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After missing two very-makeable field goals in a six-point loss to the Chicago Bears on Sunday, veteran kicker Olindo Mare sought out one teammate in particular.

“I apologized to Seneca (Wallace) for putting him in a spot at the end of the game,” Mare said after the Bears had rallied for a 25-19 victory that left the Seahawks 1-2 heading into next week’s game against the Colts in Indianapolis.

“You’re only supposed to do your job, and I didn’t do it very well.”

Wallace acknowledged the class of Mare’s act, but also shouldered his share of the blame for the Seahawks taking a 13-0 lead only to watch the Bears outscore them 25-6 over the final 42 minutes on a picture postcard of a day and before an amped-up crowd of 67,938 fans at Qwest Field.

“That says a lot about Olindo, but it’s not his fault,” said Wallace, who made his first start of the still-young season because Matt Hasselbeck was watching from the sideline after getting a cracked rib in last week’s loss to the 49ers in San Francisco.

“We’ve got to put the ball in the end zone. If we put the ball in the end zone, we wouldn’t have that problem.”

Speaking of the sideline, that’s also where Pro Bowl left tackle Walter Jones, tackle Sean Locklear, fullback Justin Griffith, linebackers Lofa Tatupu and Leroy Hill and cornerbacks Marcus Trufant and Josh Wilson watched the game. All starters. All injured, or coming off injuries.

This was a game few gave the Seahawks any chance of even being in, let along being a position where they not only could have but probably should have won.

“Absolutely we should have won this game,” defensive Colin Cole said. “A lot of people try to find excuses and reasons why we didn’t get this one done. But it doesn’t matter. Win or lose, in this business, if you don’t win, you don’t have excuses. Nobody cares if you don’t get it done.”

The Seahawks didn’t get it done on this day. Because of the injuries. Because Mare was wide left on field-goal attempts from 43 and 34 yards. Because they had the ball seven times inside the Bears’ 30-yard line and came away with only 12 points to show for it.

The Seahawks had more rushing yards (103-85), more passing yards (243-233), more total yards (346-318), a lot more offensive plays (75-57,) fewer punts (2-4) and a better third-down percentage (.412, 7 of 14; compared to .333, 4 of 12).

Second-year linebacker David Hawthorne, who was subbing for Tatupu, sparked a spirited defensive effort with 16 tackles and an interception. Nate Burleson caught nine passes for 109 yards. Julius Jones ran for 98 yards – 13 more than the Bears were able to muster. Wallace completed 26 of 44 passes for 261 yards. Ben Obomanu had a 45-yard kickoff return. Jon Ryan averaged 54 yards on those two punts.  Rookie linebacker Aaron Curry had a fumble-forcing sack.

But the Seahawks still lost.

“Well, that was obviously a disappointing loss for us,” were the first words out of coach Jim Mora’s mouth as he stepped to the podium for his post-game Q&A session. “We know that with the situation we’re in, our margin of error is very small.

“We made some errors at key moments in the game that really hurt us.”

None was more costly than a second-and-7 play with two minutes left to play, and the Seahawks clinging to a 19-17 lead. The Seahawks blitzed, Bears quarterback Jay Cutler went to wide receiver Devin Hester on a slant and Hester went 36 yards for the touchdown that gave the Bears their final margin of victory.

Cornerback Ken Lucas was on the sideline because he had aggravated the groin injury he got last week against the 49ers. Travis Fisher, Lucas’s replacement who was playing his first regular-season game for the Seahawks, had Hester covered for the inside pass. But Hester reached back to take the ball. Fisher’s momentum carried him into strong safety Deon Grant, which left no one with a legitimate shot at catching Hester as he raced to the end zone.

“Honestly, I was hit on the play, so I don’t know how he reached back,” Fisher said. “It’s tough to be in that situation at the end of the game and then they get one play on you and it dictates the game.”

Offered Cutler, “Whenever we get Devin in one-on-one coverage, we think the edge is on our side. I put it a little bit out there and he made a heck of a catch and run. He makes one guy miss and it’s a touchdown, and that’s what he did.”

The play did in the Seahawks, whose final – frantic – possession ended when Wallace’s fourth-down pass was too high for Jones to grab with 26 seconds to play.

It was Jones who staked the Seahawks to an early 7-0 lead, as he took a pass from Wallace and ran up the sideline – and through an attempted tackle by Bears cornerback Charles Tillman – for a 39-yard touchdown.

“It was either run through him, or get tackled,” Jones said. “I decided to run through him. We played really well at the beginning we just didn’t finish them off. We had I don’t know how many chances to score. We had chances to take the momentum and run with it, and we didn’t do that.”

That’s because after Jones’ run, it was all field goals for the Seahawks – the four that Mare made, and the two he didn’t.

“No excuse for those,” Mora said of Mare’s misses. “If you’re a kicker in the National Football League, you should make those kicks. Bottom line. End of story. Period. No excuses. No wind. It doesn’t matter.

“You’ve got to make those kicks, especially in a game like this where we’re kicking and scratching and fighting and playing your tail off. And you miss those kicks. Not acceptable. Absolutely not acceptable.”

Because of those misses, Mare wasn’t the only Seahawk left to kick himself after a disappointing loss that should have been a momentum-building victory.