SEATTLE – So what lesson did everyone learn Sunday at Qwest Field?
All together now – never underestimate the defending champions.
Grant Wistrom didn’t have to be educated. He sat in the classroom of the two-time defending NFC West Division champion St. Louis Rams for six years, including two Super Bowl appearances and one NFL championship.
“People who handed us the division don’t know much about the Rams,” the new Seahawk defensive end said after his former team beat his current team 33-27 in overtime Sunday. “They are a very, very good football team and they are going to come ready to play every Sunday.”
The Seahawks have the bruises to prove it. Ice helps heal physical black-and-blue owies. If only it were that easy to erase emotional contusions.
You’ve heard the term “deep bruise?” This one penetrated every Seahawk body from head to toe. And it had to be a haymaker to every heart.
To lead by 17 points with 8:42 left in the game and then to see the Rams come blitzing back to tie it on a field goal in the final eight seconds of regulation and then win it on a 52-yard pass play 3:02 into overtime … and you thought the Mariners have had some bad closers over the years.
The Seahawk meltdown was Bobby Ayala-ish.
“We all played like crap,” Wistrom said, which almost seemed like a genteel way of putting it. “We pretty much self-destructed.”
Now comes the hard part. Getting over it. They have to – and quickly. Up next – the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots, winners of 19 games in a row.
“We just have to look inward now,” Wistrom said. “We will really find out what this team is all about. It’s easy to get along, and everybody has fun when you’re winning every week. Now we have to refocus our efforts and come together as a family, and go out there and play better and harder.”
And learn to close.
The Rams are dynamite at that role. “Any lapse in your assignment, they’re going to exploit,” Wistrom said. “And that’s what happened.”
When the Seahawks awaken this morning, they still might not be sure exactly what happened because of the rapidity with which it occurred. But this they’ll be certain: They blew a magnificent opportunity to put a dent in the Rams’ psychological armor.
A victory would have given the Seahawks a 21/2-game lead over the Rams in the division and a huge lift into the game against the Patriots. Now the Rams are only a half-game back.
Will the Seahawks be able to put this one behind them quickly? Let’s just say they’d better.
The Rams were the first major test of the season. The Hawks flunked. Now they need to get over it.
They need to realize that they’re still a very good team. They proved that for a half on Sunday, taking a 24-7 lead to the locker room.
The Hawk defense had played splendidly, holding the high-powered Rams offense to five first downs and 122 total yards, while the Matt Hasselbeck-led Seattle offense had rolled up 17 first downs and 306 yards.
Then someone played a dirty trick. They made the Hawks come out for the final 30 minutes.
Want a key play? A play that turned the momentum in the Rams’ favor?
St. Louis faced a third-and-13 at its own 31 with 7:47 left in the fourth quarter. Quarterback Marc Bulger hit Isaac Bruce on a 20-yard pass play.
The Hawks could live with that. Plays happen.
What they didn’t need is what went on after Bulger let go of the ball. Rocky Bernard roughed up Bulger and got flagged for 15 additional yards.
That put the ball at the Seahawks’ 34, and five plays later, Bulger fired a high pass into the end zone that tight end Brandon Manumaleuna – with two defenders in front of him and one behind – somehow went up and brought down.
Suddenly, the Rams were thinking, “We be Supermen.”
Suddenly, the Seahawks were thinking, “Aw, s … … .hucks.”
Now it was 27-17 and we had a game again. Not that anyone should conclude that the Rams are ever dead, no matter how big the deficit.
They did, after all, come into the game with the sixth-best offense in the NFL. They do have one of the most innovative coaches in the league. And they have had a nice run, for the most part, the last five years.
Bottom line: Never pronounce them dead ‘til you see the casket closed.
The Hawks will relive numerous moments from this game. The tying field goal in the final seconds of regulation. The image of wide receiver Shaun McDonald streaking past strong safety Terreal Bierria to gather in a pass at about the Seahawk 23 for the winning touchdown. The repulsive scene of the Rams celebrating on the Qwest turf.
These images will stick in the homeboys’ minds. They’ll try to shake them, but they’ll be there when the teams meet next month in St. Looie.
By then, maybe they’ll have a little better handle on how to close out games.
As Hawk running back Shaun Alexander put it, “I feel you have to score 100 points before you can breath easy.”
Then he reconsidered. “Maybe even 101.”
When playing the Rams, maybe 200.
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