The Seattle Seahawks didn’t give up and erased an 11-point deficit in the fourth quarter while playing in one of the toughest environments around the league. But it wasn’t enough, and as Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald put it after Thursday’s loss, there are no moral NFL victories.
Ultimately, a moral victory is a loss. Seattle’s 17-14 overtime defeat Thursday dropped the team to 3-3 this season. The three losses in six weeks matches the amount of defeats the Seahawks sustained all of last season.
The moral victory is also something the Seahawks are arguably repeating. Seattle has lost its three games this season by a combined eight points.
After Thursday’s loss, Seahawks wide receiver Cooper Kupp shared how maddening it is to not win their last two games.
“There’s frustration. There’s certainly frustration,” Kupp said of the feeling around the team. “You’ve got to find a way to win these close ones. We haven’t found a way to do that yet.
“There’s lots of our own self-inflicted stuff. There’s mistakes across the board, and too many to allow us to overcome at the end of the day.
In Seattle’s last two losses, the team turned the ball over seven times. The Seahawks offensive line has also given up 10 sacks.
Thursday night against the Denver Broncos, the Seahawks rallied to score 11 points in the fourth quarter to force overtime. But Sam Darnold threw an interception on the first possession of the extra sessions, which set up Denver at the Seahawks 43-yard line. The Broncos then won on a 53-yard field goal.
Seahawks’ Cooper Kupp Stresses Finding the Razor-Thin Margins
There’s a fine line between winning and losing in the NFL. It might not be as noticeable for a team that’s winning. When on the losing end, though, it becomes more obvious.
Kupp didn’t rail into his teammates for what he deemed frustrating play. That might be because the team is close to winning these games.
But the Seahawks aren’t doing the little things right now that win in the league. Kupp emphasized that’s what the team has to start doing to get back on track.
“So, there’s more than enough intention, more than enough energy put into these weeks in our preparation. The attitude of guys going out onto the field is fantastic. Guys are bought into what we’re building here,” said Kupp. “But it needs to continue to get better. Guys need to continue to grow and we’ve got to chase those razorthin margins, those razor-thin edges that we talk about all the time.
“We’ve got to find ways to find those edges and be able to make plays come alive for the better for us.”
The offense came alive late in the second half versus the Broncos. The Seahawks had just 91 yards in the first half. Seattle’s offense surpassed that total in both the third and fourth quarters. In the fourth quarter, the Seahawks had 118 passing yards.
But the team lost the turnover margin 3-0, including 2-0 in the fourth quarter and overtime combined. That’s almost always going to result in a loss even when an offense has almost 200 more yards than the opposition.
The Seahawks finished with more than twice as many yards than the Broncos. Denver had two first downs in the second half. But Darnold’s interception in overtime made the difference.
Seahawks’ Cooper Kupp Airs out Frustration After Loss to Broncos