Falcons Drop Seahawks Playoff Hopes All But Over
The Seattle Seahawks hired a special teams consultant last week.
After a 24-17 loss to the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday in the Kingdome, expect a few Seahawks to consult their travel agents.
Seattle’s playoff plans ended as they started in August, with a flat performance against a mediocre foe in front of an uninspired crowd (52,584). With a 6-7 record and a three-game skid, the Seahawks are saying an early goodbye to a possible postseason appearance and an early hello to an off-season of evaluation and probable change.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever been so disappointed in my coaching career as this game,” said Seahawks coach Dennis Erickson, assured of his third consecutive non-playoff season. “We had chances. And we had an opportunity to stay in the playoff race and we didn’t take advantage of it. There’s no damn excuse for it.”
The Falcons took the fight out of the Seahawks early, scoring 17 unanswered points in the first 25-1/2 minutes. As they have all season, special teams had their fingerprints on the loss. They allowed 198 return yards, including a 93-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to Byron Hanspard. The Seahawks’ average drive start was their own 23, while the Falcons’ average start was their 38, a 15-yard difference.
Atlanta quarterback Chris Chandler completed four of five passes during a 67-yard touchdown march after the opening kickoff. New Seattle punter Rohn Stark had a 41-yard punt returned 28 yards to put the Falcons in position for a 20-yard touchdown pass to halfback Jamal Anderson.
Falcons coach Dan Reeves settled for an 18-yard field goal with 5:30 remaining in the second quarter when the defense woke up and had a goal-line stand at the Seahawks’ 1.
“When you get yourself in a 17-0 hole, it’s almost too much to ask to play a perfect game the rest of the way,” guard Pete Kendall said. “Certainly, we didn’t play a perfect game the rest of the way. We played real bad in the first half.”
The league’s top passing offense waited until the final three minutes of the first half just to make its third first down. The Seattle defense, which entered the game ranked eighth in the NFL, allowed 244 yards (including 186 passing) in the first half.
“That’s not the NFL’s best offense over there,” Seahawks linebacker Chad Brown said. “We’ve got to find a way to stop those guys. The way we did it in the first half was not acceptable, especially myself.”
Said free safety Darryl Williams: “We can’t just play 30 minutes … They had the field position the first half. When you get the ball on the 45- or 50-yard line, the offense doesn’t have to go 80 yards. But we didn’t make the plays when we had to.”
Ever since taking over for injured John Friesz at halftime of the season-opening loss to the New York Jets, Moon has worked from behind. He has thrown 292 of his 484 passes while trailing.
A 68-yard drive, capped by a 16-yard touchdown pass to Joey Galloway before the half, cut the margin to 17-7. Moon generated a 65-yard drive, finished by a 20-yard touchdown pass to Steve Broussard, to cut the margin to 17-14 with 8:07 left in the third.
Special teams coach Dave Arnold’s charges then did the worst possible job of kickoff coverage at the worst possible time. Falcons halfback Hanspard gathered in a well-placed kick that had a more-than-adequate hang time of 4.28 seconds and ran through the coverage unit for 93 yards.
The Falcons had a 24-14 lead and seemed to kill all momentum for the Seahawks.
“We missed three or four tackles,” Erickson said. “That’s what happened. We had guys down there. You look at it on the photographs afterwards. We had four guys in the lane. We had it covered. We missed tackles. That’s inexcusable.”
That return sucked the remaining life out of the Seahawks’ determination to reach the playoffs. Todd Peterson put his right foot too far under a 48-yard field goal attempt and watched it clang off the crossbar. Sure-handed Joey Galloway dropped a key third-down pass in the final minute, though no defender was near him.