A Grip on Sports: Seahawks’ playoff hopes go up in smoke even before late rally, a missed Arizona field goal and a postgame kerfuffle

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Sometimes, as Sigmund Freud is famously (mis)quoted as saying, a cigar is just a cigar. Unless, of course, it is a flash point as the last Sunday of the NFL season for the Seattle Seahawks went up in smoke.

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• Yes, the Seahawks won, 21-20 as Arizona’s last-second 51-yard field goal sailed wide right. But the Seahawks also lost, as Chicago did right by itself and lost in Green Bay 17-9, ensuring the Packers the last NFC playoff spot and the Bears the eighth pick in the draft.

In the Glendale, Ariz., locker room after the one-point win, Hawk safety Julian Love handed out cigars to celebrate the recent birth of his son, igniting a firestorm of social-media criticism. Once again, nuance and patience were lost in a cloud of smoke billowing from Instagram and Twitter.

And just a few feet away, 72-year-old head coach Pete Carroll made it clear he wanted to be back and, more importantly, expected to be back. “I do,” Carroll responded when asked the latter question. “At this point I do, yeah.”

Tomorrow? Who knows?

The day seemed to be a perfect illustration of Carroll’s recent-vintage Seahawk teams. Just good enough to compete for a playoff spot – last year’s team got in on the final day, this year’s just missing out – but costing themselves opportunities due to a lack of consistent play or self-inflicted wounds. Heck, the biggest surprise Sunday wasn’t that Seattle won in its personal house of horrors. It was the Hawks won without being called for a single penalty. Now that’s odd. And has happened only one other time in Carroll’s Seattle stay.

Even Carroll admitted afterward Seattle had squandered three games this season, any one of which would have made Matt Prater’s last field goal attempt a playoff-clinching miss. Throughout the up-and-down season, one that must be considered mostly down due to the fourth-missed playoff season of his tenure, Carroll’s team displayed the traits that mark his career.

A loose locker room, populated with players who will give their all. A band of brothers with each other’s back. A glaring lack of attention to detail and, at times, a complete lack of poise. A coaching staff that often seems out of step with the modern world of the game.

Yin, meet yang. Win, meet loss. A 17-13 defeat at Los Angeles. A 41-35 frustration in Dallas. And, most crushingly, a 30-23 debacle against Pittsburgh at home a week ago.

Throw in a four-point loss in Cincinnati early in the season and the Hawks had their chances to be one of the NFL’s middling playoff participants. They didn’t even reach that low bar.

The sad aspect of the now-in-our-face offseason is the team’s lack of wiggle room. Any hopeful potential if you will. The salary cap, while always pliable, is working against John Schneider as he deals with three defensive free agents – Bobby Wagner, Jordyn Brooks and Leonard Williams – who seem to be among the players he would want to keep.

And, having not been good enough to make the postseason, the Seahawks were too good to earn a potentially transformative first-round draft pick (they will pick 16th in late April).

It’s not a recipe for offseason optimism.

Meanwhile, two NFC West rivals, San Francisco and Los Angeles, look to cement their status in the league’s hierarchy the next few weeks. Heck, the Rams had fallen so far last season, they looked to be in the midst of a rebuild. If that truly was the case, they did it quickly. And ruined the Hawks’ season handing them two defeats, either one of which would have flipped the teams’ playoff status. The 49ers? Only the NFC favorite. Home-field advantage throughout. A chance for a Super Bowl rematch with Baltimore and a chance to avenge a regular-season blowout defeat.

Meanwhile, the Seahawks prepare for 2024. And their fans lament another hopeful season going up in smoke.    

