Seahawks may have too much to overcome for Super Bowl run

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• Sheil KapadiaESPN Writer

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  • Covered the Philadelphia Eagles for Philadelphia Magazine and Philly.com from 2008 to 2015.
  • Covered the Baltimore Ravens and the NFL for BaltimoreSun.com from 2006 to 2008.

SEATTLE -- Following the Seattle Seahawks" 34-31 loss to the Arizona Cardinals, coach Pete Carroll was asked about his team"s inability to show any kind of consistency in recent weeks.

"I dont know," Carroll said. "I keep thinking were going to do right, were going to do well."

Going into Saturday"s game, the Seahawks" biggest reason for optimism was their potential playoff path. They needed to win the final two games against teams that were out of contention to secure the No. 2 seed in the NFC and a first-round bye.

Now that is no longer the case. The Seahawks have dropped down to the No. 4 seed. Three things need to happen for them to get a bye: They need to beat the San Francisco 49ers in Week 17. The Atlanta Falcons have to lose to the New Orleans Saints. And the Detroit Lions have to lose one of their final two games against the Dallas Cowboys or Green Bay Packers.

Unless all of those things happen, the seahawks will be playing at home during the first playoff weekend. And a potential path to the Super Bowl will require three victories -- two most likely on the road.

The Seahawks are a resilient group, but this is looking like a year where they might have too many obstacles to overcome.

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They scored three points on six possessions in the first half Saturday. Two weeks ago, the Seahawks turned the ball over six times against the Green Bay Packers. In Week 12, they scored five points in a loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And there have been six different games this season in which the offense has scored one or zero touchdowns.

"To struggle like we did in the first half and then to do everything that we did in the second half to come back and give ourselves a chance to win the game and then not be able to pull it out, its an emotional roller-coaster," wide receiver Doug Baldwin said. "I know that you guys think that were supposed to be robots and we just go out there and run these straight lines, but were humans. We have emotions. This game takes a lot out of us. Were very passionate about what we do, so when it ends the way that it did today, its very draining and exhausting."

Russell Wilson was sacked six times and hit on 14 other occasions against Arizona. The offensive line continues to be the biggest thing holding the Seahawks back. At any given moment, it can just fall apart and cripple the entire operation.

To the Seahawks" credit, the offense caught fire in the second half. But it"s impossible to know how this group is going to perform from week to week, regardless of the opponent.

"We have a lot of weapons on the offensive side, and we have to protect Russell," Baldwin said. "Russell has to get the ball out, and we have to catch it as receivers and run the ball efficiently and effectively. When we do those things, were pretty hard to stop. But we have to do those things in an effective nature and efficiently. That"s what it boils down to."

Meanwhile, defensively, the Seahawks allowed the Cardinals to score on four of their final five possessions.

And for the first time since free safety Earl Thomas went down with a fractured tibia in Week 13, his absence might have cost them a victory.

The free safety in the Seahawks" scheme is responsible for taking away two routes: posts and seams. The Cardinals scored on an 80-yard touchdown when J.J. Nelson got behind Thomas" replacement, Steven Terrell.

"When you give up a post route, you dont play very well," Carroll said. "Thats not good enough. Thats an 80-yard play or whatever the heck it was. Its pretty fundamental for us."

And then there are the other injuries. Wide receiver Tyler Lockett (broken leg) is out for the season. Thomas Rawls suffered a shoulder injury Saturday. And it"s unclear when (or if) running back C.J. Prosise will get back. Wilson has battled through injuries all season and clearly would benefit from a bye.

It"d be foolish to count the Seahawks out. They"ve shown time and again that they can take on obstacles. But since Wilson arrived, they"ve never had a season like this.

They"ll take their shots in January, but in the end, there just might be too much to overcome to get back to the Super Bowl for the third time in four years.

Source: http://www.espn.com/blog/seattle-seahawks/post/_/id/23860/seahawks-may-have-too-much-to-overcome-for-a-super-bowl-run

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Richard Sherman"s criticism of Seahawks" offense a part of what makes them the Seahawks

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I dont like when we throw the ball at the 1, Richard Sherman said.

All of Seattle knows exactly how he feels.

Whether the city feels he was right to express it that bluntly to explain his emotional outburst in front of the teams bench in the middle of a game is going to be something that were going to spend the next few days discussing.

What Sherman said was divisive. It was disappointing. It was also inevitable in some ways.

