Clayton: Seahawks season now really lost after late collapse vs Bears

The season was lost before the Seahawks played the Chicago Bears on Sunday, but now it’s really lost.

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The Bears came back and beat Seattle 25-24, and now the Seahawks rank among the worst teams in the NFL with a 5-10 record. Even a win over the Detroit Lions next Sunday wouldn’t save much.

This was a Bears team that should have lost to the Seahawks. They entered the game without their two best quarterbacks, Andy Dalton and Justin Fields, so they had to rely on third-string QB Nick Foles. Three other players were injured heading into the game, and three more got injured during it. They have seven on the reserve/COVID-19 list, including two of the team’s best players: wide receiver Allen Robinson and defensive tackle Akiem Hicks.

Head coach Matt Nagy could have lost his job if the Bears didn’t win. They came back to take the lead with 1:01 left, however, to match the Seahawks at 5-10 this season.

Once again, self-inflected wounds killed the Seahawks. Kicker Jason Myers missed a key field goal that could have given the Seahawks a comfortable 10-point lead in the fourth quarter, which came one play after a sack of Russell Wilson pushed Seattle back 13 yards. The Seahawks also made untimely holding penalties, false starts and other mistakes.

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Russell Wilson still isn’t up to his usual standards. It looks as though that is going to be something that won’t go away this season.

Part of the problem Sunday is the Seahawks didn’t get the ball enough to DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett. Metcalf had a 41-yard touchdown catch in the first quarter yet had only more catch and no more yards the rest of the day. Lockett had three receptions for just 30 yards after missing last Tuesday’s loss to the Rams while on the COVID list.

As a result of the loss to Chicago, the Seahawks wasted a great running day by Rashaad Penny. He’s averaged over 100 yards a game over the past three weeks, twice rushing over 130 yards in that span. That’s as good as it gets.

Defensively, the Seahawks did well until late in the game. I’m still amazed the Seahawks haven’t played defensive end Carlos Dunlap more. He has five sacks in his last two games and is now tied for the team lead with 6.5 sacks, with all but 0.5 coming this month. He’s been great in the limited time he’s been out there.

But even with those recent positives, the Seahawks are 5-10 and headed to their worst record by win percentage in their 12 seasons under Carroll. They went 7-9 (.438) in both 2010 and 2011, his first two seasons in Seattle, and the best they can do now is 7-10 (.412) in the first year of the NFL’s new 17-game schedule.

It’s just been a lost season.

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