Arrow-right Camera
Subscribe now
Seattle Seahawks

Seattle collapses late again in 27-23 loss to Carolina

Tim Booth Associated Press

SEATTLE – Richard Sherman and Earl Thomas exchanged baffled looks. They were unsure what happened other than seeing Greg Olsen standing in the end zone celebrating a winning touchdown.

After a week of vowing the fourth-quarter collapses were over, the Seahawks crumpled once again.

“It’s very frustrating, especially when you know we had them,” Thomas said. “We don’t (stink). We know who we are. We’re not finishing. We know we’re going to be in those pressure situations every game.”

Cam Newton was the culprit this time, leading a pair of long fourth-quarter touchdown drives and capping Carolina’s rally with a 26-yard touchdown pass to Olsen with 32 seconds left in the Panthers’ 27-23 win over Seattle on Sunday.

It was the second straight loss for the Seahawks (2-4), who are facing a climb beyond just correcting their continued problems in closing out games. According to STATS, since 1990 only 14 of 168 teams to start the season 2-4 have reached the playoffs and none have ever reached the Super Bowl.

That was the expectation for Seattle before the season. And now, it’s just getting the problems fixed.

“To be where we are right now, it puts us in a position of tremendous adversity for a team,” Carroll said. “It calls on you a lot of stuff, but it calls on us to believe in the guys in the locker room and believe in what we’re doing and hang together until we get things right.”

Carroll noted that Seattle believes it should be 6-0 considering in all six games the Seahawks have held a lead in the fourth quarter.

But the claim stands hollow when the results don’t match the statement and the track record continues to be mostly failure. Seattle held fourth-quarter leads of at least seven points against St. Louis, Cincinnati and Carolina and lost all three.

This time, Seattle led 23-14 with 11:46 left after Steven Hauschka’s third field goal. The lead was still 11 when it took possession at its own 20 with 8:08 remaining. Over their final two drives, the Panthers ran 17 plays, rolled up 160 total yards and scored 14 points. Newton was 12 of 15 for 169 yards in the fourth quarter and threw for 269 yards overall.

Jonathan Stewart made it a 23-20 game when he scored on a 1-yard TD run with 3:55 remaining. Seattle was unable to run out the clock and punted back to the Panthers with 2:20 left.

Newton hit two quick passes that got the ball to the Carolina 46 at the two-minute warning. Newton hit Ed Dickson to the Seattle 40, but Bruce Irvin sacked Newton back near midfield, forcing the Panthers to use their final timeout with 1:20 remaining.

Newton rebounded to hit Devin Funchess for 16 yards and Jerricho Cotchery caught a contested 7-yard pass. After spiking the ball and moving quickly to the line, Newton saw confusion in Seattle’s secondary, hitting the wide-open Olsen for the winning score with Thomas and Sherman looking at each other in confusion.

The reason Olsen was so wide open was mixed signals in Seattle’s secondary. Sherman got one call from the sideline while Thomas and others got a different call. The result was Olsen running uncovered.

“You’re not open that much against these guys,” Olsen said. “They cover so much ground, there’s usually bodies around you when you catch the ball. But we’ll take it.”

Seattle appeared fine through three quarters. Russell Wilson and Jimmy Graham were connecting. Thomas and Kam Chancellor both had interceptions and the Seahawks appeared on their way to a rebound victory.

Wilson threw for 239 yards and found Graham eight times for 140 yards. The highlight for Seattle was a double-pass touchdown when Wilson hit Ricardo Lockette for a leaping 40-yard TD and a 17-7 lead early in the third quarter.

But that proved to be the extent of Seattle’s bright spots, shadowed by the concern of what’s gone wrong for a team with such lofty expectations.

“It’s frustrating only because I know we’re not playing up to our potential,” offensive tackle Russell Okung said. “We’re going to make our mistakes, but the best thing we’ve done in the past is overcome them. We haven’t done that yet, but we will.”

NOTES: Seattle running back Marshawn Lynch returned after missing the previous 2 1/2 games because of a hamstring injury. He finished with 54 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries. Thomas Rawls, who filled in with Lynch out and rushed for 169 yards vs. Cincinnati, had just one carry. … Carolina LB Luke Kuechly had 14 tackles in his return after missing three games with a concussion. … Seattle LB Bobby Wagner (pectoral) did not play in hopes he’ll be able to go Thursday against San Francisco, Carroll said.