Last Sunday's game was the latest in a long line of frustrating, tormenting defeats. It looked more like a regular old disaster in the first half, when the time zone challenged Hawks looked half-asleep and found themselves down 20-0 to the Falcons in Atlanta. They'd fallen behind 14-0 to the Redskins the week before and then figured out RG3 was hurt and adjusted their game plan. Against Atlanta, the Seahawks again made the adjustment, coming to a stunning realization midway through the second quarter – the Falcons defense is TERRIBLE.
And once the second half began, and the coffee kicked in, the Seahawks commenced a remarkable comeback, with dazzling rookie QB Russell Wilson throwing for nearly 400 yards and taking advantage of Atlanta's seeming disinterest in covering a receiver. Not only were they moving the ball, they were gashing the Falcons 25 yards at a time.
Then it was 27-14 in the fourth quarter and the Falcons – who had used up almost the entire 3rd Quarter on a dominating previous scoring drive – completely came undone. First they abandon any good sense and try a stupid reverse that loses 5 yards, and then Ryan dumbly chucks a pass into double coverage that's intercepted. Four plays later it's 27-21 and the Falcons are in full panic mode.
And then the Seahawks get the ball back late on about their own 40 and what's the first thing that comes to mind?
"Don't score too soon!"
But it's hard to tackle someone with your hands around your own throat, and the Falcons can't stop anybody and the Seahawks are suddenly 55 yards down the field in a matter of seconds!
"Don't score too soon … don't score too soon … 12 men on the field on Atlanta! D'oh, that just moves it to the 1 and they'll score sooner and give the Falcons more time to respond! Damn it!"
I was hoping that I wouldn't have to prepare myself for disappointment. I didn't want to give the Falcons the ball with :31 remaining. I wanted them to have :00 remaining. Because if nothing else, the Seahawks always seem to find a way to bring losing to exceptional heights. Or depths, depending on how you look at it.
This is the team that has lost 3 playoff games in OT, and a 4th on a dropped pass in the end zone. In the most famous of these losses, vs. Green Bay, Hawks QB Matt Hasselback shouted "we want the ball and we're going to win!" into the ref's open mic during the coin toss. He then threw a pick six.
It was during a game with Green Bay this past season, in fact, that the Seahawks were the benificiaries of one of the WORST calls in NFL history, the so-called Fail Mary play that singlehandedly ended the NFL referees strike:
Terrible call. Just terrible. One of the worst in NFL history. Even a homer like me feels a bit unclean about that one.
The problem is that a lot of the WORST have happened to come against the Seahawks. In the Karmic scheme of things, the football gods owed them one. A blown call on an interception late in a game vs. the Houston Oilers cost them a win an a playoff spot way back in the first strike season in the early 1980s – so things have been going wrong for a long, long time. This is the team that has received 3 official apologies from the NFL for incompetent officiating – one for the refs failing to start the clock, allowing the Ravens enough time to drive the field and kick the tying FG; one for a back judge tackling an open receiver vs. the Rams, getting in the way and breaking up a sure TD pass.
And one for this:
Vinny Testaverde.
Notice how the ball is nowhere near the goal line. Sigh. This is the play that brought instant replay to the NFL. Of course it had to happen against the Seahawks.
And all I'm going to say at the moment about the officiating in the Super Bowl was that the league has essentially used the game tape as a textbook on how NOT to officiate at their referees seminars. Not that the Seahawks didn't contribute to their own demise in that game, of course, having come up with a foolproof strategy of repeatedly throwing to TE Jerramy Stevens, who was wide open all game and who repeatedly dropped the ball. And no one should be dumb enough to think the league had it "in" for the Seahawks or anything. Bad calls happen and sometimes they happen in spates. But unlike, say, the Raiders, who are paranoid and treat every call that goes against as an affront and a settling of an old score with Al Davis, Seahawk fans just sort of shrug and go "oh, not again."
Sometimes the franchise just seems cursed. Them and the Mariners both, to be honest – did they build the Kingdome on top of a Coastal burial ground or something? Nothing ultimately seems to go right for this franchise. They thought they hit it big when they won the lottery to sign Brian Bosworth in the 1980s, who turned out to be a bust. Uh, whoops. Then again, about 27 other teams wanted him as well, and would've been happy to land the Boz. And if he'd landed with the 49ers, he inevitably would've played for 10 years and won 4 Super Bowls.
