I still think that one day it's going to happen. The Seattle Seahawks, led by Pete Carroll, will complete an undefeated season. Unbridled homerism? Maybe. But when that is one of your goals every season when you break Camp, and when you have a track record of accomplishing your goals like this team does, the possibility for an undefeated season is very real. Just not this year. Whether it be the horrid officiating, the inability to convert or stop on 3rd down, or Russell Wilson constantly running for his life, whatever it was all equaled a Seahawks loss, their first of 2013. Still, as the dust has cleared, this loss doesn't feel like all the rest.
Truth be told, these aren't as fun to write after a Seahawks loss. Being on hand to witness the carnage and the immediate aftermath of a tough loss from your favorite team could be considered a lot like just happening to walk by a terrible car crash and having to tell stories about it. Still, unlike the terrible automobile wreck, there were still some good times with good people (which is always the case when Seahawks fans are involved, it seems.) Despite the fact that me and mah boy Greg (who had just gone with me to Houston for the Texans game) were cutting it close with our 11:00AM arrival in Indianapolis on Sunday morning, we were confident things would work out. And behold, despite calls for terrible weather through the Midwest over the weekend, we made it! And earlier than we expected too, which was a bonus.
Luckily Indy isn't as spread out of a city as Houston is. Everything is pretty centralized downtown, stadiums included, so the trip from the airport was painless. Finally, after a few minutes of empty Indiana nothingness on the open road, Lucas Oil Stadium emerged from the distance. It's a pretty gigantic structure and it certainly stands out in comparison to the rest of the Indy skyline. Within minutes of our flight landing we were already at the Midwest Seahawkers Tailgate, with drink and chips in hand. You couldn't have asked for a better scenario. Still, it got better as my buddy Dale, a Carlow East stalwart back in NYC, greeted me with Makers Mark in hand. Did I mention that Seahawks fans are great people with excellent taste? With familiar faces Bob, Leif, and Jordan also in attendance and good karma on overdrive, it seemed that the Seahawks were destined for victory.
Fittingly, the rain intensified as we all made our way to the stadium. The day of reckoning was upon us. Or something like that. In no way did I expect anything other than a damn good football game from two very fine football teams. You could tell that even the fans of both teams knew how tough of a matchup this was. Indianapolis fans are friendly, respectful, and fairly humble by nature and I even heard a few saying that they were worried about playing the Seahawks. It feels good to finally hear that from fans who have solid knowledge of the game on a somewhat regular basis now. By the same token, I wasn't completely sure of victory (maybe that's what went wrong?) and I definitely had a pretty high level of respect for the Colts and where they're headed. Luckily, the time for talk was over and it was time to settle it on the field.
Lucas Oil Stadium is a pretty nice stadium. I'd say it's better than Reliant and it's what I'd expect Ford Field to be like in Detroit. Aesthetics aside, and more importantly, our view was a halfway decent one from Section 604. Even if the view had been a terrible one, it still would've been a ton of fun being surrounded by a ravenous pack of 12's like the one we had! Our entire section was practically all 12's and we definitely helped try and support the boys from up near the rafters. As the game started to unfold, it was actually pretty weird to see the 'Hawks come flying out of the gate the way they did. Mentally, I had prepared myself for more of the usual "it's not how you start but how you finish" type stuff and was genuinely okay with that happening. Didn't happen. Instead, the Hawks were up 10-0 and had just blocked a punt before things started to get a little weird.
If you had to ask this guy, and our whole section for the most part, Jeron Johnson got in, with possession, before sliding out of the endzone. Hell, even the guy who was sitting behind us (who I still think was Tim Robbins), a Colts Season Ticket Holder, muttered to his son that the Colts might have gotten lucky. Still, no surprise here, so they had to move on. I've now come to expect the comical, WWE-level officiating this league has to offer us, so occurrences like these fail to shock me anymore. What WAS shocking was seeing Golden Tate called for Offensive Pass Interference. Not because he clearly didn't commit a penalty, but because that referee just penalized Golden for executing an amazing catch, one you dream of as a kid, all in an actual NFL game in front of thousands of people. That amazing feel, and the yardage that he also accumulated, as well as the team's momentum, were robbed.
