Countdown to training camp: Seahawks can’t close out Rams at home

It’s Friday of Prime Week, meaning many of the packages you have ordered have already arrived or are set to be delivered, and it also means there is less than a week until the Seattle Seahawks are back on the practice field for 2019 training camp.

Here at Field Gulls we are counting down the days until training camp by working through each of the 2018 games in reverse order, and so far we have been through the loss to the Dallas Cowboys in the Wild Card round of the playoffs, the game winning field goal over the Arizona Cardinals in the season finale, the primetime upset of the Kansas City Chiefs, the letdown on the road to the San Francisco 49ers, the ugly, ugly win over the Minnesota Vikings, the destruction of the 49ers when they came to play in Century Link, the back to back come back victories over the Carolina Panthers and the Green Bay Packers, the losses to the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers in consecutive games, the win over the Detroit Lions at Ford Field and the annihilation of the Oakland Raiders in London.

That brings things to where they are now, the Week 5 home game against the Rams. The first of two close losses to the Rams in 2018, this game was especially frustrating for fans because of the fact that the Hawks were in control for much of the game. In fact, Seattle was so much in control of this game that the Rams led for a combined total of just 8:07 of game time. The game was also tied for 20:20 of clock time, meaning the Hawks dropped the game in spite of having held the lead for more than half the game (31:33).

Perhaps most frustrating was the fact that the Hawks took a seven point lead with just over a minute and a half to go in the third quarter, but couldn’t close out the Rams. Seattle had two fourth quarter possessions and could only must three first downs combined. One first down came on an 18 yard Chris Carson run, a second was the result of an illegal contact penalty on the L.A. defense that negated a sack of Russell Wilson and the last came on a 44-yard pass to Tyler Lockett.

In any case, the Rams come to town again in Week 5 of the 2019 season, and at that point the Seahawks will attempt to end the three game losing streak to the division rivals that started with the 42-7 embarrassment in Week 15 of 2017.