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Coach Pete Carroll had touted a return to the playoffs for his Seattle Seahawks and continued growth in his second season.
And while the team improved, instead of another postseason run the Seahawks enter 2012 much like the beginning of the 2011 season, with a second straight loss – a 23-20 overtime setback to the Arizona Cardinals.
Arizona kicker Jay Feely booted a 28-yard field goal for the winner, one of his three field goals in the game, giving Arizona its first win over Seattle in the past four tries.
The loss assured the Seahawks of their fourth straight losing season. Seattle also finished 7-9 for a second straight year – but this time, instead of preparing to host a playoff game, the Seahawks will clean out their lockers today.
With the win, the Cardinals finished second in the NFC West at 8-8, winning seven of their last nine games.
Still, Carroll believes this year’s team is in a better position for sustained postseason success than last year’s playoff squad, and just needs to figure out how to finish games.
“In this league, games come down so often to the end, and we did not do as well as we liked to there,” Carroll said. “We did a nice job when we were ahead because we can run the football. It’s when we weren’t in the lead that we didn’t do as well. So we need to do a better job there. That will be a big focus for us.”
After a sloppy first half – with two turnovers and seven punts between the teams – that saw Arizona take a 10-3 lead, Seattle tied the game on the first drive of the second half.
The Seahawks marched 74 yards in three plays, with Leon Washington exploding through the middle of Arizona’s defense and outracing Arizona cornerback Patrick Peterson to the pylon for a 48-yard touchdown.
But the Cardinals pushed their lead to 20-10 – on a 13-yard Todd Heap touchdown reception from Arizona quarterback John Skelton and a Feely 43-yard field goal.
The Seahawks again answered, scoring 10 points in the final quarter to force overtime. First was Steven Hauschka’s 26-yard field goal, set up by Richard Sherman’s 33-yard interception return, then Seahawks quarterback Tarvaris Jackson connected with rookie receiver Ricardo Lockette on a 61-yard passing touchdown to tie the score at 20-all midway through the fourth quarter.
Jackson passed for 222 yards on 21-of-35 passing accuracy.
And after Seattle’s offense stalled again to open overtime, the best player on the field, Arizona receiver Larry Fitzgerald, took over.
Fitzgerald made two catches for 38 yards in the final drive, including a diving, one-handed catch over the middle that put the Cardinals in field goal range at Seattle’s 24 for Feely’s winner.
Eric D. Williams: 253-597-8437
eric.williams@thenewstribune.com
blog.thenewstribune.com/seahawks
