Seattle Seahawks Lose 24-20 To Kansas City Chiefs

Any championship-winning sports team enters the next season with an obvious goal: win it all again. This, of course, first requires that the would-be repeat champs make the playoffs. And if the Seattle Seahawks are to have any chance at all of reaching goal number one, they’d better start trying to find a path through the woods that are the rest of the regular season.

Despite trailing for most of the game, the ‘Hawks entered the fourth quarter with a three point lead. They’d fought back after finding themselves in an early hole, but always seemedto be playing some kind of catchup with their opposition. The Chiefs overtook the lead for good with under two minutes to go, and the Seahawks last chance drive ended on a 4th-and-18 incompletion. So it goes.

Russell Wilson kept things close by outplaying Alex Smith, his KC counterpart. Wilson was 20 for 32 passing, good for 178 yards and two touchdowns. Smith, on the other hand, was only 11 for 16, with 108 yards and no touchdown passes. Kansas City hardly even tried to play in the air – instead they beat Seattle at their own game: the rushing game.

Jamaal Charles led the Chiefs with 159 rushing yards and two touchdowns. Knile Davis added a late rushing TD, which proved to be the eventual game-winner. Not that Seattle didn’t get anything from it’s typical scramblers – Wilson ran for 71 yards, while Marshawn Lynch added 124 yards of his own (not to mention a one yard reception). It just wasn’t enough, what with KC using the ground game to rack up scores.

Luke Willson was a big surprise, with three receptions for 51 yards. Jermaine Kearse actually led all receivers with 54 yards on five receptions. Doug Baldwin caught a touchdown pass, as did… Tony Moeaki? See, the ‘Hawks did plenty right. But they couldn’t hold the Chiefs’ offense, especially not at the most critical times.

Kansas City effectively won this one early in the fourth quarter, when Smith hit Charles for 47 yards and got help from a Bruce Irvin unnecessary roughness penalty. That set up the Davis touchdown, and put Seattle down once and for all. The last Seahawks drive went a measley 16 yards and included a brutal eight-yard loss on a sack from Dontari Poe. It ended with a long incompletion to Paul Richardson, as the Seahawks were just crushed by Kansas City’s defense.

At 6-4, the Seahawks are far from a playoff lock. The battle for a postseason spot was always going to be hard-earned, but now it’s a vertical climb with no ropes or harnesses. It’s going to take a lot to make the playoffs at this point, and then a lot more to advance to the Super Bowl. But a goal’s a goal, and odds are every man in the ‘Hawks locker room still believes in their odds. It might be harder for us to buy in after another heartbreaking loss, but that’s what fandom’s all about, right?