The last time the Seattle Seahawks walked out of Qwest Field, they had no way of knowing how suddenly everything had changed.
The Seahawks were coming off a shocking overtime loss to St. Louis that saw the Rams rally from a 17-point deficit in the final six minutes of regulation. That turnaround put St. Louis back in the NFC West title picture and, as it turned out, sent the Seahawks reeling.
Now they’re back at home trying to right a season that has gotten off course.
“We’ve got to find a way to get back on track,” said defensive tackle Cedric Woodard, whose team hosts the Carolina Panthers at 1:05 p.m. today. “Everybody has high expectations for us, and we’re still the same team.
“I won’t say (today’s game is) a must-have, but it’s real important.”
The oddity of the loss to St. Louis two weeks ago was that Seattle led the entire way. The Rams won the game on a long touchdown pass in sudden-death overtime, so the Seahawks kept up a streak of four consecutive games without ever falling behind.
They have rarely led since. Seattle has played 60 minutes of football over the past two weeks and has held a lead for only 4 minutes, 17 seconds. The team that once spent its Sundays fending off pesky opponents has gotten into a bad habit of falling behind and having to play catch-up.
That goes for the division, too, as the Seahawks (3-3) have fallen a half-game behind St. Louis in the NFC West. A win today would create a tie at the top, while a loss … well, no one in the Seahawks’ locker room wants to think about a loss.
“Four in a row would be real bad,” Woodard said. “We can’t allow that to happen. We’ve got to do whatever we can to stop that. The Panthers are a good team, they’re one year removed from the Super Bowl, but we’re worried about us. We’ve got to worry about getting it done.”
Losing streaks rarely translate to success, and for obvious reasons. The Seahawks have lost at least four consecutive games during 13 seasons, only one of which resulted in a playoff appearance (1999). No NFL team has ever lost four in a row – or as many as three, for that matter – and gone on to win a Super Bowl. Only the 2002 Oakland Raiders have lost four in a row and still gone on to play in the Super Bowl.
But talk of the postseason is premature, even if it didn’t seem that way a month ago. Back-to-back losses to St. Louis and New England left the team feeling as if opportunities had slipped away, while Sunday’s defeat in Arizona brought an entirely different emotion.
Desperation.
“We’ve got 10 games left, so we’ve got a good portion of the season left. But (today’s) game is big,” coach Mike Holmgren said. “The last three weeks have been very, very painful – as painful a three weeks as I’ve been through because of how we lost the games. I’m very disappointed in how we’ve handled the last three weeks, so this is a very important game.”
More than moving back into a tie atop the NFC West, today’s game is important because the Seahawks need to get their confidence back. Three losses in a row could be considered a rough stretch, while four may well be the sign of a team that shouldn’t be considered a playoff contender.
“We’re a good team, but we’re really not showing it right now,” defensive tackle Rashad Moore said. “Hopefully we can build it back up and show that we are a good team. That’s what we’re trying to do (today).”
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