John Blanchette: Seahawks not afraid to accept blame for blunderous effort

SEATTLE – Though he was a lineup scratch with a bum hamstring and watched Sunday’s game in a rain jacket on the sidelines, Seattle Seahawks safety Tedric Thompson still found a way to contribute.

He got a 15-yard penalty for joining his teammates to celebrate the recovery of a muffed punt, civilians in street threads being unwelcome within the boundaries of the field of play.

Certainly it typified the level of mental engagement and discipline the Seahawks brought – top to bottom – to their 33-27 loss to the New Orleans Saints at CenturyLink Field after two wins to open the season.

See, it happens to the guys who get paid, too.

Safe to say that a favorite topic around Sunday’s tailgates was Saturday’s late-night Marx Brothers movie on national TV, featuring a core melt by the Washington State Cougars – turnovers ordered in bulk, tackling slapstick, tempo stubbornness, suspect clock management and a blown 32-point lead.

Then the locals had to endure the Seahawks’ various brain locks.

Hey, we’ve all had those days at work – OK, maybe not the blown 32-point lead. Problem is, the Seahawks only have 16 working days that matter, and the college kids even fewer.

So you hate to see any of them undone by unthinking.

One difference on Sunday was the guy who took the most blame.

“I had a particularly bad day,” said Seahawks coach Pete Carroll.

Yep. The boss.

It started when an unexpected pass from linebacker Cody Barton blasted Carroll in the nose as the Seahawks prepared to leave the field after pregame warmups. The coach went with the Jake Gittes look for the game – and though he didn’t go into concussion protocol, perhaps he should have.

Now, it needs to be acknowledged: the two moments that put the Hawks on their heels were a 53-yard punt return touchdown by the Saints’ Deonte Harris after Seattle’s opening three-and-out, and Chris Carson’s fumble that turned into a 33-yard scoring return by Vonn Bell. Nothing Carroll could have done about those.

But the Seahawks could have rallied from those and, as Carroll said, “We just had a really hard time getting out of our own way.”

Not that this hasn’t been building. The season-opening win over Cincinnati was much closer than it needed to be, and in last week’s victory at Pittsburgh the Seahawks had to overcome not one but two Carson fumbles.

“We got away with some things in the first couple of games,” said offensive tackle Duane Brown. “Today it just kind of bit us.”

Drew blood, too.

What made it doubly exasperating was that the Saints were operating without quarterback Drew Brees, the franchise binky. As backups go, you can do worse than a Teddy Bridgewater, but the fact that Seattle never put New Orleans in a position where Bridgewater had to win the game was the ultimate flubbed opportunity.

Attended by all sorts of supporting gaffes.

Carroll’s sins included being uncharacteristically aggressive in going for it on fourth down – in the second quarter at the Saints 41 (Carson stuffed) and in the third at the Saints 13 (Russell Wilson missing an open Tyler Lockett).

“I could have kicked the ball and done a couple of more conservative things that I like to do often,” he admitted, “but I felt pretty good about how we were playing D. I tried too hard.”

He also left timeouts on the board late in the first half – wasting a rabbit-from-the-hat play by Wilson to DK Metcalf for 54 yards that could have netted at least a field goal, had the clock not been allowed to run out – and even zoned out going for two after Wilson’s touchdown run with 2:48 left, kicking a worthless PAT.

“We didn’t do that right, either,” he admitted.

These sort of detailed mea culpas are rare in the coachly arts, where the prevailing tone is normally couched as “We didn’t get across to our guys…” which is a veiled way of saying “We told them, but they didn’t listen.”

The fact is, the Seahawks on Sunday owned it collectively – from Al Woods lining up over the center on New Orleans’ missed field goal and giving the Saints a do-over first down and eventual touchdown to Carson’s critical fumble.

Mistakes are going to happen. But Seattle is not a team so flush with gifts that it can afford to make this many.

“There were just so many ways for this game to be different,” said Carroll. “It’s just unfortunate. It’s very frustrating. But this is one game. Maybe this is the one game that we learn from and we grow from and we can put this one behind us, and we can turn things in the right direction and not let this happen.”

First step: no one in street clothes on the field.

“Not even the coach,” Carroll agreed.