GLENDALE, Ariz. — All week the Seahawks talked about how important this game was to their playoff chances.
Beat the Cardinals and they’re one game out of first place and right in the thick of the NFC West race. But lose and they’re 3-6, three games out and in a bad place.
And despite an improved effort, the Seahawks fell 31-20 to the Cardinals, falling deeper into the hole they’ve been trying to dig out of after starting 2-5.
So they’re done, right? Stick a fork in them?
Not so fast, they say. Sure it was a must-win game, but apparently it wasn’t really a must-win game.
Despite a major setback Sunday, the Seahawks insist they’ll move forward confident they can still salvage this season.
“No, we’re not counting ourselves out of anything at this point,” Seahawks coach Jim Mora said. “We’re not readjusting our goals other than the fact that we’ve got to continue to try and get better.”
Receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh took it a step — or seven — further than his coach, saying he is excited with the improvement his team showed and that he doesn’t expect them to lose again this season.
“I don’t think we’ll lose another game if we come with this type of effort and just eliminate the little mistakes that we had, I don’t think we’ll lose again,” said Houshmandzadeh, who had nine catches for 165 yards.
Really?
“I don’t see nobody on our schedule that can beat us in my eyes,” he continued. “Not if we play the way we should play. I really like what we’ve got going. We just lost today a game that we shouldn’t have lost, but that’s why Arizona’s a good team.”
While they may not have made such lofty proclamations, most of Houshmandzadeh’s teammates agreed that the team will respond well despite a loss that damaged its already slim playoff hopes.
“It’s just like being down early in a game,” quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said. “Sometimes the best thing is to not look at the scoreboard and just keep executing, stay focused and keep fighting. I would suspect you won’t notice anything different about our team because of the standings. We’re going to keep fighting, we’re going to keep doing what we’ve got to do. It’s tough.”
Guard Rob Sims had a less-optimistic take on the loss.
“It’s hard, it’s tough, the season looks bleak,” he said. “But it’s the same group of guys we started out with at camp, it’s the same group of guys who go out and practice like it’s the first day of camp, and it’s the same guys getting better every single day. So it’s something you’ve got to keep building and keep building, and hopefully you pull yourself out of whatever we’re in right now and then when you pull that off you can start putting games together and start putting years together.”
Given how much buildup there was to this game, there has to be some concern, however, about how the team will handle its latest loss.
“I worry about it,” Mora said, “but we’ll handle it the proper way. Our guys, we know that they’re resilient, and they’ll come back Wednesday and get ready to go again.”
Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com. For more Seahawks coverage, check out the Seahawks blog at heraldnet.com/seahawksblog
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