SEATTLE — The way the Seahawks and 49ers were playing before lightning forced both teams off the field Sunday, it’s hard to say either team lost momentum because of the hour-long delay.
But based on the results after the teams returned to the field, the Seahawks certainly made better use of the break.
The game was scoreless with 3:13 left in the first period when the delay began, but after the game resumed, the Seahawks took control on their way to a 29-3 victory.
And maybe he really needed it, or maybe it was more symbolic, but the turning point could have been when quarterback Russell Wilson decided to erase the offense’s bad start by taking a shower and getting ready for a new game all over again.
“During the break he came out after a shower or something, and he looked like a baaaad man,” cornerback Richard Sherman said. “I knew we were all right.”
Wilson reasoned that, since the game was less than a quarter old and still scoreless, it was best to treat what remained as a new game.
“The thing we did a really good job of was, once that lightning hit and we were in the locker room for an hour, we just kind of revamped,” he said. “I took a shower to restart my mind, restart everything to really get out there and feel like it’s a new game. We did a great job of that, oach Carroll did a tremendous job of talking to us and making sure we were on the same page of, ‘It’s a new game. It’s a new opportunity for us. The score is zero-zero.’”
So what does a football team do with an unexpected hour to kill?
“We listened to a lot of music, we got hyped,” Sherman said. “I partied with the D-line a little bit, we did some dance moves, and had a good time.”
It wasn’t all fun and games, however. There was plenty of coaching to do, and for an offense that been forced to punt twice — and one of those got blocked — and had a pass intercepted in three possessions, a break was a good chance to examine some mistakes.
“Absolutely we did,” Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll said when asked if his team made adjustments during the break. “It was a great opportunity for us, I’m sure they did the same thing. We did all kinds of things in all phases where it was needed. We coached throughout the time, other than when the music was blaring.”
The delay was the first for a Seahawks home game since a Thursday night contest against San Francisco in December of 2006. That game started late when torrential rains caused water to build up under the playing surface.
It wasn’t a welcome break for the Seahawks, but it was one they took advantage of on the way to a convincing victory.
“I was like, ‘Come on, man, it was just getting good,’” safety Kam Chancellor said. “But things happen for a reason. We had the delay. We just looked at it like a start of a new quarter and went out there and did what we had to do.”
Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com.
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