I think you get where I'm going with this one. When I saw TY Hilton flop to the ground as if he were imitating Reggie Miller after being unable to muster up anything on the play against Richard Sherman, I knew what the deal was. Once the pink flag came flying from the official and scudded across the turf, it was solely confirmation. These guys had no clue what they were doing. They were in over their heads. Reggie Wayne pushoff on a 2 point conversion attempt perhaps? Ehhh, the officials couldn't be bothered to care.
To make matters worse, Andrew Luck was the real deal Holyfield, TY Hilton looked like the second-coming of Titus Young, and the Indianapolis front 7 had no problem knifing through the Seahawks make-shift line and forcing Russell Wilson to do everything on the move. Should the Hawks have stuck with the ground game that was working so well in the first half? Maybe. Still, I have no problem with putting the game in Russell Wilson's hands at any point, he's that damn good. Having said that, something tells me we'll be seeing A LOT of Marshawn in this week's game against the Titans.
Maybe that's why this loss feels different, because we can still look forward without gloom. Believe me, I know my share of Seahawks losses and I've seen my share live and in person too. This might be the first loss of this season, but it's still a Seahawks loss like all the rest of 'em. This one though, I don't know, it just doesn't feel like too big of a deal. I'm not left feeling like this week just needs to end already so that I can watch the Seahawks get retribution like I had always done in my life's history. This one feels like, damn, shit happens but what can you do? Momma said there'd be days like this, and this was definitely one of those days. Too many factors just conspired to make sure that this wouldn't be Seattle's day, and that they wouldn't be going undefeated.
However, that wasn't to say that it couldn't still be our day, so we returned to the scene of the tailgate, despite defeat, and we proceeded to finish what we started. Still, the mood was rather upbeat and positive despite what we had all just seen go down. We crushed some brewski's, talked Seahawks and life, and then set out on separate ways. For Bob, it was back home, as luck would have it Leif would go on to meet the President of the Seahawks Peter McLoughlin, and for Dale, Greg, and I it was time to check in to the hotel and finally sit down for a minute. A crazy day was finally coming to an end. Note that it was only around 7PM and still everyone was already exhausted.
I've got to hand it to the city of Indianapolis. It's way cooler than I had expected. I was expecting nothing but desolate power plants and Steak and Shake's on every corner. Oh, well there was that too. Still, it passes my number one litmus test for every great city, and that's great people. As I was waiting in line at Shapiro's for a sandwich, a gentleman next to me turned and told me to get the Corned Beef. He said it was the best, no doubt about it. He wasn't lying, as me and my friends agreed it was a pretty awesome sandwich. Hospitable, welcoming, and laid back, I gotta say people from Indy are a decent bunch and I had a great time, despite the loss.
Before we headed home to finally leave the scene of the crime, a local news reporter stopped to speak with Greg and I about Indianapolis and a future bid for the Super Bowl in 2018. Hilarity ensued and I'm probably now a D- list celebrity with two random news report appearances on the season.
http://launch.newsinc.com/share.html?trackingGroup=10557&siteSection=ndn&videoId=25233521
The flights home were as routine as flying through the sky can be but there was still some excitement. Greg, a lifer Jets fan, got to watch in multiple airports as the Jets pulled off an improbable upset and dumped the Falcons to 1-4. What really struck me about this game was the final score and the way it ended. It was as if the Jets were the 2012 Falcons and the Falcons were the 2012 Seahawks in their playoff game last season. The Falcons, like Seattle, fired back with an outrageous comeback before finally taking the lead late in the game having trailed. Then the Jets, like the Falcons a season prior, marched down the field for a winning field goal and a 30-28 victory. This definitely made me smile and helped me realize that even though the Seahawks lost over the weekend, the trip wasn't a total wash.
Now Tennessee rolls into town and I think it's fairly safe to say that the Seahawks will be fired up and ready to go. With the 12th Man back in their corner, after the first 4-0 start in team history, and after a tough defeat on the road, there's nothing like some home cookin'! However, I hope the Flaming Thumbtacks aren't expecting any southern hospitality on their trip to the Pacific Northwest. Oh no, I hope they know that they're in for 60 of the worst collective minutes of their 2013 calendar year. I think this one will be a tough one early but it'll get ugly late. It's time for the Seahawks to restore balance to the universe and get a W at the CLink.
GO Hawks!!!
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