Sunday’s loss to the Cardinals was one of the most poorly-coached affairs I’ve seen since Pete Carroll came to Seattle.
Things were looking pretty good one drive in; the Seahawks marched 89 yards in 9 plays for a touchdown and a 7-0 lead. Then, it immediately fell to shit. On the very next play, Kenyan Drake rumbled 80 yards down the right sideline to tie it up. The Seahawks drove it right back down to the Arizona 33 yard line when, on 4th & 1, Pete Carroll opted to NOT go for the first down. He, instead, sent out the field goal unit, but something happened and instead of kicking an insane 50+ yard field goal (with a terrible kicker, who just BARELY made his extra point on our touchdown earlier in the game), we took a 5-yard delay of game penalty before punting.
The fact that the punt was downed at the 1-yard line isn’t the issue. The issue is this Fraidy-Cat mentality by Pete Carroll costing us points. Another in a long line of bullshit moves. WHAT HAPPENED TO BIG BALLS PETE??? I could use a few more “hormonal” decisions and a lot less of these snivelling duds.
I can’t get into all the terrible decisions because I bailed on this game just after halftime. Here are the results of the first 10 possessions for the Seahawks:
- Touchdown
- Punt
- Punt
- Punt
- Punt
- Punt
- End of Half
- Fumble
- Punt
- Punt
Won’t win too many games doing that! Before the Seahawks could manage to score again, it was 20-7. The Seahawks then blocked a field goal and returned it to the Arizona 16 yard line, but could do nothing with the gift they received, having to settle for three. We forced a punt and once again drove into Arizona territory, but once again the drive stalled and we had to settle for a field goal. At 20-13, if we could just get one MORE stop, we might’ve had something going, but Brett Hundley – in for an injured Kyler Murray – was able to manufacture a game-clinching touchdown drive to put it out of reach. With just over 4 minutes left, the Seahawks got the ball back, but turned it over on downs on our own half of the field.
The game didn’t mean a whole lot, but it also kind of did. The Saints beat the Titans, the 49ers beat the Rams, and the Packers beat the Vikings. That puts the 49ers & Packers in the top two seeds at the moment, with the Seahawks all the way down to fifth.
Here are the new scenarios:
- If we beat the 49ers, we would need both the Saints to lose to the Panthers (not gonna happen) and the Packers to lose to the Lions (not gonna happen) to reclaim the #1 seed.
- If we beat the 49ers, the Saints lose, and the Packers win, that keeps us down to the 3-seed, hosting the Vikings in the Wild Card Round.
- If we beat the 49ers, the Packers lose, and the Saints win, then we would jump up to the 2-seed.
- And, of course, if we lose, nothing matters because we’ll be the 5-seed, going on the road to play either the Eagles or Cowboys.
So, yeah, that loss meant quite a bit, thanks to the Vikings blowing it last night.
Honestly, I know we’re all stoked about Marshawn Lynch and (to a lesser extent) Robert Turbin coming back for the stretch run, but neither guy has played a single snap this year! How much can you reasonably expect from either of them? Lynch has been working out for, what, two weeks? That’s going to get him back into game shape?
That’s not getting into the fact that Duane Brown is out, our offensive line is pretty banged up across the board, Quandre Diggs probably won’t be back, Shaquill Griffin is still a huge maybe. Clowney should be in there, but how much of an effect can he have with his injury issues? Everyone seems to be breaking down or getting busted for taking illegal (and/or performance-enhancing) drugs at the absolute worst possible time.
The 49ers, on the other hand, are getting as healthy as they’ve been in a month, they have an extra day to prepare since they played last Saturday, and as we’ve clearly seen, “home field advantage” isn’t a thing that exists in Seattle anymore.
The 49ers are just plain better than the Seahawks, and that’s all there is to it. The 49ers will win this game. The Seahawks will be going on the road in the playoffs and if things keep trending the way they’ve been going, we’ll almost certainly lose again in the first round.
What a shit-end to a once-promising season. Merry Fucking Christmas.