Seahawks can still make playoffs, but they don’t play like they deserve to

The playoffs remain a slender mathematical possibility for the Seahawks, but that has become a false idol for a team that recedes farther and farther each week.

Here’s the harsh reality: The Seahawks simply aren’t good enough right now for that conversation.

On Thursday, under circumstances that once comprised their wheelhouse — national television, home crowd, must-win scenario — the Seahawks lost to the 49ers, 21-13, a score that doesn’t accurately reflect the power differential in this game.

Pete Carroll used to turn opportunities like this into a motivational tour de force, but for several weeks now he’s been unable to find the message that resonates — even though he was fully prepared for a positive outcome on Thursday at Lumen Field.

“This was a classic opportunity in the division,” Carroll said. “Everything was really there for us to have a great night.”

Indeed, Carroll said that he was so keyed into a season-turning victory that he had prepared his postgame message for just that eventuality. But the Seahawks have shown that wishing it, even willing it, is no match for executing the plays, and avoiding the mistakes, that fuel victories. They didn’t do enough of either.

Instead, the Seahawks dropped to .500 on the season, with a daunting Christmas Eve game in Kansas City next on the agenda. They close out the season with two ostensibly winnable games against the Jets and Rams — but at this point, no victory can be assumed.

“I told these guys in there that I really love this team,” Carroll said afterward. “And I like what they bring and how they go about their work and the attitude, the mentality of it. And I wanted so much for this week to be a reward that they could really take something to help us take the next step. And I had it all planned. I had figured out what to say to them and everything. It just didn’t happen. So maybe it’s next week.”

The Seahawks are running out of next weeks. In the larger picture, a .500 record represents an overachievement from the expectations with which they entered the season. But it is a massive letdown after the four-game winning streak that put them in such a favorable playoff position. Now their playoff hopes rest mainly on the collective stumbles of their competition, barring a huge upset next week.

Don’t let that one-possession score fool you, either. Did you ever once feel like the Seahawks were in position to win this game, even after they scored with 3:35 to play to cut the 49ers’ lead to eight? I didn’t, but perhaps the last five weeks — four of them losses by Seattle, three against teams that on paper at least they should have handled — have made me jaded.

The 49ers largely dominated despite the closeness of the score. They had a pick-six thrown by Geno Smith taken away on a dubious roughing-the-passer call on what appeared to be a valid sack by Nick Bosa. They had a 55-yard run by Jordan Mason to the Seahawks’ 2 in the final seconds, then took a knee rather than risk a fumble in an effort to tack on another touchdown.

The Seahawks plugged one hole, more or less, with a mostly stout effort stopping the 49ers rushing attack — at least until that final Mason run. Up to that point, they had allowed only 115 yards on the ground on 31 carries, a 3.7 average. That’s stellar work compared to the way the Seahawks had been gouged on the ground over the past month.

But the Seahawks even got their offense untracked against a 49ers defense that may be the league’s best and now face a future without injured receiver Tyler Lockett, who broke a finger.

Smith was under duress for much of the night, sacked three times and forced to hurry his throws on numerous occasions. The running game again never got untracked, although it was improved with the return of Kenneth Walker III.

At one point in the second half, Smith’s frustration was visible to the point that Carroll talked to him on the sideline and asked Smith if he had “10 to 12 plays in him to kick ass and do things right and execute down the stretch. And then he went right back out there and came right back to balance. That’s a beautiful message that he sent.”

Smith said, “I’m out there playing as hard as I can. I get frustrated at times. I’m human. Because I want to win. It’s never a negative thing. My frustration is never negative because I see the positives. I see the greatness in us. And I just want us to get to that point, I want us to reach our full potential. And that’s all it is.”

The Seahawks needed nearly a perfect game to beat a more talented 49ers team, and they fell short of that standard. In the first half, a dropped Quandre Diggs interception proved costly. A fumble by Travis Homer on a thunderous Dre Greenlaw hit proved even more so, leading to a quick Christian McCaffrey touchdown with just 47 seconds left in the first half. That swing, in retrospect, was the death knell for the Seahawks.

Until that point, it looked as if the Seahawks were going to weather a statistically dominating first half by the 49ers and come away either with a lead or trailing by less than a touchdown. Part of that was due to an inexplicable decision by 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan to punt on fourth-and-2 from Seattle’s 42 when the Seahawks had shown little indication they could stop them.

Now the Seahawks’ margin for error keeps dwindling to the point it’s barely existent.

“Where we picture this season ending up is a place that we’re going to be really proud of if we can pull it off,” Carroll said. “It’s going to be hard. But that doesn’t mean we can’t do it.”

Said Diggs: “We are at that point we either go up or we go down. One of those crossroads. Do you want to finish and go to playoffs, or finish and go home?”

The Seahawks need a seismic transformation to change the direction they’re headed.