Seahawks Head Into Postseason With Higher Expectations Than Just Making The Playoffs

A day after a memorable Sunday got the Seahawks into the postseason, Pete Carroll called a Wild Card berth “a great reward for our guys.”

A great reward, however, does not mean the Seahawks are content to just be 9-8 and in the playoffs. Yes, they’ve already overachieved in the eyes of a lot of outside observers, but Carroll and the rest of his team never bought into the notion that they were a rebuilding team that couldn’t contend, so they’re not going to head into the playoffs with a happy-to-be-here approach now that they did get in.

In fact, for all the Seahawks did get done this year, Carroll picked a different word than you might have expected to describe the 2022 season so far.

“I think it’s been really frustrating,” he said, noting all the close losses the Seahawks had this season, including home losses to Atlanta, Oakland and Carolina, “We were close enough to win two or three more games anyway. And it would have been a whole lot different last night if we would have done that. One game would have made a difference. As much as the outlook from the outside was different than what ours is, we expect to do more. It’s good to have a winning record, but ‘let’s go out and have a winning record,’ that’s not my goal. That’s not what I’m reaching out for.

“We’re fortunate that we got it done under the circumstances and all that. We’ll take it, but we had higher expectations. That’s why I couldn’t go along with all the talk about rebuilding and all that stuff. It just doesn’t jibe with me. I don’t know why you would ever make that concession ever. I don’t get it. Just go for it. And so we did. And fortunately, we were able to hang in there did enough good things and had a chance to keep moving.”

The tough part now for Seattle is that their next step is against the hottest team in the NFL, the NFC West-champion 49ers, who won 10 in a row to close the regular season.

“Unfortunately, we’re playing the Niners and they’re loaded,” Carroll said. “They’re loaded and healthy and on a roll, and about as hot as you can possibly get. And doing it in really commanding fashion, too, with the young quarterback who is doing so well. Just kind of bucked the odds that everybody would think you could do that and—everybody in the media anyway. So we’ll see how we get our guys back for this weekend. It’s coming up quick with a Saturday ball game. And we’ve already started our week and we’re underway.”