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WSU: Maybe we should have spent the morning writing about tonight’s national title football game. After all, the culmination of the four-team invitational includes a school from the state of Washington. And we all know Cougar fans will be rooting for their compadres from across the Cascades. Heck, Garrett Cabeza even has a story about it in the S-R this morning. It’s funny, though. We come into contact – face-to-face and electronically – with many Cougs. And everyone has the same view as the person cited by Garrett, Michael Ziskrout, at the end of his story. Not a one is rooting for the Huskies. Huh. … The women’s basketball team is in a bit of a slide. They fell to 0-3 in the Pac-12 with a 73-72 loss at California on Sunday. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and the nation, OK, we have a lot on tonight’s CFP championship game (ESPN, 4:30). Top-seed Michigan, 14-0, against second-seed Washington, also 14-0. The current Big Ten champion against the last Pac-12 champion – and next year’s Big Ten member. Houston, Texas. Contrasting styles. Contrasting coaches. The same goal. It’s college football so a mistake may decide it. Or both will play near-perfectly and a great play will be the difference. The Wolverines are favored by five points. The Huskies have experience in games with outcomes featuring that number – or less. Two great quarterbacks, one, a talented passer, the other, an underrated winner. All we can say is we are looking forward to watching this game more than any other championship on since 2015. … Oregon State (corrected from earlier) welcomed back a former player who returns through the portal after a season away. … Colorado continues to add to its roster. … Former WSU player Johnny Nansen is leaving Arizona to again team up with Steve Sarkisian. Nansen is headed to Texas as co-defensive coordinator and recruiter extraordinaire. … In basketball news, Jon Wilner looks back at the weekend in the Mercury News. … Oregon’s women fell to host USC, snapping a 13-game winning streak against the ninth-ranked Trojans. … Oregon State came close late but ended up losing 65-54 at second-ranked UCLA. … Fifth-ranked Colorado had no trouble with Arizona State, 81-68. … Shorthanded Utah lost 71-70 at Arizona in overtime. … We have some women’s and men’s power rankings we can pass along. … Hoping to get healthier, in a couple ways, Colorado next travels to Cal.

Gonzaga: It was a busy weekend (and week) for the Zags, who not only opened WCC play with two wins but were visited by two of the most important teams in the school’s history. Jim Meehan has this rewind of both. … We don’t know how we missed this Athletic story from last week, but we did. We pass it along now. The week’s sweep moved Gonzaga up in the NET rankings.

EWU: Yep, Cooper Kupp had another good game Sunday. The former Eastern star will be playing in the postseason with the Rams. Taylor Newquist has more in his weekly NFL locals column. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, South Dakota State was just too good for Montana yesterday in the FCS title game. Just like the Jackrabbits were against everyone they played. The Griz fell 23-3.

Chiefs: Another key stretch for the opposition led to Spokane dropping another game on their road trip through the East. This one was 10-4 at Medicine Hat. Dave Nichols has all the particulars in this story. … Howie Stalwick has Connie Madigan’s obituary, as the former Spokane pro died last week in Portland. He was 89.

Seahawks: Dave Boling does what he has to do, even though he admits he doesn’t like it – and it isn’t what he does best. Funny, he did a great job examining Carroll’s status and future in today’s column. … Others delved into Carroll’s future as well. … There are always grades. And things to learn. … The cigar stuff? Much ado about very little. … Bobby Wagner did not partake in the smoke. He also doesn’t want to partake in leaving Seattle again either. … If you want to watch Kansas City face Miami in the playoffs, you’ll have to have Peacock. We do but we’re not sure we will watch.

Kraken: On the road again, Seattle tries to keep its momentum going – and have some fun along the way.

Mariners: Teoscar Hernandez landed yesterday. The Mariner free agent signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Yep, another free agent headed to L.A. The Dodgers have spent nearly as much money this offseason by themselves as the rest of MLB has done all together.

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• We’re torn. We want Pac-12 football, as we know it, to finish with a flourish. But that would mean Washington, one of the schools that cemented the conference’s demise, would win the national title. And, if we root for the Huskies, does that mean we condone its subterfuge in that regard? No. We still hate what UW did. But we are all in with Bill Walton’s conference of champions becoming a champion once more. Nose squeezed firmly closed, we will be watching tonight. Maybe even applauding a little – with our free hand. Until later …