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The Seattle Seahawks narrowly defeated the Los Angeles Rams 19-16 in overtime to finish the regular season 9-8. They have a chance at the playoffs, but their fate ultimately lies in the hands of the Detroit Lions. However, it wouldn’t have mattered if they’d lost to the Rams.
“We put everything we had into it,” coach Pete Carroll said after the game. “We treated this game like this was the biggest game we could ever play, and if we get a chance, we’ll do that for the next one.”
The Seahawks were expected to be among the worst teams in the NFL following their 7-10 record in 2021 and the trade of quarterback Russell Wilson to the Broncos. Yet, in the end, the Seahawks proved just about everyone wrong. Playoffs or not, Seattle showed it was a more than capable team. While the 12th Man may be thrilled at how this year played out overall, Carroll did express nonfulfillment in how the season finished.
“I’m glad we had a winning record and that we gave ourselves a chance, but that’s not what my expectations are,” Carroll elaborated. “I’m frustrated by this season. Where you all thought ‘oh we did a lot of cool things and all that’ I don’t feel like that, I feel like we missed our chance. We had five, six games there we could have easily won, one way or the other and didn’t.”
In reality, Carroll is right. The Seahawks lost all four games to the NFC South, the worst division in football. The Buccaneers won it at 8-9, becoming the fourth team in NFL history to win a division with a sub-.500 record. All four losses were one-score defeats as well.
While Carroll might be rightly frustrated, the Seahawks did accomplish much more than anyone outside of their team facility in Renton thought they could. Playoffs or not, Carroll did share thoughts on how this team can build on their success for the 2023 season.
“We’re going to take the culture we created with us. I’ve been around a bunch of teams and this is exactly the mentality that we need moving forward to do some great stuff. This is a championship team,” Carroll proudly stated. “The heart, the togetherness, the willingness to work, we make our own attitude. We create our own attitude.”
Carroll continued by saying the team needs to get a little more experience and be a team that executes better but ended with optimism.
“We’re in a pretty good place right now.”
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