Watch: The four penalties that cost Seahawks the game

Those were some of the most vile, unsound, indefensible, and game-wrecking penalties to come out of a football game.

I am talking about those from both the officiating crew and the Seattle Seahawks.

Pete Carroll’s team has fundamentally run away from sound fundamentals. They’ve run far, far away. Seattle’s 130 penalty yards in the loss to the Los Angeles Rams is the most by a team this season.

Miraculously the Seahawks are only the third-most penalized team, but they’re coming on fast, and their situational timing is worse than leaving the house late for a meeting on the other side of Seattle at 5:30pm on a Friday.

I don’t really buy into to following statement as a general rule, and I’m pretty sure I’ve never written it, but: the Seahawks lost this game because of penalties.

NFL games are long, there’s so much that needs to go right. A pivotal penalty can make a big difference in a moment, change some momentum, even affect a couple of points. But Sunday afternoon stands as the game in which I’ve been most convinced that one team was better and played better, and penalized themselves right out of the contest.

Here are the most offensive of the bunch, from the Week 11 loss.

2nd Quarter, 10:13. Delay of Game

This particular one doesn’t need a video. It was a delay of game on Geno Smith / everybody, immediately following a Jake Bobo illegal shift negating a 5-yard gain, which immediately followed Zach Charbonnet converting a 4th-and-1 to the LA 26.

In other words, Seattle went from 1st-and 10 on the 26 to ultimately 3rd-and 22 from the 38.

This time, the Hawks ultimately made the field goal but ran themselves out of competing for a TD and wasted two-and-a-half minutes doing so.

3rd Quarter, 9:23. Offensive Holding

This is the second and most egregious of the offensive penalties. Kept them from a true look at a touchdown, in almost the exact same sequence described above. They worked backwards into a 3rd-and-15 on the LA 33, kicking another field goal.

4th Quarter, 8:09. Defensive Pass Interference

This is dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb.

There’s got to be some kind of middle ground on the reviewability of this play the NFL “tried” for half a season. If you get the call wrong in the end zone, you give the other team a touchdown. Puka Nacua fell over in traffic and this was an undeniable 4-point swing.

If you like throwing your beer at the television in an attempt to soak the referee, this was the most justified you’d be all day. All month.

4th Quarter, 5:46. Hands to the Face

I give up on this secondary.

I do not understand what is happening in August, September, October, and midway through November, that this is still happening.

What in the name of the holy gridiron is Riq Woolen even attempting?

That’s Austin Trammell. He runs a 4.62 40-yard dash. Could he possibly just...not punch him in the face and use his almost twice-as-fast acceleration to run with him on a third and FIFTEEN?!

What now?

It’s gotten to such a level that the numbers on the Seahawks this year aren’t that good of indicators. The defense gave up 17 points, it should have been less. The offense scored 16 points, it should have been more.

This is in no way to blame officiating for the plight of Seattle. They royally screwed up one play.

The other 11 penalties and 116 yards? That’s on the inane ineptitude of the players to play by the rules. Week in and week out.

For the record, it should have been worse. On the second drive, Julian Love careened into Tutu Atwell for a 45-yard pass interference while a simple turn would have shown the ball to be far closer to Love than the intended target. Los Angeles ended up losing the ball on downs.

Oh by the way on that drive Leonard Williams jumped offsides and Woolen got hit with another pass interference on 3rd-and-4.

Seattle’s play is a mess. The offense is holding themselves back. The defense is absolutely killing themselves.

One bad play did not lose this game. But the penalties sure did. And they’ve shown no sign of stopping.

San Francisco 49ers are next. Humble recommendation: put film way down the priority list. Just freaking figure out how to stop getting flagged.