The Seattle Seahawks are in freefall following their embarrassing 23-13 loss to the injury-riddled Arizona Cardinals, who were without star quarterback Kyler Murray and wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins among others. This is the first time in a decade that the Seahawks are four games below .500, and the writing is on the wall for this season as well as head coach Pete Carroll’s future.
Carroll, who shares the brunt of the blame for the defeat, told reporters that the team had an urgent meeting spearheaded by their most vocal leaders among the players.
“It was interesting to hear, when guys get a chance to speak up a little bit, and some of the leaders had an opportunity make sure that everybody’s on the same page, just to reinforce that this is a team and we’re playing together and we’re going to go through this—the challenges that we’re facing—together and that we need to do it in really good fashion and we need to be on it,” Carroll said. “And we don’t have a moment to waste, and we’ve got to maximize every opportunity to be at our best, and on and on and on. It was really impressive.”
Carroll continued, stating that the players took accountability and collectively committed to adjustment and improvement over the next seven weeks.
“So, where we are is we’ve got a challenge that we’re facing that we’ve got to turn,” he said. “We want to turn this thing as fast as we can. All resources obviously are being tapped into, there will be always some subtle adjustments that we do to try to make some changes and get better. Really, everybody was really accountable and did a nice job owning it and being responsible for the change too. How positive can it be? I don’t know after this, but the guys are really turning to doing things right and getting better this week.”
The Seahawks are not officially eliminated from postseason contention yet, but their chances are slim to none at this point. Despite this, Carroll emphasized that the players and coaches are taking things one week at a time like they always do, focusing on rebounding from this difficult stretch and blocking out the noise.
“We’ve always lost games and have had difficult times, how we bounced back is really what I go to,” Carroll said. “In that, I always try to emphasize is it isn’t about what just happened, it’s about what’s coming up next, so you get your focus in connection with the opportunity. That’s really what it has been. It doesn’t matter how much the losses come to you, you still have to respond in the same fashion to get back on course with what you are capable of doing.”
The Seahawks will play the Washington Football Team on Monday Night Football next week seeking to salvage their seemingly irreparable season. The game will take place at FedExField at 5:15 p.m. PT.
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