FanPost

Last Year, Everything went wrong for the Seahawks

Well, not everything, but a lot. More than most teams. That they managed to make the playoffs, let alone return to the Superbowl was extraordinary.

Things that went wrong #1 - Percy Harvin. What was supposed to be one of the most explosive weapons on offense - the Percy Harvin era never materialized for our Seahawks. I won’t go into detail with what went wrong, only remind you that it did. And this wasn’t about just one player not working out, this was a huge chunk of the playbook. Plays that were practiced over and over for months by the entire offense, were torn up and tossed in the dumpster. I don’t remember a team doing that before. Not for a player you gave up so many assets for. Not in midseason, not if you have any hopes of making a return to the Superbowl. But the Seahawks did that last year.

And they made this decision knowing they couldn't just return to the offense of 2013, as so many starters from that squad were gone. Golden Tate, Sidney Rice, Michael Robinson and a recently injured Zach Miller were gone. This was a major step backward in the offensive scheme the team had been building in the Pete Carroll era.

Things that went wrong #2 - Injuries. The NFL rates the Seahawks as the 18th least injured team in the league for 2014. This is based on starts missed by starters. More accurately, spotrac.om lists Seattle as 3rd in the league in players placed on the Injured Reserve list for the year, only two players less than the the league leading Giants. While the Seahawks were only slightly below league average in regards to starters being injured, the team depth was decimated with injuries.

Seahawks Management made a calculated decision last offseason, cutting ties to several veteran leaders. Partly as a financial move, but also a conscious decision to let its young stars assume a greater role in the leadership in 2014. Veterans Chris Clemons, Red Bryant, Michael Robinson, Golden Tate and Chris Maragos were let go, and Sidney Rice retired, causing a leadership void for younger players to grow and fill. The team did keep several key veterans to help with the transition. But this is one of the areas injuries took their toll, making the transition in team leadership much more difficult than planned.

On offense Zach Miller and Max Unger who were being counted on to provide veteran calm and poise in the huddle. But Miller went down in week 3, and never returned. Unger was injured throughout the year, playing in only half the teams games.

Special Teams lost key players in Maragos, Tate and Robinson in the offseason, but were confident that with Keith Farwell, and the emergence of Derrick Coleman, this unit had leadership in place to excel. Farwell went down in the final pre-season game, Coleman went down just before week 6 in St. Louis (a game lost entirely on special teams). Neither returned. Special teams were solid last year, but not as spectacularly stingy in stopping return yards as the previous year. And the return game was lacking impact.

On Defense, early in the season, there was an inconsistent pattern of greatness followed by mediocrity. A part of this were some early season injuries, a part was adjusting and filling the void in the locker room left by Bryant and Clemons.

Early season losses to the Chargers and Cowboys were a frustrating display of teams marching down the field on long, time consuming drives filled with short passes and the run game. The dominating Superbowl defense suddenly looked beatable.

Did our injured list only affect veterans? No. The entire 2014 rookie class, with the exception of Justin Britt, missed games due to injury, and the majority landed on IR. Their total time on the IR was actually greater than their time on the field. Team depth was hit hard, as non-starters Jordan Hill, Greg Scruggs and so many other rotation players missed time to injury.

Injuries happen, its part of the sport, Its no one’s fault. But teams with the level of injury that the Seahawks sustained rarely make the playoffs.

History tells us that teams don’t fare well the season after winning a Superbowl. The 10 previous Super Bowl winners failed to win a playoff game the following year. Most didn’t even make the playoffs. With the Hawks sitting at 3-3 late last October, it seemed that history was clearing her throat and trying to get Seattle’s attention.

So what went right? How did the Seahawks overcome so much and return to the Superbowl to defend their title?

It was small things at first, baby steps. The offense began to redefine who they were. Management made some key waiver wire additions that helped offset some of the losses. The defense got healthy, and young players in all three phases of the game began to step up.

Then came a pivotal week 12, with the Seahawks still on the outside of the playoff picture at 6-4, looking up at several teams in the standings. Notably, the Cardinals, atop the NFC West, were arriving at the Clink with a 9-1 record. Arizona taunted Seattle, claiming the Western Conference was already theirs, that the rest of the season was a formality.

One of the key moments of week 12 happened before the game started. Michael Bennett felt something needed to be said, but didn’t feel he was the one to say it. He approached Kam Chancellor, and asked the Team Captain to rally the troops. I don’t know what was said that day, but BamBam talked, everyone listened. The defense that had been tested on the hot fiery forge of a long and frustrating season came together, emerging from that clubhouse an impenetrable inferno.

The defense dominated, allowing only one field goal and barely 200 yards of offense. Rarely did Arizona venture past the 50 yard line into Hawks territory. The Hawks offense wasn’t as dominant as the D, but found their rhythm late in that game too.

As we all know, that was the first of eight straight wins for the Hawks, as they did what no Champion had done in ten years, they returned to the Superbowl to defend their title.

This isn’t actually about how things went wrong last year, this is really about how the Seahawks responded. We watched young stars grow into leaders, we saw a team come together as a family, saw them respond to the adversity with a vicious tenancity, a refusal to quit. They took everything that went wrong last year, and it became the fuel that propelled them back to the Superbowl.