They've had good teams miss the playoffs, even more talented teams underachieve and wind up 8-8. For one reason or another, they are never quite good enough. Sometimes it's due to their own foibles (John Madden once said in an MNF telecast "about the only thing the Seahawks are known for is dropping passes"), sometimes it's some bizarre decision by a Mr. Magoo wearing stripes. They've never won a Super Bowl but rarely bottom out. They're always in that range of teams which probably should be better than they are – and when they are verging on elite, like this season, some sort of disaster will inevitably fell them.
Not only do the Seahawks rarely, if ever seem to win the big game, but they can't even be terrible right.
I went to several games during the 1992 season, which featured a stout and stellar defense led by Hall of Fame DT Cortez Kennedy, who was the AFC Defensive Player of the Year. Tez was a terror and a joy to watch play. My favourite Tez moments would be on 3rd and short, when he would line up in the gap between the guard and center, stand up at the snap, put a hand on each of their shoulders and push both offensive lineman into the backfield, either snuffing the run play out all by himself or blowing a giant hole in the line to be filled by a stream of snarling linebackers. It was amazing to watch a guy who was that good at this game in his prime. They had a great defense that year, to be sure, one of the best in the league.
And the Seahawks went 2-14. The offense was among the worst ever, scoring 8.8 points a game. Their 3rd string QB Stan Gelbaugh started half the games, as the first two QB's had both been injured during a 27-0 debacle vs. the Dallas Cowboys. Football Outsiders has called them the most imbalanced team ever measured, with a championship-calibre defense and an offense that needed to be thrown in Lake Washington.
But in that wretched season, the Seahawks just so happened to beat the other 2-14 team in the league, which meant they had the #2 pick in the draft instead of #1. And the Seahawks drafted QB Rick Mirer, who had a good first year but who regressed quickly, his confidence shot after getting bashed repeatedly behind the sieve of an offensive line the Seahawks put forth.
And the #1 pick in that draft? Drew Bledsoe by the New England Patriots, whom I bet you can't even remember ever being a bad team, because four years later Bledsoe was playing in the Super Bowl and the Pats were at the dawn of their 20-year Golden Age which has seen them reach 6 Super Bowls.
(And don't worry, we'll get to Drew Bledsoe's alma mater here in the new future.)
Those were the dark times in Seahawks history. They were owned by Ken Behring, who had bought the franchise from the Nordstrom family and proceeded to run it into the ground. He up and moved the club to Anaheim at one point, held one practice in Orange County and was told by the league, the city of Seattle, and various court authorities to promptly get his ass back to the Pacific Northwest. The sale of the club to competent ownership (Paul Allen) who then hired competent coaches (Mike Holmgren), led to prosperity and wins and playoff births and a unique, new and gorgeous stadium,
I just had to throw that in to make me feel better. Writing this post is making me depressed.
But while the Seahawks have played at a high standard for most of the past 15 years, they've not rid themselves of the tendency to lose in the most frustrating, discouraging, and heartbreaking of manners. Occasionally the Football Gods will give us fans the delight that is Tony Romo, but usually close games and seasons seem to wind up ending in the most agonizing of fashions.
And this game with the Falcons was no different. After the Seahawks score a TD to take a 28-27 lead, completing what would appear to be one of the most stunning comebacks in playoff history, there are :31 on the clock and the Falcons are on their own 28. Two quick passes, two timeouts, 49 yard FG with :08 left. Atlanta 30, Seattle 28.
Not again.
It was a crushing loss but the future looks bright. The Seahawks have one of the youngest teams in the NFL, have a star in the making at QB at Russell WIlson, a beast of an RB in Marshawn Lynch, 2 All-Pros on their line, the best secondary in football – they look like a burgeoning juggernaut, a force in the NFL for years to come. The only problem, of course, is that the other burgeoning juggernaut, by the looks of it, is in the same division – the San Francisco 49ers. Wouldn't that figure?
I do hope the 49ers beat the snot out of those poseurs from Atlanta. I've never seen an NFL team look so scared in my life as they were at the end of that game last week. Scared when they didn't need to be, because this was the Seahawks they were playing. Surely, it would somehow work out for the Falcons in the end, because for the opponents of the Seahawks, somehow it always does.
