Officiating left Seahawks blue

CLEVELAND – Leon Washington didn’t have the chance to be elated. He saw the flag before he reached the end zone on his 81-yard punt return in the third quarter Sunday.

“I looked back about the 15-yard line and saw the flag,” he said.

Kennard Cox was penalized for a block to the back of the Browns’ Kevin Dockery.

Replays showed it was questionable how much contact there was on the play. Instead of a touchdown, Seattle had the ball at its 45.

As Washington left the locker room after the game, he said he was waiting to take another look at the play.

“I haven’t seen the TV copy yet,” Washington said. “I’ll be interested to see it. See what actually happened on the play.”

It was one of several questionable calls in the game. Safety Kam Chancellor was penalized 15 yards for unnecessary roughness for leading with his helmet on a play where he did not appear to hit quarterback Colt McCoy with his helmet first.

Seahawks coach Pete Carroll was asked about the officiating afterward.

“In this game, those calls were magnified,” he said. “I kind of hope they were right. I hope they made the right choices on those things, because it’s pretty hard to live with otherwise.”

Did the officiating potentially cost Seattle the game?

“I don’t look at it that way,” Carroll said. “In this game there are factors … we didn’t take care of business.”