SEATTLE — If the end of the first half looked familiar — time winding down, Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll electing to go for the end zone rather than kick a field goal, chaos ensuing and time running out with no points being scored — well it should.
A very similar situation played out last year, knocking on the door of the same north end zone, in fact, in the Seahawks’ win over the San Diego Chargers. The difference Sunday, however, is that the three points Seattle left on the field were in a loss, as the Seahawks fell 34-12 to the Cincinnati Bengals. And granted, three points weren’t the difference in this loss, but heading into the locker room down 17-6 instead of 17-3 might have changed the way things played out in the second half.
On Sunday, the Seahawks were facing fourth-and-two at the Bengals 3-yard line with 14 seconds to play in the first half and no timeouts. Rather than kick, Carroll sent the offense back out, and while running back Marshawn Lynch did run for a first down, he didn’t get into the end zone.
The Seahawks tried to hurry up to the line of scrimmage, but the Bengals did a good job creating chaos in the pile, and time ran out before the Seahawks could spike the ball to stop the clock.
A little over a year go, the Seahawks ran a quarterback draw on third down instead of kicking a field goal, and time ran out while the field goal team attempted to hurry onto the field for a kick.
“Honestly, I realized that after all those years at USC, with our offenses being so dynamic and all, I can be a little bold about our situations,” Carroll said last year. “We need to take care of business better. I need to do a better job and make sure that we get our points. … We were too bold in that regard, so I’ll take note of that.”
Well if Carroll did take note of that, he left said note crumpled up in his back pocket and forgot to take a look at it with time winding down in the first half Sunday.
“That was totally on me, that was totally my deal,” Carroll said of the decision. “If I had to do it again, knowing that we have the ball coming out of halftime, I might have changed it. I still wanted to jam it in there and make the freakin’ touchdown.”
Flags flying
The Seahawks came into the game with 49 penalties, making them one of the most penalized teams in the league, and on Sunday they piled up 11 more for 80 yards.
“That just has to go away, that just has to leave our play,” Carroll said. “It hasn’t happened yet, but it will.”
Obomanu steps in for Williams
Seattle was without wide receiver Mike Williams, who sat out with a hamstring injury suffered in practice last week. His absence was a surprise as he was listed as a starter before the game.
The injury, explained Carroll, “was kind of a nuisance. In pregame he could run, but we didn’t feel like he was going to be able to sustain it and make it through the game. He wasn’t sure about that and the trainers weren’t sure about that, so we said, ‘Let’s not force the issue and maybe injure him more.’”
In his place, Seattle started Ben Obomanu, playing on his 28th birthday. He finished with four receptions for a team-high 107 yards, including a 55-yard grab of a Tarvaris Jackson pass late in the third quarter, setting up a Seattle field goal.
“It’s pretty rare for somebody to play on their birthday,” Obomanu said. “I know for me that may not have happened since I was a little kid playing pee-wee football.”
Outstanding debut
Seattle rookie cornerback Richard Sherman made his first NFL start and had a terrific game.
Tested often by Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton and wide receiver A.J. Green, a first-round draft pick, Sherman was beat by Jerome Simpson for a touchdown in the first quarter.
But in the third quarter, he grabbed his first career interception on a long pass intended for Green, and in the fourth quarter he deflected another deep ball intended for Green that was then picked off by Seattle safety Kam Chancellor.
“I think he did a great job,” Seahawks safety Earl Thomas said of Sherman, a fifth-round draft choice from Stanford who started because cornerbacks Marcus Trufant and Walter Thurmond are out for the season with injuries. “He held up out there, came up with a big pick, made some big tackles. He got in the zone.”
Cheap stuff
Seattle cornerback Brandon Browner got into a scuffle with Bengals wide receiver Simpson after the fourth play of the game. The best move of the confrontation occurred when Browner picked up Simpson and body slammed him to the ground.
The move earned Brown a personal foul penalty, which turned a first-and-20 situation into an automatic first down. The Bengals went on to kick a field goal and take the early lead at 3-0.
“They talk about how physical they are. I watched the way they play, with cut blocking and being physical on blocks,” Browner said.
“I probably went off the game plan a little bit, but I made it a point to be physical and went a little bit too far,” Browner said. “I didn’t intend to hurt my team in any way. I should have never done that, but my mindset was to be more physical than those guys.”
Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com. For more Seahawks coverage, check out the Seahawks blog at heraldnet.com/seahawksblog
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