OAKLAND, Calif. — The Seahawks have finished, so now they can begin.
Closing out the preseason with Thursday night’s 27-24 loss to the Raiders, the Seahawks showed one thing’s for sure, regardless of the score.
They’re going to finish.
In a game that added another layer to the final product and sent the team into the 2010 regular season armed with priceless lessons learned during the past month, the Seahawks showed moxie, poise and a fight to the end, the exact elements Coach Pete Carroll and his assistants had called upon from their players during Thursday’s preseason finale.
And the players could feel the push, too.
“We’ve got too much on the line,” veteran safety 
Coming off of back-to-back losses that saw leads evaporate in the fourth quarter, coaches had challenged the Seahawks to turn it around for the final preseason game in Oakland. “Finish,” after all, is one of the main mantras of a Carroll-led team, so it was only fitting that the focus of the final exhibition game was about finishing right and finishing strong.
And even if the score didn’t teeter in Seattle’s direction at the end of a bizarre game, the coaches could be satisfied that their message had gotten through to the players. Down 17-3 in the first half and then 27-16 in the fourth quarter, the Seahawks were undeterred, constantly pushing through the deficits to eventually put themselves in position to win.
“I love the heart we showed, I love the way we played and I love how you fought,” Carroll told his players in the locker room following the victory. “We’ve got to fight all the way to the finish, forever.”
Needless to say, the atmosphere didn’t make it easy. After three straight games of raucous environments for the Seahawks, the announced crowd of 23,957 didn’t fill the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum with much noise or enthusiasm. In fact, the stadium felt like an energy vacuum and Carroll repeatedly reminded his players that their “energy needs to come from within.”
And that it did. The Seahawks, apparently unaware that the fourth preseason game is viewed as a throwaway, carried an uncommon enthusiasm throughout the matchup, perhaps no better exemplified than in the last few minutes of the game. Coaches and players, many of whom were already out of their cleats and checked out of the game, rallied together on the sideline to cheer on the third-team offense on its final drive as if this were anything but a meaningless preseason matchup.
“Bringing that energy — that’s competing,” Carroll told his team in the locker room. “And you’re either competing or you’re not.”
In his rapid-fire review in the locker room, Carroll admitted that the game was “shaggy and raggedy” but also noted that “a lot of good stuff happened,” echoing a sentiment almost word-for-word from the first three preseason games. On Thursday night, he praised his team for continuing to overcome in the face of large deficits, a trait of persistence that will undoubtedly pay huge dividends in the regular season.
“Stuff can happen early and we can get a big lead or a fall behind big,” Carroll said. “But it’s all about how you stay focused and keep battling to bring it back.”
Even with the positives, it was also time to point out the flaws from the game, most notably the nine penalties for 111 yards, one of which came at a back-breaking point on a third-down stop by the defense in the fourth quarter.
“We’ve got to play smart,” Carroll said. “We can’t give stuff away.”
So while most of the focus was on “finish” during the game on Thursday night, it quickly turned to “start” soon thereafter. After months of preparation, four weeks of preseason practices and four exhibition games, reality sets in for the Seahawks next week with the season opener, a long-awaited moment for a new-look club.
“This is now the beginning — now this starts,” Carroll said, his slight sadness quickly flipping to bubbling anticipation. “When we come back on Monday, it all starts.”
All the lessons from the preseason — playing a game together, taking care of the football, dealing with a loss, facing the challenges of the road and now finishing — are coming together to form the 2010 Seahawks. The 2010 season is about to come ripping down the runway, and the Seahawks, despite a 1-3 preseason record, have put themselves in position to fly thanks to the rich learning experiences from the last four contests.
Because of Thursday night’s finish, they’re now prepared for the start.
“All those games from the past month don’t mean anything anymore,” the head coach told his players. “It’s what we do from here that counts.
“Let’s get this thing rolling.”