This is the underside of Pete Carrolls unrelentingly positive coaching approach. He builds up his players. He encourages them to assert themselves in all sorts of ways, and we cant be shocked when sometimes they express themselves in ways that are very unusual in this sport, which is a polite way of saying that they pull stuff that would never fly elsewhere.

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Like Marshawn Lynch wearing Kam Chancellors No. 31 jersey for a workout last August while Seattles safety was holding out last year. Or on the night that Seattle won its fourth division title in Pete Carrolls seven seasons as the teams coach, Sherman not only protested a coaching decision in the middle of the game, but insisting he was right to do so afterward.

We go out there, we sacrifice, we battle, Sherman said. You dont give away our battle. You honor our sacrifice.

OK. Lets pause for a second to provide the context.

With 4:03 left in the third quarter, Seattle had the ball, first-and-goal at the Rams 1 and leading by seven points. The Seahawks called a pass, quarterback Russell Wilson lobbing a ball toward tight end Jimmy Graham in the back of the end zone. A St. Louis linebacker took the ball away from Graham, Seattle avoiding an interception only because officials ruled that Graham had been out of bounds with his hand on the ball thereby killing the play. The Rams challenge, the ruling stood, and the Seahawks had a second life.

That was Shermans cue. He became emotional.

He was fired up, Carroll said. Fired up.

Sherman explained why afterward.

I dont like when we throw the ball at the 1, Sherman said. We throw an interception at the 1. Luckily it went incomplete, and I wasnt going to let them continue to do that.

First, Sherman shouted at Carroll. Then receiver Doug Baldwin got involved.

Doug was saying, Give me the ball," Carroll said, and Richard was saying something else. I needed those two guys to go sit down and have a little timeout and talk it over and figure out what we should do next.

The Seahawks ran fullback Marcel Reese on the next play, and he was stopped for no gain. On third down, the Seahawks went with a pass, Doug Baldwin juking cornerback Troy Hill so hard he was wide open.

And later, after the Seahawks scored on a pass from the 1-yard line no less, offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell came back and said something to Sherman. The fact that it was a pass that produced the touchdown didnt allay Shermans feelings afterward.

Im upset about us throwing from the 1, he said. Id rather do what most teams would do and make a conscientious decision to run the ball straight up the middle.

That would be considered mutinous on most NFL teams. Afterward, Carroll praised his cornerbacks emotional intensity and ability to reel in his emotions.

That was one of our guys who has as much emotion and passion for this game as you could ever want, Carroll said. And sometimes it goes one way where youve got to reel it back in. And he did exactly that. He did a nice job of coming back to poise and finished the game really well.

Carroll has made a choice other coaches never would. Its not that he tolerates more, but he embraces it because of everything it brings.

On Thursday night, we saw the tradeoff. You build an environment in which players are emboldened, you cant be surprised if there are times they push beyond what would be tolerated on most teams, which is exactly what happened on a night that should have been remembered for the Seahawks winning their fourth division title.

Source: http://sports.mynorthwest.com/222295/dont-like-it-when-seahawks-throw-at-the-goal-line-neither-does-richard-sherman/

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Marshawn Lynch returns wallet to fan

Updated: November 19, 2014, 11:35 AM ET

By Terry Blount | ESPN.comMarshawn Lynch's Future In Seattle

Marshawn Lynch did his good deed for the day Tuesday after a man said the Seattle Seahawks running back returned his wallet that had been dropped at a gas station in Marysville, Washington.

A Marysville resident named Jason Lynch said on Facebook that he unknowingly dropped the wallet while getting gas at the station. He is not related to Marshawn, but he clearly is a fan as he's wearing a No. 24 Seahawks jersey in a photo on his Facebook page.

Jason Lynch explained on his Facebook page that he thought about approaching the Seattle running back for a picture after he pulled up at the gas station but "decided not to bother him" and instead went to pick up his son.

Upon arriving home, Jason Lynch said his neighbor knocked on his door to tell him that Marshawn Lynch and receiver Ricardo Lockette had dropped the wallet off.

"Crazy! ... I can't thank them guys enough for bringing it back and for making my neighbor a very happy lady for getting to a chance to meet them," Jason Lynch said on Facebook.

He later tweeted a thank-you to Marshawn Lynch for returning his wallet and got a retweet in return:

@MoneyLynch thank you so much for going outta your way to return my wallet!A Lynch taking care of a Lynch #GOODKARMA pic.twitter.com/19tTI211bQ

Jason Lynch (@206Lynch) November 19, 2014

Marshawn Lynch and some of his teammates visited Marysville-Pilchuck High School on Tuesday and took part in an assembly. Five people lost their lives at the school in a shooting incident on Oct. 24.

