RENTON, Wash. -- Only a few hours after the first home loss of his NFL career, his worst game ever at Century Link Field, Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson was back at work.
“He was in here about 4:30 [Monday] morning," Seattle coach Pete Carroll said on his 710 ESPN Seattle radio show. “He beat me here after we had texted until late in the night. He was frustrated and felt bad about it. He’ll come back as best as anybody can come back.”
Wilson was 14-0 at home in his career before the 17-10 loss Sunday to the Arizona Cardinals when he completed only 11 of 27 passes for 108 yards. His quarterback rating of 49.6 was his lowest ever in a home game.
But there’s no looking back for Wilson. The Seahawks, 12-3, still can clinch the NFC West title and home-field advantage for the playoffs with a victory at home against the St. Louis Rams on Sunday in the final regular-season game
“The thing now is to keep everyone together," Wilson said Sunday after the game. “We keep everybody believing in what we do. We know what we do best, and we go back to work. We just keep our head down and keep working and focus on the moment.”
Carroll said one major focus this week is third-down efficiency. Seattle was 2 of 13 on third-down attempts Sunday.
“We’re struggling there,” Carroll said of third-down plays. “We have not been as good in the last three games. The five previous games, we had a 54 percent conversion on third downs. The last three we’re at 26 percent.
“That’s enough of a stat to tell you that we’re off. Third downs always are a big factor. That’s the problem right now, and we have to make sure we get that back on track and get it turned around.”
The surprising thing about Sunday’s third-down failures was that several of them were short-yardage situations. The Seahawks had five third downs of three yards or less when they failed to convert.
“We really were on schedule, and they should have been very makeable," Carroll said. “But we just didn’t get it done. It’s a big area of focus.”