Woods, as designed. Woods was open from L.A. to Santa Barbara across the middle for a 35-yard catch and run to the Seattle 19-yard line.
The Rams scored the go-ahead touchdown two plays later for a 26-21 lead. The Seahawks never led again.
“That third-and-15 was a really poorly played play,” Carroll said Monday. “We got caught up cheating on the coverage (with) guys looking at the wrong stuff...
“The linebackers and underneath coverage should be deep enough to discourage that throw so they should dump the ball under them, not underneath the DBs and the safeties on the deep end. There’s another whole level we should’ve been protecting to make them force the ball way underneath that.
“We were not trying to bait them into the 20-yard completion.”
Carroll laughed ruefully at that.
It was the second third-and-15 conversion allowed by the Seahawks in as many games. A double move by Keenan Allen of the Chargers the previous week beat Griffin, as Seattle’s pass rush again did not get home on Philip Rivers in a 25-17 loss. Those two misplays have directly contributed to Seattle’s last two defeats.
The Seahawks cannot more than one more loss over the next seven weeks.
Yet Wilson, Wagner and their teammates believe they are about to start another late-season Seattle surge.
“The best thing about our football team right now is the drive, the focus,” Wilson said. “We are very, very young, but we’re very talented. An great things are going to be in store. Great things are going to happen, and the best is ahead.”
This story was originally published November 12, 2018 at 6:42 PM.
