KIRKLAND — Against the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, the Seattle Seahawks were looking for a much-needed spark. But perhaps due in part to a blustery wind, the visiting Seahawks had trouble igniting even that little bit of combustion.
Sluggishness, as much as anything, helped doom Seattle’s bid to raise its winning streak to six games. The Seahawks played well defensively through three quarters, but were largely ineffective — and at times, downright hapless — on the offensive side.
The result was a 13-10 loss that assured Seattle of finishing no better than No. 3 in the NFC playoff standings. The Seahawks, who had clinched the NFC West title and a playoff spot a week earlier, can no longer earn a first-round postseason bye and instead will host one of the NFC’s two wild-card teams at Qwest Field on either Jan. 5 or 6.
And to win in the postseason, coach Mike Holmgren said Monday, Seattle will have to play with more passion than they managed against the Panthers.
“Emotion in a game, you must have that to win,” he said. “Regardless of your opponent and regardless of your opponent’s record, if you don’t have that, and if you’re just going out there and just going through the motions, you’re not going to win the game if the other team is geared up for it. That’s how close the league is.”
Football, he went on, “is an emotional game. As emotional as any athletic endeavor you can participate in. And if you don’t have it and the guy across from you has it, you will lose, plain and simple.”
So why, in fact, were the Seahawks so lethargic on Sunday? Maybe part of it was a letdown after wrapping up the division title a week earlier. Maybe part of it was the team’s third long road trip in four weeks. Maybe part of it was the strong wind, which hampered Seattle’s pass-first offense. And maybe part of it was a placid crowd at Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium.
“It is,” Holmgren acknowledged, “hard to put your finger on.” But the bottom line, he added, is that “our team is normally an upbeat team. They’re normally high-energy players. And you need that energy all the time.”
Seattle has some players who are revved up the moment they step on any football field, Holmgren said, citing linebacker Lofa Tatupu and wide receivers Bobby Engram and Deion Branch as examples.
“But there are always players on every team that feed off other stuff, whether it’s a teammate, the crowd, something good happening in the game or whatever,” Holmgren said. “Then they get going. And those are the guys I’m kind of talking to because you have to come out and try to play the same way every week.
“When you gain that consistency of play, then you have something. … So I’m hopeful there’s a lesson here. And if the guys didn’t get it before, maybe they get it now.”
“I would have hoped we’d learned that lesson earlier in the season,” Engram said. “But better now than in the playoffs. We just can’t take any team for granted and say, ‘We’re good, we’re going to beat these guys.’ This is the NFL, and we have to come out firing on all cylinders and make plays for four quarters.
“We’re at that time right now where we need to continue to get better and go into the playoffs hot. And that’s what so disappointing about (Sunday’s loss).”
Still, the Seahawks are 9-5, and with two games to play — at home Sunday against Baltimore, and at Atlanta on Dec. 30 — they can finish 11-5. That would be the third-best record in team history, topped only by a 12-4 mark in 1984 and a 13-3 record in the Super Bowl season of 2005.
For a lot of reasons, momentum and confidence among them, Holmgren wants to tack on two more wins before the team prepares for the playoffs.
“I want us to have the best record we can,” he said firmly. “I want to win as many games as we can. The playoff ramifications as far as a first-round bye, that’s not there for us. But there’s always a chance you could get another home game if something weird should happen (in other playoff games).
“But more than anything else, it’s just the pride factor. I don’t want to lose any games. I want to win as many games as we can win.”
That message was imparted to his players after Sunday’s defeat, and it will be re-emphasized on Wednesday when the team returns to the practice field.
“We will play better this week,” Holmgren said. “And I think the players, after looking at the film, will say much the same thing.”
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