Despite Sunday’s loss, Seahawks give fans reason for hope

SEATTLE — Once the game was over, the Seattle Seahawks trudged slowly off the turf at CenturyLink Field, helmets hanging loosely from their hands, heads sagging in defeat.

But this wasn’t disappointment from being pushed around the field and wishing the second half had been played with a running clock. This was the disappointment of a team that knew it had a chance to win, but came up short.

The football world expected a bloodbath from Sunday’s game between the Seahawks and the Los Angeles Rams. Instead, it was treated to a back-and-forth slugfest that was eventually won by the Rams, 33-31.

Which was a far cry from the Los Angeles blowout many predicted.

“That was a terrific football game today,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said. “Obviously we went toe-to-toe with these guys. I don’t know how many people out there thought it was going to be like that, but the guys in the room did, and they went out there to win this football game from the start to the finish. We played with great intensity and great resolve about getting it done. It wasn’t all pretty, we gave up some stuff that we really regret. But offensively we played just about as precisely as we wanted to to.”

Those weren’t the type of words people expected Carroll to be uttering in the aftermath of this game.

In the three-plus years I’ve been covering the Seahawks, I can’t remember there being anything like the kind of dread that enveloped the region in advance of this game. Los Angeles came into the contest 4-0, one of just two undefeated teams left in the league, with an offense that hearkened back to the Kurt Warner-led “Greatest Show on Turf” Rams teams from the turn of the century. Meanwhile, Seattle is a team on the decline, stuttering through the season’s first four weeks, and the Legion of Boom secondary is officially bust following Earl Thomas’ season-ending injury.

Then there was the deep shadow cast by Los Angeles’ last visit to CenturyLink, when the Rams ran the Seahawks out of the building, racing out to a 34-0 halftime lead before winning 42-7 in the worst loss of the Carroll era.

Put it all together and Seattle was more than a touchdown underdog at home. When was the last time that happened? And many in the region braced themselves for a defeat of far greater magnitude.

But a funny thing happened Sunday: The Seahawks’ offense came to play. Seattle’s offense remained in lockstep with Los Angeles, with the teams trading scores faster than a pair of derivatives brokers. The Seahawks even had themselves in position with 5 minutes remaining to potentially kick the game-winning field goal, only to trip themselves up with a pair of penalties.

“We’re always disappointed when we lose, it’s never easy,” Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson said. “But I do think that it’s very upbeat in the sense that we’re right where we want to be, and in the sense of we’re about to turn a corner.”

That turn may be a blast from the past. Seattle used a formula that looked a heck of a lot like the one the team employed during its Super Bowl seasons in 2013 and 2014. The Seahawks used a steady dose of the running game, finishing with 190 yards on the ground on 32 carries. Seattle frequently ran the read option, a play that seemed to disappear from the Seahawks’ playbook the past couple years, and although Wilson didn’t keep the ball once, it was still effective. That in turn opened up the play-action pass, which Wilson used to deadly effect.

The offense converted seven of 12 third-down attempts, one week after going o-fer on third down. Seattle had two backs run well in Chris Carson (116 yards on 19 carries) and Mike Davis (68 yards on 12 carries). A new weapon was discovered in the form of receiver David Moore, who caught the first two touchdown passes of his NFL career.

So even if Seattle’s defense couldn’t get a stop, there was plenty to be encouraged about with regards to the offense.

“This was an amazing game to be a part of,” Seahawks tackle Duane Brown said. “I think we definitely made a statement as an offense. We’ve been doing that the last few weeks. We knew it was going to be a big challenge for us, but we were up to it and we met it head on with a lot of physicality. They have a great offense, too. It was a shootout and a couple penalties drove us out of field-goal position. That’s just kind of what happened, but if we can bottle up this, we’ll be having fun.”

No, there’s no points for second place in the NFL, and this loss counts in the standings just as much as that 42-7 drubbing suffered last December.

But this performance against a top team, particularly on offense, gives the Seahawks hope they can still accomplish something this season, rather than just play out the string.

“I put my team against anybody any day and I think today we proved it,” safety Bradley McDougald said. “When you go out there you’ve got to hit them in the mouth early and let them know it’s going to be a long game. Anything can happen. I think we’ve got another shot at them down there in L.A. and it might be a different result.”

Follow Nick Patterson on Twitter at @NickHPatterson.