Bob Condotta
The Seattle Times
LOS ANGELES — The Seahawks have played 120 of the most physically-bruising and mentally-challenging minutes possible this season against the team with the best record in the NFL: the Los Angeles Rams.
They’ve gained 463 yards rushing against the Rams, scored 62 points, and been tied or ahead for all but 28 minutes and 21 seconds of the two games that featured a whopping 12 lead changes.
They’ve also lost twice, each time watching the Rams make a play on a fourth down in the final two minutes — one on offense, one on defense — to finally seal the victory.
But if the big picture in the standings is of a 4-5 team with a tough road to make the playoffs — and no realistic shot at the NFC West (the Rams need only two more victories to clinch it regardless of what Seattle does), Seahawks coach Pete Carroll preferred to see another big picture after the team’s latest what-might-have-been.
After Seattle’s 36-31 defeat against the Rams on Sunday, Carroll opened his postgame news conference saying, “I really loved that football game today.”
Why?
Because the Seahawks never backed down, Carroll said, going from a 12-point deficit with 5:49 left, to standing at the Rams’ 35 with 26 seconds remaining and one last shot to take the lead and maybe get a victory.
“I think the whole stadium was nervous, to be honest with you, on their end,” said Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson.
Carroll loved that Seattle rushed for 273 yards even without starting tailback Chris Carson and starting right guard D.J. Fluker — their most yards since getting 350 against the Giants in 2014, and the most ever in a Seahawks defeat. Carroll also loved how the defense got one last stop when it knew the Seahawks’ offense needed to get a last shot with the ball.
“There ain’t no negative coming out of this thing,” Carroll said. “There is always the opportunity to do better and we have to figure out a way to capture those. But that’s not the essence. The essence right now is fighting and believing and knowing that we can get this done.”
Maybe you can view that as just the perpetually positive Carroll seeing no choice but to spin the positive with another game on the docket Thursday against Green Bay. (A team that preaches “no time to dwell” really has none right now.)
But Carroll spoke with an excitement that contrasted sharply with the disappointment of the loss last week to the Chargers, buoyed that Seattle hadn’t let that frustrating defeat color the way it played against the Rams.
The Seahawks drove 75 yards for touchdowns the first two times they had the ball Sunday and were sparked by a breakout game from rookie running back Rashaad Penny, who had 108 yards on 12 carries.
“There wasn’t anybody on the field who didn’t bust their ass today,” Carroll said. “Everybody did.”
But as Carroll allowed, “We have to make (that effort) win for us now.”
Maybe effort would have translated into a ‘W’ on Sunday if just one of a handful of plays had gone the other way.
Seattle Seahawks tight end Nick Vannett catches a touchdown pass in front of Los Angeles Rams safety John Johnson in the first quarter on Sunday, Nov. 11, 2018 at the Coliseum in Los Angeles, Calif. (Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
Among the most critical:
* After Seattle had retaken the lead at 21-20 late in the third quarter, it forced the Rams into a third-and-15 from their own 46. Inexplicably, receiver Robert Woods broke wide open against Seattle’s zone to catch a 35-yard pass — the second time in two weeks Seattle has given up a third-and-15 or longer — leading to a touchdown two plays later that put the Rams ahead for good.
“Oh we just screwed up the zone drop,” Carroll said. “Just busted the drop. Bit on the wrong route. Just a fundamental error. Just screwed it up. That should never have happened, but it did.”
