It was theirs for the taking.
A win, a continuation of positive momentum and a strong statement to start a three-game homestand — they were all not only options, but clear in the Seahawks’ grasp.
And then they weren’t. A 16-point barrage by the Redskins in the final 10 minutes turned a feel-good victory into a heartbreaking defeat for the Seahawks, who fell to 4-7 after the 23-17 loss on Sunday.
“There’s a game in our hands and then we lose,” Coach Pete Carroll said to start his postgame speech in the locker room. “It hurts. These are hard lessons.”
The lessons might be hard, but they’re definitely not new for this young Seahawks team. They center on penalties and other self-inflicted wounds that mar a game and add up to Ls instead of Ws. The mistakes hamper progress, but the lessons being presented — and hopefully learned — will assuredly reap a harvest as the journey continues.
With the Seahawks riding a two-game winning streak heading into Sunday’s game against the Redskins, Carroll told his team they had a golden opportunity to show marked maturation with a third straight victory. It didn’t happen, but what he said during Saturday night’s team meeting before the game echoes on, and continues to apply to the squad as it finishes the 2011 season.
“There’s a chance here to take another step,” Carroll said on Saturday night. “It’s time. Are we ready? All we need to do is do the stuff we know how to do.”
But the Seahawks didn’t achieve that on Sunday against the Redskins, and Carroll took the blame.
“It starts with me,” he told his team in the locker room after the game.
So now Seattle is faced with an uphill task of bouncing back from the brutal defeat for the season’s final five games — and it’s made even more challenging with the 96-hour break between games this week.
“This is a difficult turnaround,” Carroll said on Sunday night. “We’ve got to come back quick and we’ve got to turn it around. Let’s stay together, let’s hang tough.”
The season and the Seahawks are far from lost, even with the latest setback. The team still has plenty of games to win and many more lessons to learn — starting on Thursday against the Eagles.
“We’ve got to hang so we can have fun playing football and winning games, like we all want to do,” Carroll said. “Let’s do this together, and let’s see if we can bring this back around this week.”
