Terry Mosher
You shouldn’t be surprised the Seattle Seahawks were beaten at home Sunday. There were several factors pointing toward the 17-10 loss to the Arizona Cardinals, one of which is just a natural life progression.
And if the Seahawks don’t look out, they could be beaten next Sunday when the St. Louis Rams, led by a very good coach in Jeff Fisher, show up in week 17 for the last regularly scheduled game for the hometown kids.
Right up front there is the Cardinals. They are fighting for their playoff life (the win kept their chances alive) and any time you face a team that has its back to the wall, you better expect a dog fight.
So that is one thing.
The next is the Cardinals played extremely well on defense. Not that it was unexpected. They are first in the NFL against the rush, and held the Seahawks to 103 yards on the ground (and 192 overall). The Seahawks were No. 2 rushing team in the NFL coming in at 141 yards per game (Philadelphia was first at 152.9).
Arizona also put a ton of pressure on Russell Wilson, holding him to 89 passing yards on just 11 for 27 in the air. He was sacked four times and hit may other times. He looked ordinary for the first time in his two years with the Seahawks.
The Cardinals also mixed up their coverage, switching from man to zone and it seemed to confuse Wilson and his receivers.
So give credit to head coach Bruce Arians and his staff for coming up with a defensive plan that was extraordinary, and then give credit to the Cardinals for executing it almost perfectly.
The third thing is the Seahawks propensity for being heavily flagged for penalties. And they seemed to come in this game at inopportune times that kept Cardinal drives alive, including the winning one late in the game.
I can understand being aggressive. As a coach, you want that in your players. That will lead to penalties. However, it appears that the Seahawks are more prone to unnecessary penalties than other teams. Good defensive efforts get thwarted by flags flying at the wrong time for the wrong reasons.
And the fourth thing is that life is a continuing series of ups and downs. It’s something that can’t be controlled, it just happens. I am in tune with my life and know when I’m having a bad day. When that occurs I’m careful not to do much. Conversely, when I sense a good day, I try to take care of a lot of things to take advantage of the day.
I look at life as a long series of average days that are bookended by a good day here and there and a bad day here and there. When I coached basketball, I was well aware that in a 20-game schedule there would be at least two games when the bounces and referee’s calls would go against us, and there would be at least two games when the opposite would occur and we would get the bounces and the calls. And the other 16 games would be average.
If you look back on Sundays’ Seahawk game, you will see, as I did, that the calls and critical game situations went mostly against the ‘Hawks. That includes some self-imposed mistakes (penalties), but also some breaks where the Cardinals would convert on a fluky play (Carson Palmer scrambling and getting a prayer answered when his blocking tight end came open for a pass converted into a crucial first down on the winning drive, for example).
Good teams, though, usually overcome bad bounces and calls. But when you are playing a good team like the Cardinals, it’s tough to overcome them. The Seahawks almost did, but a fluky bounce off the turf that was ruled an interception because there was not enough play review evidence to overturn the interception call on the field, was the final nail in the coffin for the Hawks.
Had the call been a pass incompletion, as Seahawks’ receiver Doug Baldwin insists it was, maybe the talented Seahawks do recover from all the things aligned against them and win the game.
But it wasn’t to be, and the ‘Hawks now have to beat a St. Louis team that seems to give them fits and has won four of its last six games (the only defeats have come to the 49ers and to the (drum roll) Cardinals.
So we’ll see if the Seahawks can rebound and stop a late season swoon that has seen them lose two of the last three games and beat the Rams and win home field advantage throughout the playoffs.
One thing for sure, the Rams have noticed that the Seahawks can be beaten at home.
Be well pal
Be careful out there.
Have a great Christmas
You are loved.