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Scrutinized Seahawks say a win is a win is a win

By Danny O’Neil, The Seattle Times –

RENTON, Wash. — The Seattle Seahawks reported for Week 4 of the NFL an unrepentant 2-1.

They did not speak in hushed tones or ask forgiveness for winning a game on an officiating decision that so many people, including the President of the United States, found to be terrible.

Sorry? No reason to be.

“We got the W,” cornerback Richard Sherman said. “That’s all it is at the end of the day. We won the ballgame. We’re preparing for the Rams, watching the film.”

The Seahawks are not oblivious to the criticism of the way Monday’s game was decided. The team is simply not buying into the idea that it should be ashamed or somehow chastened by coming out on the right end of the scoreboard in Monday’s game against Green Bay after officials ruled Golden Tate caught the ball simultaneously with Packers defensive back M.D. Jennings and awarded him a touchdown.

“We won the game, and we’re not going to give it back,” running back Leon Washington said. “So it isn’t anything to bother us at all.”

Professional football teams do their best to build a bubble, insulating themselves as best they can from listening to what the rest of the world is saying about them. This is as true in victory as it is in defeat, and it’s especially true in moments like this when the rest of the country seems to be staring daggers in your direction.

“It’s always the same,” Sherman said. “You can’t get too high, you can’t get too low. If you start listening to the outside world, you’ll start riding that roller coaster.”

Or believing that you’re complicit in the theft of a victory from the righteous Packers.

But understand this: The result of that game looks very different to the Seahawks than it does the rest of the country. They don’t believe they were handed this game. Not even close. They believe they put a schoolyard whupping on the Packers offense for the better part of four quarters and then grabbed hold of a victory as time expired when officials ruled Tate had latched onto the ball at the same time as Jennings.

That distinctly Seattle perspective isn’t something that’s going to resonate with the rest of the league, though, and that was something Carroll tried to emphasize to his players when they returned to work Wednesday to prepare for Sunday’s game in St. Louis.

“There’s two sides to this story,” Carroll said, “and in this (locker) room, these guys are thrilled to have gotten the win, but understand that there’s another way of looking at this.”

That other way is probably how the Seahawks would have felt if that final pass had been ruled an interception. Seattle would have howled about not only that call, but the third-down pass-interference penalty against safety Kam Chancellor that sustained Green Bay’s only touchdown drive of the game and added the game to a list of officiating atrocities that includes Super Bowl XL and Vinny Testaverde’s helmet being mistaken for the ball.

It’s all a matter of perspective. Most people across the country looked at Tate’s touchdown and saw outrage; the Seahawks merely felt fortunate.

“I’ve been on the other side so much,” Carroll said, “that it feels, ‘Oh boy, it’s great to get one once in a while.’

“Our guys, I think you’ll find them to be humble about it and to be sensitive and understand and also very appreciative of the fact we had a chance to get a great win at home on Monday night.”

They were also, to a man, in agreement they were 2-1, and offering absolutely no apologies.

“A W is still a W,” Sherman said. “At the end of the day you can say whatever you want, it still counts the same.”

NOTE

— OL James Carpenter — last year’s first-round draft pick — is preparing to make his debut Sunday in St. Louis as he continues his recovery from a season-ending knee injury. A tackle last year, he will be playing left guard this season.

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