Playoff loss to Atlanta in 2013 was start of something big for Seahawks

Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson leaves the field after shaking hands with Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan after an NFC divisional playoff game Jan. 13, 2013, in Atlanta. The Falcons won 30-28. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

The last time the Seattle Seahawks traveled to the Georgia Dome for a divisional playoff game, they had to deal with the disappointment of having their season come to an end.

But while they may not have been victorious that day, the Seahawks came away with so much more than just a loss.

Seattle returns to the Georgia Dome on Saturday for another divisional playoff game against the Atlanta Falcons, and they do so knowing the loss to the Falcons on Jan. 13, 2013 in many ways catapulted the Seahawks’ franchise to where it is today.

Seattle lost 30-28 to the Falcons that day, the victim of Matt Bryant’s 49-yard field goal with 8 seconds remaining. Atlanta quarterback Matt Ryan moved the Falcons 41 yards in two plays over 12 seconds as Atlanta snatched victory away from the Seahawks in stunning fashion. Losing in that manner could have crushed some franchises.

But the nature of Seattle’s comeback — the youthful Seahawks rallied from a 27-7 fourth-quarter deficit behind then-rookie quarterback Russell Wilson to take the lead with 31 seconds remaining — served as the springboard into bigger and better things. Seattle won the Super Bowl the following year and advanced to the Super Bowl the year after that. The Seahawks won three NFC West titles in the ensuing four seasons, reaching double-digit victories every year. Seattle has become one of the NFL’s model franchises, and that loss to the Falcons helped get things started.

“We had done well enough during the finish of that season, felt momentum and all of that, that we didn’t let that loss really get in the way of looking towards the future,” said Pete Carroll, who was in his third season as Seattle’s head coach.

Seattle has 12 players on its roster who appeared in that game. In addition to Wilson, linebackers Bobby Wagner and K.J. Wright and defensive backs Richard Sherman, Kam Chancellor and Earl Thomas also started. Receivers Doug Baldwin and Jermaine Kearse, linebacker Mike Morgan, defensive backs Jeron Johnson and Jeremy Lane, and punter Jon Ryan also played.

And while the Seahawks may have lost, they also gained the knowledge that they were capable of beating anyone. This despite having the youngest roster in the NFL.

“For me, I felt like our team didn’t realize how good we were,” said Baldwin, who was in his second year. “We were kind of just going through the motions like everything was new to us. When we got there it kind of hit us in the face and we had to bounce back. Once we realized we’re talented enough to do this, then we came back in the game. Unfortunately, it didn’t end the way we wanted to. But I think it gave us a lot of confidence realizing we can play with the best.

“We were such a young team, too,” Baldwin continued. “We had a lot of young guys at important positions. I think that confidence really gave us some strength to be able to come back the next year and do what we did.”

That confidence was most important with regards to Wilson. Wilson began the season as the surprise starter, a third-round draft pick beating out big-money free-agent signing Matt Flynn for the starting quarterback role. Though Wilson took Seattle to the playoffs, there remained skepticism about whether Wilson was an effective enough passer be a franchise quarterback. But Wilson led the Seahawks on three fourth-quarter touchdown drives, and his 385 yards passing is still his career high. That performance, under the bright lights, proved Wilson was capable of coming through in the clutch.

But just as important as Wilson’s performance was to Seattle’s future was his reaction to the loss.

“We’re walking out of the tunnel on the way off the field and he’s already talking about next year and what we’re going to be able to do and all that kind of stuff,” Carroll recalled. “It was a pretty clear indicator at that point, if nothing else had told us before then, that this guy really is looking to the future, always going and always believing that things are going to happen right.”

Said Wilson: “Basically the thought process was, you can get down when you lose a game sometimes, that’s the initial thought for most people. For me, I was just thinking about the opportunity, what was next for our football team. I got a great sense of great things coming.”

The loss also exposed Seattle’s greatest area of need: the pass rush. The Seahawks had no sacks and only one quarterback hit on Ryan that game. Seattle set out that offseason to fix the problem, signing free agent defensive ends Michael Bennett and Cliff Avril away from Tampa Bay and Detroit, respectively. Avril has 33.5 sacks in four seasons with the Seahawks, Bennett has 30.5, and both were named to this year’s Pro Bowl. The pass rush has gone from being a weakness to being a strength.

But more than anything else, what that loss gave to the Seahawks was a sense of desire and a sense of belief.

“We felt like we were far, but we still had a long way to go,” Wagner said. “It kind of woke us up and definitely made us hungry, too, because when you feel like you have a great team and you felt like you should win it all, and you lose, you have to sit there in the offseason and watch the other teams win. It gives you that hunger to come in to the next season prepared.”

Said Chancellor: “It just showed us we were capable of getting to a certain point. We knew what it felt like, we knew what it tasted like.”

All from a divisional playoff loss at the Georgia Dome. Seattle gets another crack at the Falcons there on Saturday, but this time the Seahawks don’t need to find that belief. This time they already have it.

Source: heraldnet.com