RENTON — Having to wait longer than any other team to learn they’d made the playoffs, and then being handed the earliest possible start time in the postseason, meant there wasn’t a lot of time for taking victory laps at the VMAC on Monday.
Especially with the Seahawks getting as challenging a matchup as there could be, on the road against a 49ers team that has won 10 in a row and was immediately installed as a 10-point favorite. Kickoff is Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.
“We’re going to try to do something with it,” Seattle coach Pete Carroll said of the postseason berth the Seahawks landed Sunday. “Unfortunately we’re playing the Niners and they are loaded and healthy and on a roll and about as hot as you can possibly get.”
But despite the work that remains this week, Carroll took a little time to reflect Monday on what the Seahawks have accomplished during his 13 years as coach — and doing so on what was the 13-year anniversary of the day it was first reported he had agreed to leave USC to come to Seattle.
Carroll said at the time of his hiring by the Seahawks he thought “we have about three years to try this out to see if we can pull it off.”
Seattle achieving both its 10th winning season and 10th playoff berth in his 13 seasons on Sunday allowed Carroll to say “we’re doing OK.”
“That’s what winning is, is you keep coming back and keep proving who you are, no matter what the challenges are, you can keep finding a way to be successful,” Carroll said. “That’s success to me. That’s what you’re looking for.”
And doing so this season may have been more gratifying than ever given the perception of the team in the wake of the trade of Russell Wilson and release of Bobby Wagner in March.
Asked if he liked the challenge of trying to build a winner with a lot of new parts, Carroll nodded.
“I didn’t do it for that reason,” Carroll said. “I didn’t think I needed a kick in the butt to get fired up. But it was a natural challenge. There’s a lot more unknown. That’s what the experienced guys give you, more of the known stuff. And as you transition you have to figure it out. It’s enthralling for me to try to find the ways to make sense to put together what you’ve got to put together and to match it up right and try to minimize the false steps and the miscues that get in the way. And it’s more likely when you’re younger that stuff’s going to happen.”
That youth (six draft picks playing substantially) and newness — which included transitioning to a new defensive scheme featuring more 3-4 looks — caught up to the Seahawks at times, notably in home losses to non-playoff teams Carolina, Atlanta and Las Vegas.
The Panthers and Raiders defeats were part of a late-season swoon of five losses in six games that threatened to quash all the optimism engendered during Seattle’s 6-3 start. The Seahawks, in fact, entered the final weekend with just a 22% chance of making the playoffs, via FiveThirtyEight.com.
But Sunday night, there the Seahawks were, back in the postseason, thanks to their first comeback this year when trailing entering the fourth quarter — and what was just Detroit’s fourth win at Green Bay in 31 years.
“We love the Lions,” Carroll said, adding “we’re all excited about the fact the way the day turned out yesterday.”
But if Sunday turned out to be one of the more fun days the organization had had in a few years, Carroll insisted it didn’t have to be that way.
“I think it’s been really frustrating,” Carroll said. “We were close enough to win two or three more games anyway. And it would have been a whole lot different last night if we would have done that. One game would have made a difference. As much as the outlook from the outside was different than what ours is, we expect to do more. It’s good to have a winning record. But ‘let’s go out and have a winning record’ — that’s not my goal. That’s not what I’m reaching out for.
“We’re fortunate that we got it done under the circumstances and all that. We’ll take it. But we had higher expectations.”
Baker Mayfield pass ‘could have got in there’
The Seahawks might have been cleaning out their lockers Monday instead of preparing for the playoffs if safety Quandre Diggs had not picked off a deep pass from Baker Mayfield intended for Van Jefferson in overtime.
Diggs said later of the Rams play that “they drew it up perfectly. They had us in a coverage where they wanted us.”
That allowed Jefferson to become “wide open. … In my mind, I was thinking the worst,” Diggs said.
The ball hung up a bit, giving Diggs time to race from the middle of the field to the visiting sideline to pick it off.
Monday, after reviewing the film, Carroll agreed that the play could easily have gone the Rams’ way.
“Baker is able to hold a football for a guy to run a 20-something-yard deep corner route,” Carroll said. “It’s not the first time anybody’s ever run the route. It just takes a lot of time to get it done. And there was enough time for it to spread to where the play became the free safety’s play to make. And (Seahawks cornerback) Tariq (Woolen) was occupied with the comeback on the sidelines there. And so he (Diggs) had to feel it. And he got enough flight time on the ball that he made a great play on it. But there’s some space in there — the ball could have got in there.”
Ryan Neal, Phil Haynes could make it back
Safety Ryan Neal (knee) missed his third game Sunday and guard Phil Haynes (ankle) also sat out after being injured in the Jan. 1 win over the Jets. With Neal out, Johnathan Abram again started at strong safety. And with Haynes out, Gabe Jackson took every snap at right guard for the first time since the fourth game of the year. The two have since rotated.
Carroll said each could be back for Saturday. Carroll said Neal is “making progress. It’s going to be a race to see what happens. But he was pretty positive.”
As for Haynes, Carroll said he will “have a chance.”
Notes
— Seattle did not suffer any injuries in the game that were officially announced in the press box. But Woolen (ankle), defensive lineman Shelby Harris and running back DeeJay Dallas all left and then returned. Carroll indicated all will be OK this week, saying, “There’s hope they can make it through, but we’ve got to wait and see. Tariq had a couple of things he was banged on. And we saw Shelby got hit on the thigh or something like that. And so did DeeJay. Just got to wait and see.”