Seahawks’ task at Carolina: Rebound back to first class in NFC West--and on the ride home
That ugly Seahawks loss in Los Angeles?
Turns out, it hasn’t really affected Seattle’s quest for its top goal of the season: Winning the NFC West, and earning the home playoff game and likely a first-round bye that will come with the division title.
If the Seahawks (10-3) win their final three games of the regular-season, they will win the West.
But that loss to the Rams last weekend sure affected how comfortable the Seahawks are for the season’s stretch run.
By now you may have heard of coach Pete Carroll’s incentive instituted a couple of seasons ago to veteran players: Win a road game, fly home in the coach’s plush, roomy first-class seats in the front of the team’s Hawaiian Airlines charter jet. The coaches go back in, well, coach class, where the players usually sit.
This season, the veterans have been traveling in style.
Entering last weekend’s game at the Rams, the Seahawks were a team-record 6-0 on the road in 2019. Then — splat! — their 28-12 face-plant of a loss in L.A. Seattle’s defense got thoroughly out-played in the first half. Its offense got out-played in the second half.
And the veteran players got sent back to the back of the plane for the first time this season.
“Ha!” K.J. Wright said, echoing through the team’s locker room this week. “First time all year. Shoot.”
Being the longest-tenured Seahawk, Seattle draft class of 2011, has its privileges.
“Nah, I was good,” Wright said, “because I’ve got a good (assigned) seat in coach, anyway.”
Wright laughed at the plight of those less-experienced, less-privileged teammates in 17B and 29E.
“I wasn’t too bad,” he said through his chuckle.”
Wright and his great friend Bobby Wagner, the All-Pro linebacker who has been on the team for eight years to Wright’s nine, have claimed prime exit-row seats in the event they have to sit in coach.
“I’ve got the emergency row,” Wright said. “I got the whole thing where I stretch my legs out and prop my feet up, so I’m good.
“Me and Bobby’s got those seats.”
They don’t plan on having to sit in them again this Sunday night.
Wright, Wagner and the Seahawks play earlier that day at the reeling Carolina Panthers in Charlotte, North Carolina. Carolina (5-8) has lost five consecutive games. Three of those have been at home, and two have been to long-ago-buried Atlanta and Washington.
The Panthers have lost dynamic quarterback Cam Newton for the season to a foot injury. They fired their Super Bowl coach Ron Rivera. They have a second-year QB, Kyle Allen, who went undrafted last year. He’s been sacked a remarkable 44 times in his 11 games playing for Newton.
Sure, Carolina has the wonder that is Christian McCaffery. The do-everything running back is third in the NFL with 1,220 yards rushing, second in the league with 12 rushing touchdowns. He is fourth in the NFL with 88 receptions, with four more scores receiving.
But if Wright, Wagner and the Seahawks veterans aren’t in first class flying home across the country from this one, they will lose all privileges.
A second consecutive road loss would mean Seattle is likely headed to the wild-card way into the postseason. It would make the Seahawks home game against San Francisco (11-2) likely meaningless, unless the 49ers also lose at home to the Falcons, who are double-digit underdogs.
If they don’t win the division, the Seahawks are headed on the road for the playoffs. That’s a path that has ended their seasons recently.
“There are different kind of losses that you take,” Wright said. “That (in L.A.) was just demoralizing, pretty much from beginning to end. We’ve just got to be like, it was one of those days, one of those nights. The next one, the next week, we just have to fix whatever issues that we had.”
Carroll thinks they have.
“We’ve done the things that we do,” the coach said. “I think everybody’s really tuned in to making sure that we come back and play really good ball this week. It showed throughout the week.
“We’re in good shape.”
This story was originally published December 14, 2019 at 6:57 AM.
