Playoff chances slip away

SEATTLE – Progress is still an option for the Seahawks. The playoffs, however, are not.

After a disappointing first half of the season, the Seahawks put together an impressive run with five wins in six weeks that improbably put them in the hunt for a wild-card berth. But those postseason dreams were dashed Saturday in a 19-17 loss to the San Francisco 49ers at CenturyLink Field.

But while players were disappointed by the result and what it meant to their postseason hopes, they remained encouraged by what has taken place over the past two months. Safety Earl Thomas spent several minutes at his locker with his head in his hands, clearly upset with a game he felt his team should have won, but not long after, he was upbeat about the bright future he sees for the Seahawks.

“Today we had it and we let it slip away,” Thomas said. “But we’re young and we’re going to learn from these hard lessons. The ball can’t keep going the other way. Eventually, it’s going to go our way. I’m proud of everybody as we get ready for this next week.”

Pete Carroll, despite missing out on a chance to get to the playoffs for the second time in as many years as Seahawks head coach, was equally optimistic.

“We’ve come a long ways,” he said. “We’ve really come a long ways. … Our football team is so much different than we were early on.”

All that being said, it was ultimately a disappointing day for a team looking to improve to 8-7 to stay in the hunt for a playoff berth. The Seahawks had a lead early against the 49ers, they ran the ball against the league’s best rushing defense, and they made a huge play on special teams late in the game. But that wasn’t enough to overcome a goal-line miscue, a poor offensive second half, and a costly fumble by Tarvaris Jackson. 

In a game that eventually settled into the defensive battle everyone was expecting, Seattle came out guns blazing on the opening drive, quickly moving 80 yards to take a 7-0 lead on a 13-yard pass from Jackson to Doug Baldwin, who no doubt took extra enjoyment from scoring against his former college coach, Jim Harbaugh, the coach of the 49ers.

Seattle’s lead was 10-3 at halftime but could have been bigger. Facing third-and-1, the Seahawks gained nothing on a broken play that featured players from both teams stopping because they thought there was a false start on the play. That meant a field goal instead of a potential touchdown, four points that could have been the difference in a tight game.

The 49ers seemed to gain momentum from that strange ending to the half, and opened the second half with a 75-yard scoring drive, punctuated by a 4-yard Frank Gore touchdown run. Seattle’s offense, meanwhile, went dormant, gaining 13 yards in the third quarter. After a pair of field goals, the 49ers led 16-10 and had sucked the life out of CenturyLink Field.

“That really killed us,” center Max Unger said. “They scored twice and then after that it was just too little, too late.”

A blocked punt by Heath Farwell gave Seattle life, however, and a 4-yard touchdown run by Marshawn Lynch was the first against the 49ers this season. Lynch, who finished with 107 yards, also became the first back to rush for 100 yards against the 49ers in 36 games.

Despite all of their struggles, the Seahawks had a 17-16 lead late in the game. That didn’t last long, because the 49ers, behind a 41-yard Michael Crabtree catch, kicked the go-ahead field goal with 2:57 remaining.

That put the ball back in the hands of Jackson and the offense with plenty of time to drive for the go-ahead score. On third-and-3 from the San Francisco 48, Jackson tried to scramble for the first down after avoiding the initial pass rush, but he didn’t see linebacker Larry Grant closing from behind and was stripped of the ball.

“I’ve got to be able to protect the ball a little bit more if I’m going to try to make that play,” Jackson said.

Seattle got one final chance, getting the ball back on its 26-yard line with 41 seconds remaining, but the Seahawks only got as far as their 34 before turning the ball over on downs.

Seattle finishes its season in Arizona next week and can improve to 8-8 with a win, which would be an improvement over last year’s 7-9 record.

But progress or not, Saturday’s game will be another one that got away from a team that came into the day still dreaming of the playoffs.