Seahawks look to put blowout loss to Ravens behind them
BALTIMORE, MD - NOVEMBER 05: Kenneth Walker III #9 of the Seattle Seahawks carries the ball as Malik Harrison #40 of the Baltimore Ravens battles with Will Dissly #89 of the Seattle Seahawks during the second half at M&T Bank Stadium on Novem
RENTON, Wash. - Coming off one of the worst losses of the Pete Carroll era in Seattle, the Seahawks are eager to show they've completely flushed last week's 37-3 loss to the Baltimore Ravens.
"They’re going to bounce back fine. We’ve dealt with all of that and just looking what it was like out there at walkthrough today, these guys are ready to go," Carroll said on Wednesday.
It's rare that a Seahawks team under Carroll has been so thoroughly dominated on both sides of the football. Losing a game by at least 30 points has happened just four times in 14 seasons with Carroll as the team's head coach. A 42-7 loss to the Los Angeles Rams in 2017 serves as the biggest defeat in Carroll's Seattle tenure. Sunday's 34-point loss to the Ravens matched a 41-7 loss to the New York Giants from Carroll's first season with the Seahawks in 2010 for second-largest margin of defeat.
A 24-0 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 2 of the 2011 season and a 38-10 loss to the Green Bay Packers in Week 14 of the 2016 are games that felt similarly lopsided as well.
"Monday we got to face the truth of what really happened, and what really happened was we got beat," wide receiver DK Metcalf said. "They outplayed us, out-physicaled us, they just flat out beat us, facing that truth that you’re an NFL team, when you come in here on Monday and hearing that. Nobody wants to hear that you just flat out got beat by another team, but that’s the reality of what happened on Sunday. The mood right now is coming in here, fixing our mistakes and just getting back to square one and getting back to the basics of football."
One of the biggest strengths of Carroll's tenure as head coach is that such games have been so few and far between. However, that doesn't make Sunday's blowout loss any less surprising. It was a result no one saw coming.
"I think the biggest thing is, you learn from it, and you have to move on," linebacker Bobby Wagner said. "There’s a lot of season left, there’s a lot of stuff that we have to get better at and accomplish, but I think the biggest thing is understanding that if you don’t come with you’re A-game, good teams will beat you. Just move on."
Carroll is going to need to rely on team leaders such as Wagner to help the team work through such a stunning loss. He said Monday that a bad loss like the one in Baltimore can sometimes be a wake-up call a team needs to get on track.
"We have a very young team, and we count a lot on our leadership to send the right message," Carroll said. "With Geno (Smith) and Bobby and (Quandre) Diggs and those guys that do that for us, it’s incumbent upon them to live it right. They’ve come out of the chutes looking good, meetings were good today, everything about it was uplifting.
"There’s so much football ahead of us. This is officially marking the halfway point, once we get past this game, somewhere in the middle of the week here is really the halfway point. We’re officially turning the corner. Game nine for us and Week 10. This is a huge opportunity for us to recapture the mentality and make sure that we’re on and we play a great game at home."
Notes:
– Wide receiver Dareke Young was designated to return to practice from the injured reserve list. Young missed the first eight of the season following surgery to address a groin injury from training camp.
"Because it’s taken a while for us to get to that point where we can start him up, he’s in great shape, and he’s really ready to go," Carroll said. "He could play this week. That’s an interesting addition because he was a real positive factor in special teams, in particular last year in the way we played him. He’s coming out the first week competing to see if he can find his way to the roster and play time. That’s a real positive."
Young can practice with the team for 21 days before he has to be added back to the active roster.
– The Seahawks have an open roster spot after waiving nose tackle Austin Faoliu on Tuesday. Faoliu was activated from the physically unable to perform list on Monday and then waived on Tuesday. He re-signed to the practice squad on Wednesday and will continue to work there after recovering from a knee injury.
The team will need to add running back Kenny McIntosh to the active roster at some point over the next week as well as his 21-day practice window will expire after this week's game against Washington.
"He’s getting a lot of reps because of DeeJay (Dallas) being a little in question," Carroll said. "I’ll figure out what he is. Kenny got a lot of work in the walkthrough today. He’ll get revved up and we’ll have him ready to play."
Injury Report: