{"numbering":"no_numbering","slides":[{"title":"Another underwhelming finish","image":"https://www.nbcsports.com/sites/rsnunited/files/slide/image/RW1.png","credit":"Getty Images","published":1610303742,"caption":"

Let’s not mince words here: The Rams whooped the Seahawks on Saturday in the Wild Card Round of the NFL playoffs. The comprehensive beatdown may have marked a new low point in Pete Carroll’s tenure as Seattle’s head coach.

So much went awry in the 30-20 loss that it’s easy to forget about singular points of ineptitude, of which there were many. But it’s important to make note of the regrettable trends that have been a staple in Seattle’s most notable losses in recent memory.

Let’s put some disclaimers out here before we go any further. While much of this has to do with Carroll, he wasn’t solely to blame. Russell Wilson and Briand Schottenheimer also shoulder their fair share. But Carroll is the head coach and heavy lies the crown. Carroll is also a tremendous coach, as he’s shown year-after-year in what has been one of the most successful runs in the NFL over the last decade.

The Achilles heels of Carroll-coached teams are unmistakable, though, and here we are talking about them after another underwhelming finish to an otherwise promising 2020 campaign. Here are three of Seattle’s fatal flaws and how they impacted Saturday’s loss to Los Angeles.

"},{"title":"1. Infuriatingly slow starts","image":"https://www.nbcsports.com/sites/rsnunited/files/slide/image/RW3-2.png","credit":"Getty Images","published":1610302779,"caption":"

The Seahawks have faced a halftime deficit in each of their last five playoff losses. Here’s a look at all five:

2020: 20-10 vs. Rams

2019: 21-3 @ Packers

2018: 10-6 @ Cowboys

2017: (no playoffs)

2016: 19-10 @ Falcons

2015: 31-0 @ Panthers

That doesn’t include being down 16-0 against the Packers in the 2014 NFC Championship Game that the Seahawks were veryfortunate to win. It’s also worth mentioning that Seattle trailed the Falcons, 20-0, in the 2012 Divisional Round.

For as impressively resilient that the Seahawks have been under Carroll (one of their premier traits), this continues to be a back-breaking trend given how much the leader at halftime is indicative of who wins the game. Entering 2020, Russell Wilson had never lost a game when leading by at least four points at halftime. Sean McVay has notably never lost a game as a head coach when going into the locker room with a first half advantage.

Seattle’s ability to erase late-game deficits has made them far too comfortable with getting into an early hole. Carroll loves to tell us that you can’t win a game until the fourth quarter, but his Seahawks have lost many important matchups over the first 30 minutes.

"},{"title":"2. Mind-numbing challenges","image":"https://www.nbcsports.com/sites/rsnunited/files/slide/image/GettyImages-1295555466.jpg","credit":"Getty Images","published":1610302916,"caption":"

Many of you have likely forgotten about Carroll’s baffling challenge in the first half of Saturday’s loss. He threw the red flag after a play in which Jared Goff escaped the pocket and found Cam Akers near the right sideline. Akers sprinted away from Seattle’s defense for a 44-yard gain that led to his own 5-yard touchdown run. The score was an immediate response to DK Metcalf’s 51-yard touchdown catch.

Carroll contested that Goff was past the line of scrimmage when he threw the football. It was a ridiculous claim, even by Carroll’s standards. You can see why in this tweet.

Carroll is a big “throw the flag and then who knows what could happen” guy. But too regularly that results in wasted challenges and timeouts. This decision is way down the list of reasons why the Seahawks lost to the Rams, but it doesn’t make the decision any more palatable.

"},{"title":"3. Minimal urgency in regard to game and clock management","image":"https://www.nbcsports.com/sites/rsnunited/files/slide/image/CarrolSH.png","credit":"","published":1610302983,"caption":"

This one may have had a few Seahawks fans throwing their TVs out the window. Seattle trailed 23-13 with 9:32 left in the fourth quarter, facing 4th-and-1 from their own 34-yard line. Damien Lewis went down injured on Chris Carson’s third down run in which he got stuffed for no gain.

Lewis’ injury gave Seattle extra time to come up with a plan for fourth down without actually having to burn a timeout. And yet, inexplicably, the Seahawks offense got out of the huddle with just five seconds left on the play clock and got flagged for a false start just before the clock hit zero. Carroll then sent the punt team onto the field instead of going for it on 4th-and-6.

His explanation was even more bewildering than the lack of basic execution.

“We were talking it over and discussing plays and I kind of got in the middle of it and then we just got late. That’s why we wound up jumping and screwed up. It just wasn’t clear enough. That’s one play. We didn’t function the way we needed to.”

You may have asked yourself why Carroll didn’t call timeout in order to preserve an opportunity to keep the football while trailing by two scores with the season on the line. Great question, though the answer might make you feel worse.

“We thought we were going to get (the play) off, but honestly, right there, I could have called timeout. I realized it, I could see where it was going and I didn’t mind that we were going to have to kick the football. That was not a bad choice there.”

But it absolutely was a bad choice, and it emphasized Carroll’s conservative tendencies once again. Why was using one timeout in order to keep the football not a worthwhile trade? Carroll was going to have to use those timeouts on defense at some point any way in order to get the ball back. Try as he might, there’s no rationalizing the decision to concede a possession in the fourth quarter of a playoff game that you trail by 10 points, especially with Cam Akers averaging 4.7 yards per carry.

Wilson needs to have more awareness and urgency there as well. In Year 9, shrugging your shoulders and pointing to the coaching staff isn’t an adequate alibi for the star QB.

“We have so many clock opportunities that you don’t even mention because they work out fine, but there are times where you don’t quite hit it as clean as you want,” Carroll went on to explain. “We always want to do all of those perfectly.”

Again, Carroll showed to be far too casual about the self-induced blunder. Remember it was just last year in Week 17 when the Seahawks were 1-yard away from winning the NFC West before they took a delay of game penalty from the 49ers goal line.

It’s truly hard to fathom.

Tip your cap to the Rams as they were clearly the superior team on Saturday. But Seahawks fans deserve to be upset for having to watch the same script play out year-after-year while their capable team falls short of its ultimate goal.

"}]}

3 of the Seahawks signature flaws showed themselves again in loss to Rams