In 1957, Jack Kerouac penned the famous counter-culture novel, “On the Road,” to great fanfare and controversy, as it provided a window into America’s beat generation.
Today it would be appropriate for the Seattle Seahawks to co-opt the phrase, “On the Road,” to use as the title for the story of their 2016 season. When historians look back on Seattle’s 2016, they will undoubtedly point to the road as the source of the Seahawks’ demise.
The Georgia Dome, site of Saturday’s season-ending 36-20 divisional playoff loss to the Atlanta Falcons, proved an appropriate setting for the final chapter in the Seahawks’ campaign. The road was not kind to Seattle this season, and a knockout blow away from the protective confines of CenturyLink Field seemed all but inevitable.
Switching literary genres, Robert Louis Stevenson could have used these Seahawks as the model for a protagonist in one of his Victorian-era adventure novels. When Seattle played at home the Seahawks were the bestial equivalent of Mr. Hyde. Yet when Seattle hit the road the Seahawks did their best impersonation of the mild-mannered Dr. Jekyll.
Seattle finished a pedestrian 3-4-1 in its road games during the regular season, compared to 7-1 at home. And the difference in records doesn’t begin to illustrate just how differently the Seahawks performed at home compared to on the road. At home Seattle averaged 28.4 points per game and allowed 17. But on the road the Seahawks scored just 15.9 while allowing 19. That 15-point swing between home and road games was the biggest in the NFL.
Then there’s an examination of the schedule. Seattle had only one quality road win this season, that being the 31-24 victory over the New England Patriots on Nov. 13. The Seahawks’ other two road victories came against the 5-11 New York Jets and 2-14 San Francisco — and Seattle nearly coughed up the one against the 49ers in their season finale. The Seahawks’ 38-10 loss at Green Bay on Dec. 11 was by far Seattle’s worst loss since Russell Wilson became the team’s quarterback in 2012. The defeats on the road were ugly and often.
If ever there was a season in which the Seahawks needed to earn home-field advantage in the playoffs, this was it.
Seattle had its chance. All the Seahawks needed to do to earn the NFC’s No. 2 seed and a home date at home in the divisional round was sweep their three little brothers in the NFC West over the final three weeks of the regular season. Los Angeles, Arizona and San Francisco were all out of playoff contention, and they finished with a combined record of 13-34-1, so it should have been easy pickings. Alas, Seattle couldn’t pull it off, getting beat by the Cardinals in the season’s penultimate week.
I’m sure it comes as no consolation that the loss to Arizona came at home.
Even then one could point to a slip on the road as being the ultimate difference. When Seattle traveled to face Arizona on Oct. 23 the Seahawks played an atrocious game on offense. Yet Seattle seemed poised to pull off an inexplicable victory in the final seconds of overtime, only for kicker Steven Hauschka to miss a 28-yard field goal that would have won it.
As a result the Seahawks finished the regular season 10-5-1. Had Seattle won that game and finished 11-5, it would have finished tied with Atlanta, and the Seahawks would have owned the tiebreaker by virtue of beating the Falcons 26-24 when the teams met in Seattle during the regular season. The Seahawks could have been the ones resting at home with a bye during wild-card week, preparing to host a divisional game against Atlanta. Think that would have made a difference in Saturday’s outcome?
But all season long Seattle’s road was strewn with spikes.
There were a number of factors in the Seahawks’ loss to the Falcons on Saturday. There was the play of Atlanta quarterback Matt Ryan, who reinforced his MVP credentials. There was the resurfacing of Seattle’s issues on the offensive line. There was even a critical holding penalty on Seattle linebacker Kevin Pierre-Louis, which nullified Devin Hester’s 79-yard punt return and completely turned the game’s momentum.
But none of those was the biggest factor. Seattle’s season was destined to be lost on the road, and once the Seahawks’ playoff path took them away from home there was nothing they were going to be able to do about it.
For more on the Seattle sports scene, check out Nick Patterson’s Seattle Sidelines blog at www.heraldnet.com/tag/seattle-sidelines, or follow him on Twitter at @NickHPatterson.
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