• Covered the NFL at the Houston Post and Houston Chronicle, including eight Super Bowls
• Received Citation for Writing Excellence from Hearst Newspapers
• Also has covered NBA Finals, World Series, Finals Fours, Indy 500 and Daytona 500

Source: http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/11902167/marshawn-lynch-seattle-seahawks-returns-lost-wallet-fan

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DEA raids NFL medical staffs, including Seahawks in KC

Federal drug agents conducted surprise inspections of NFL team medical staffs on Sunday as part of an ongoing investigation into prescription drug abuse in the league.

The Seattle Seahawks, who lost to the Chiefs on Sunday in Kansas City, confirmed that they had received a visit from the DEA today. The Chiefs, meanwhile, said they were not aware of the Drug Enforcement Administration being at Arrowhead Stadium.

The inspections, which entailed bag searches and questioning of team doctors by DEA agents in cooperation with the Transportation Security Administration, were based on the suspicion that NFL teams dispense drugs illegally to keep players on the field in violation of the Controlled Substances Act, according to a senior law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation.

The medical staffs were part of travel parties whose teams were playing at stadiums across the country. The law enforcement official said DEA agents inspected the medical staffs of multiple teams.

In addition to the Seahawks, the San Francisco 49ers said they were inspected by federal agents following their game against the New York Giants in New Jersey.

Contrary to early reports, the law enforcement official said the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were not among the teams inspected by the DEA.

The DEA had reason to look at those teams in particular, but the investigation is not restricted to them, according to the law enforcement official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the probe is ongoing.

The official said the investigation focuses on practices across the 32-team league, including possible distribution of drugs without prescriptions or labels, and the dispensing of drugs by trainers rather than physicians.

NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said its teams cooperated with the DEA inspectors, and we have no information to indicate that irregularities were found.

Federal law prohibits anyone but a physician or nurse practitioner from distributing prescription drugs, and they must meet myriad regulations for acquiring, storing, labeling and transporting them. It is also illegal for a physician to distribute prescription drugs outside of his geographic area of practice. And it is illegal for trainers to dispense, or even handle, controlled substances in any way.

DEA spokesman Rusty Payne confirmed the existence of the investigation and said it was triggered by a class-action lawsuit filed in federal court in May by more than 1,300 retired NFL players. In the lawsuit, they allege that NFL medical staffs regularly violate federal and state laws by plying their teams with powerful addictive narcotics such as Percocet and Percodan, sleeping pills such as Ambien, and the non-addictive painkiller Toradol to help them play through injuries on game days.

Agents began interviewing NFL physicians in several locations, Payne said, after reviewing material contained in the lawsuit. Players described being given unlabeled medications in hazardous combinations, teams filling out prescriptions in players names without their knowledge, trainers passing out pills in hotels or locker rooms, and medications handed out on team planes after games while alcohol was consumed.

Payne characterized the DEA actions on Sunday as administrative, aimed at discerning whether NFL medical staffs adhere to federal regulations governing the dispensing of controlled substances across state lines.

Penalties can range from suspension or revocation of licenses, civil fines or prosecution.

Those with knowledge of the case said the DEA is working with the office of the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and met with investigators from that office recently.

The DEA is investigating all staffers on the NFL teams who may have access to prescription medications who should not, especially trainers, who regularly treat players ailments and injuries, said those familiar with the probe.

Sundays inspections were based on information the DEA had gathered over the past few months in interviews about the NFLs practices.

A blueprint for the DEAs lines of inquiry can be found in the specifics of the class-action lawsuit filed in Northern California. Prominent plaintiffs such as former Chicago Bears quarterback Jim McMahon, former 49ers center Jeremy Newberry and former defensive end Marcellus Wiley, who is now an ESPN commentator, detailed physicians and trainers handing out addictive painkillers without prescriptions, in dangerous combinations, to mask injuries.

The NFL last month asked U.S. District Judge William Alsup to throw out the lawsuit, arguing that teams, not the league, are responsible for the medical decisions and that litigation isnt the proper mechanism for an NFL grievance under terms of the collective bargaining agreement between players and owners. Alsup has yet to rule on the NFLs request.

The DEAs investigative interest in the NFL is partly based on the agencys conviction that lackadaisical prescribing practices create addicts. A 2010 study of 644 league veterans from the Washington University School of Medicine found that retired NFL players misuse opioids at a rate more than four times that of their peers.

Source: http://www.kansascity.com/sports/nfl/article3976122.html

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