Seahawks Instant Reaction: 710 ESPN Seattle on 20-10 loss to Rams

Penalties and trouble on offense held back the Seahawks on Tuesday night as they fell on the road to the Los Angeles Rams 20-10, falling to 5-9 and guaranteeing the franchise’s first losing season since 2011.

Hawks fall to Rams | 5 Moments Sink Hawks | Rost: It’s been that kind of year

As we do after every Seahawks game, we have collected the instant reactions from the voices of 710 ESPN Seattle. See what they have to say below, and tune in Wednesday for full Seahawks coverage starting with The Mike Salk Show at 6 a.m. and The Pete Carroll Show at 9:30.

Mike Salk – The Mike Salk Show

The Seahawks are not going to make the playoffs this year. That was probably set in stone before the loss to LA, but it was abundantly clear afterwards. And yet the game that sealed their fate may have provided the most hope in months.

Getting beat stinks, but the odds were stacked up against them. They were frustrated by the decision to postpone the game from Sunday to Tuesday. They were frustrated to have to play without Tyler Lockett, Kerry Hyder, Brandon Shell and others. They were frustrated by two abysmal calls that clearly changed the complexion of the game. And yet they kept coming and forced us all to see that they aren’t miles behind the Rams or anyone else.

It’s easy to talk big after a loss like this one.

“The Seahawks should trade Russ, DK and Bobby, and start over.”

“They should can Pete and find the next McVay.”

“The Seahawks need to make sweeping changes in their front office.”

You’ll hear it all this week. Some if it may even be true.

But this is not the week to make decisions like that. It is, however, a key data point as you try to determine what happens next.

Tonight reaffirmed that Pete Carroll can lead. It reaffirmed that you can’t survive without a top-tier quarterback playing at an elite level. And that when you don’t have as much talent as your opponent, you are at the mercy of a few bad calls making all the difference.

I wouldn’t make any decisions this week if I was in charge. But I’d sure be looking real hard at those three facts as I got ready to make them this offseason.

Bob Stelton – Wyman and Bob

If I want to watch an event with a predetermined outcome, I will watch pro wrestling. I don’t need that in the NFL.

Anybody who has listened to our show or heard me over the years knows I am loathe to blame officiating for the final outcome of games or imply that there is an any sort of bias. But it is hard not to after watching this embarrassing display by this officiating crew tonight. The NFL should be absolutely embarrassed, but my guess is that they won’t considering this game was shown to about 30% of the country.

I won’t relive every call here; we are all aware of how costly they were. As far as the game goes, this team played hard on both sides. The defense, while losing the time of possession battle again and giving up a bunch of yards, did a nice job for most of the night limiting the damage of that explosive Rams offense. Unfortunately when they failed, it resulted in points for LA.

The Seahawks’ offensive line, which has struggled all year, did a pretty nice job for most of this game giving Russell Wilson as much time as he could possibly need. The problem: Russell just had a flat-out bad game. He was 17 of 31 on the night, looked like he had happy feet and just uncomfortable. He under-threw a wide-open DK Metcalf on a play that most certainly would have resulted in a touchdown.

The Seahawks’ playoff chances going into this game were minuscule. After this loss, that door has pretty much slammed shut. So now we just watch and see who wants to be here going into next season, and I believe they will make that clear in the remaining games this year.

The Groz – Host emeritus, 710 ESPN Seattle

Just a crushing loss tonight in LA as the Seahawks will now have their first losing season in 10 years.

In this case, the Seahawks are justified in looking at the officials. The no-call on DeeJay Dallas was one of the worst I’ve seen. It truly changed the game.

The defense was stout and impressive, but Russell Wilson was not. He wasn’t accurate when he had the opportunities. The Seahawks missed Tyler Lockett, obviously.

What now for the Seahawks, as for the first time in the Pete Carroll era the team really did not live up to expectations. Jody Allen fired Terry Stotts in Portland when the Trail Blazers couldn’t get out of the first round.

After a 12-4 season a year ago, this was expected to be a year when the Hawks contended for a Super Bowl. They traded much of their future for it. Instead, they are likely to lose more then 10 games.

Mike Lefko – Wyman and Bob

A couple of poor calls against the Seahawks late in the game will leave you with a sour taste, but this one ultimately came down to the offense being unable to move the ball after the opening drive of the second half. Tyler Lockett’s absence was certainly felt as the offense limped along to just 23 total yards on the four drives after the touchdown to start the second half. That isn’t going to win many football games, especially not against a team like the Rams.

Credit goes to the defense, which played admirably for an undermanned unit that was painfully thin in the secondary. Carlos Dunlap’s three-sack performance was terrific to see and channeled shades of what he did last season. Add in the sack by Rasheem Green and you have to think this was one of, if not the best showing by the defensive line this season.

This one is frustrating because it felt winnable for awhile. The Seahawks had their opportunities, and some uncharacteristic misses on deep balls by Russell Wilson underscored just how strange this season has been on a lot of fronts. The first losing season since 2011 marks a strange and uncertain time right now for the Seahawks, and there might not be any easy answers after this one.

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