The Seattle
Seahawks went into the visitors' locker room at the Georgia Dome In Atlanta
down 20-0, and nobody to blame but themselves. A defense that has been stout
all season allowed 268 yards on 34 plays, and the Falcons converted four of
their seven third-down opportunities. On offense, Seattle was far more
worrisome -- especially in the red zone. With 6:22 left in the second quarter,
the Seahawks had the ball at the Atlanta 11-yard line and two downs to do
something with it.
On
third-and-1, and with Marshawn Lynch on the sideline, rookie running back
Robert Turbin couldn't convert. Pete Carroll got Lynch back on the field for
fourth-and-1, and Russell Wilson handed the ball off to Michael Robinson, who
couldn't get to the first-down marker on the fullback blast. Had Robinson been
blocking for Lynch, he most likely would have picked up safety William Moore,
who crashed in to stop Robinson.
Then, at the
end of the half, the Seahawks went through a series of plays that will haunt
them all offseason if this is indeed the end of their run. Seattle drove well
on a journey that started from their own 20-yard line with 4:16 left in the
game, but they could not score despite eight total plays in the Atlanta red
zone. A false start penalty on left tackle Russell Okung didn't help, nor did a
Jonathan Babineaux sack of Russell Wilson with time running down at the end of
the half.
The Seahawks couldn't get back to the line of scrimmage for another
play back from the Falcons' 20-yard line, and they had burned all of their
timeouts.
On the final
play of the half, it appeared as if Wilson got the snap before the clock ran
out, but as the Seahawks' line wasn't set, it would have been a penalty and a
10-second runoff.
The Falcons
are running on full-blast right now, and the Seahawks will have to do a total
re-set if they want any chance in this game.
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