Seattle Seahawks at Indianapolis Colts: Seahawks go to 4-1 in 34-28 loss
Pat Lovell-USA TODAY Sports
The Seahawks now know what the rest of the league has felt. Starting the game in dominating fashion and then losing the game in the last minutes. The Hawks bounced out to a quick 12-0 lead, the safety courtesy of a Jermaine Kearse punt block, only to fall 34-28 to the Indianapolis Colts. This game was everything it was billed to be: two brilliant young Q.B.’s, tough defenses and offenses with a penchant for 4th quarter wins.
Seattle had it’s chances all day but had to settle for five field goal attempts. Steven Hauschka was 4-5 with one being blocked and returned for a touchdown, and that 10 point swing ended up being the difference in the game. The Seahawks ran all day against the Colts, a total of 218 yards, with both Russell Wilson and Marshawn Lynch piling up 102 yards and Robert Turbin adding another 14. The Colts totaled 109 rushing yards. Trent Richardson leading the way with 56 yards on 18 carries.
The 2 quarterbacks put on a show today, regardless of what the statistics show. Russell Wilson was 15-31 with 210 yards 2 TD’s and 1 INT and Andrew Luck was 16-29 229 yds 2 scores and no INT’s. Both Q.B.’s had receivers drop balls and make great catches. The only real difference was Luck rushed 4 times for 9 yards while Wilson ran 13 times for 102.
I believe the main difference was that for the first time this season Pete Carroll was out coached. Chuck Pagano of the Colts made the decision at halftime to run an up tempo offense in the second half and the Seahawks had no answer for it. Seattle also burned all 3 of it’s time outs early in the second half to cover for; too many men on the field, the wrong formation and to avoid a delay of game penalty. Seattle had 3 field goals in the second half against 2 touch downs and a field goal for the colts. Penalties once again plagued the Seahawks having 7-85 while the Colts had only 3-35. It wasn’t just the number of penalties on the Seahawks but the timing with both Richard Sherman and Brandon Browner getting flagged for pass interference on Colt 3rd down and then Golden Tate getting flagged for offensive interference on a long pass play.
In the end the Colts made more big plays than the Seahawks did and deserved this win. The, like the Seahawks, are a great young team led by a budding superstar quarterback. I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that this was the second of back to back road games with a 10 am start. Seattle Now travels home to face the Tennessee Titans before 2 more road games in Arizona and St. Louis rounds out the first half. I don’t think that this loss makes the Seahawks or the fan base worried. It was a tough loss against a very good Colts team on the road. Seattle is 4-1 after 5 games with 2 road wins. During the next three games, if they can win at home against the Titans (as expected) and at least split the road games with the two NFC West foes, the Hawks will sit at 6-2 at the half way mark with five of their final eight games at CenturyLink Field.
Oh…they also may get Percy Harvin back in the next 2-3 weeks as well.