Gregg Bell
The News Tribune
The biggest attribute the Seahawks have going for them entering the playoffs manifested itself late in their latest, greatest win of this rebounding season. Clinched the victory, in fact.
Belief.
With 4:36 left in the game and the usually-lethal Kansas City Chiefs having just scored to cut Seattle’s lead to 31-28, Pete Carroll had a message on the Seahawks sideline to offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer.
“Let’s keep going for it,” the head coach told his play caller.
“You throw as much as you need to here. Don’t hold back now. Let’s go get it.”
Carroll, Schottenheimer and the Seahawks believed. Believed in Russell Wilson throwing Seattle back into the playoffs for the sixth time in seven seasons.
In many of their nine wins this season the Seahawks have pressed their will on opponents by plowing Chris Carson and their power-running game in 4-minute drives to close out games.
Not this time. Sunday night, Carroll believed Wilson’s throwing would be decisive against a Kansas City defense that had been giving up huge pass plays all season, and again in this game at CenturyLink Field. So he had Schottenheimer continue calling deep passes by Wilson, set up by Carson’s 100 yards rushing earlier and Seattle’s 210 yards on the ground against the Chiefs.
“Russ was on fire,” Carroll said. “We could ride him.”
They did.
Wilson threw on two of the first three plays of the series with 4 minutes left while up by those three points. On third and 6, David Moore showed he also believes.
The rugged wide receiver who’s fallen back lately after a huge middle of the season believed he was going to get to the line of gain, after catching a short pass outside left from Wilson. That was even though Chiefs cornerback Steven Nelson was rodeo-swinging Moore toward the turf a yard short of the first down. Moore bulled through Nelson’s grabbing around his waist. He tugged and reached the ball out, reaching to gain the first down by a couple feet.
“C’mon now,” lead wide receiver Doug Baldwin said of Moore’s effort and belief, “he’s a savage for that.”
Instead of punting back to the surging Mahomes and Kansas City with 3 1/2 minutes left, the Seahawks kept possession.
“One of the big, big plays in the game that maybe not many people talk about was David Moore’s first down on third down,” Wilson said. “Huge play.”
On an ensuing second and 12 Wilson plopped a perfect ball over Tyler Lockett’s shoulder and past Kansas City’s Charvarius Ward’s coverage down the right sideline. That gained 45 yards, to the Chiefs 21.
Wilson’s next pass was to the opposite, left sideline, over Baldwin’s shoulder. He reached out with his right arm and tapped the ball to himself for a wondrous catch down to the 1-yard line.
Carson ran it in from there. Seattle led 38-28 with 2:29 remaining. And the Seahawks’ belief among their many doubters they would return to the playoffs this season was reality.
It’s now six times to the postseason in Wilson’s seven seasons as Seattle’s quarterback.
“That doesn’t just happen. It happens by belief,” Wilson said. “It happens by having great courage. It happens by love. …
“Nothing is going to stop us. We have great leaders and guys that know what we’re doing and how to do it.”
The Seahawks’ most likely place to begin the NFC playoffs is as the fifth of six conference seeds, the first wild card, and a first-round game at fourth-seeded Dallas Jan. 5 or 6. The Cowboys clinched the NFC East division championship with a win over Tampa Bay Sunday.
Seattle’s first win this season was in week three over Dallas at CenturyLink Field.
That was the first game Carroll and Schottenheimer finally did what they promised they would last January when Carroll hired his new coordinator: run the ball. That was after throwing it 73 percent of the time in the first two games and losing both, at Denver and at Chicago. Wilson got sacked a league-high 12 times through two weeks, in those two losses.
This Seahawks belief has evolved—and been both good and bad this season. Carroll admitted later he was wrong intially this season believing his offensive line had improved dramatically in pass blocking last offseason with new line coach Mike Solari and new right guard D.J. Fluker.
What Carroll came to believe was his linemen are better run blockers, that they could pass protect only after a running game first forced opposing defenses to play Seattle more honestly. Defenders no longer pinning their ears back and coming after Wilson because they had to read first whether it was a Seahawks run, for a change, completely transformed the pass protection, the offense, Seattle’s entire season.
Nine wins in 13 games later, the Seahawks are where almost everyone told them they couldn’t get this year. Not after Carroll changed nine assistant coaches, both coordinators, eight starters on defense now without Richard Sherman, Kam Chancellor, Earl Thomas, Michael Bennett and Cliff Avril, plus the system on offense.
And the entire belief system inside the locker room.
By the way it was, again, absolutely off the hook following Sunday night’s win.
“The preseason predictions? There weren’t too many people seeing us come to this, being in the playoffs,” linebacker K.J. Wright said. “We believed we could make it. Our leaders led the way.”
One of those is Justin Britt. The center is the anchor of the improved, still-shuffling. offensive line. Those front five, despite right tackle Germain Ifedi not playing and left guard J.R. Sweezy leaving Sunday night’s game in the second quarterback with a sprained ankle, blocked for 210 more yards rushing against the Chiefs.
“We can go as far as we want,” Britt said. “Nobody can stop us if we’re doing our stuff right.”
The head leader, always the Seahawks’ chief optimist, believed before anyone else did. Eleven months ago, in fact. That’s when, in the days and weeks after his team missed the postseason for the first time in six years, Carroll began the biggest overhaul of his nine seasons leading the franchise. The aim: to get the team back exactly to where they are now.
“We’re going to the playoffs. I’m really proud that this team has done that,” the 67-year-old re-inventor and re-invigorator said. “There weren’t very many people that thought we would ever have the chance to be in this position.
“But the guys in this room did.”
Carroll singled out All-Pro linebacker Bobby Wagner, Wilson, Baldwin, rush end Frank Clark, defensive tackle Jarran Reed and wide receiver Tyler Lockett.
“They would just not think anything but that we were going to do something special with this team this year,” Carroll said.
“I know it looked bleak at times and all that. It started terribly. But this is a real statement about leadership. A magnificent job, because we are a young team. They led these guys to believe it, and so here we are.
“Merry Christmas.”
