By all measurable accounts, the Seattle Seahawks are one of the more successful franchises in the NFL. Throughout the 2010s, only the New England Patriots won more games.
Seattle claimed two NFC Championships, a Super Bowl XLVIII title, and is one of only three NFC teams (alongside the Giants and Rams, who played in January of 2000) to participate in three Super Bowls in the 21st Century.
Due to eight double-digit win seasons in the last 11 years, the Seahawks have become a recurring guest in the playoffs. Unfortunately, they aren’t staying long at the party, as they routinely are falling short of their “Super” expectations in recent years.
During the first three years of the Pete Carroll/Russell Wilson era, the Seahawks earned an enviable 6-2 record in the postseason, a World Championship, and became one of only nine franchises in league history to achieve consecutive trips to the Super Bowl.
However, since their loss in Super Bowl XLIX, the Seahawks have posted a rather lousy 3-5 record in January football. Making matters worse, when examining their three wins, they are not nearly that impressive.
- 2015 Wild Card – won 10-9 at Vikings, with the infamous Blair Walsh missed game-winning kick.
- 2016 Wild Card – won 26-6 home against Lions, with quarterback Matt Stafford dealing with broken fingers in his throwing hand.
- 2019 Wild Card – won 17-9 at Eagles, with quarterback Carson Wentz leaving after two series due to a concussion.
Despite all the seasons of impressive regular season wins sowed by Hall of Fame-caliber talent on both sides of the ball – along with great coaching and elite management – the only success Seattle has reaped has been three measly playoff wins against inferior opponents who literally failed to even find the end zone.
This is a problem, because when the Seahawks have played quality teams who manage to actually score touchdowns, they are 0-5 in their last five playoff games with these conditions, even resulting in blowout losses.
Seattle fell 36-20 to the Falcons in the 2016 divisional round, and 30-20 to the Rams this past weekend. In both instances, the Seahawks got garbage time scores to make the final outcome look closer than it was.
Even in the losses that ended up being one score games, the Seahawks still found themselves down 18 points to the Packers, behind 31 points to the Panthers, and trailed by 10 points to the Cowboys with under two minutes to spare.
In each of these losses, it’s the same story. The offense takes too long to find its footing, the defense can’t come up with the crucial stop late, and the team hardly looks prepared which falls squarely on coaching.
Winning in the NFL is hard. There is no dispute. I am not suggesting Seattle should be in the Super Bowl every year, but the Seahawks are too talented, too well-coached, and too well managed to keep routinely falling short of the goal with the exact same result each season – a first or second-round playoff loss where they look completely outclassed in every respect.
Something has to change if the Seahawks still want to capitalize with Russell Wilson, Pete Carroll, and a solid core around them still on the team.
