The Seahawks lost to the Bears on Sunday by six points, 25-19. They were able to drive down the field to the 29 in their final possession but that’s when things stalled out. The Seahawks with Seneca Wallace as their quarterback were good enough to get field goals but they struggled to put it into the end zone. In fact, after scoring a touchdown on their first possession, Seattle wound up settling for six field goal attempts. Kicker Olindo Mare missed two in a row, one right before halftime and another at the beginning of the third quarter. You figure that missing one is understandable because of the wind, but then you make the adjustment after that. Had Mare made the second missed field goal, then the Seahawks conceivably would have been kicking to tie the game in the final minute. Instead they were forced to try and score a touchdown. As you could imagine, coach Jim Mora was pretty peeved after the game and he didn’t hide his feelings:
“There’ s no excuses for those,” Mora said through gritted teeth. “If you’re a kicker in the National Football League, you should make those kicks. Bottom line. End of story. Period. No excuses. No wind. Doesn’t matter.
“You’ve got to make those kicks, especially in a game like this when you’re kicking and scratching and fighting and playing your tail off and you miss those kicks? Not acceptable. Not acceptable. Absolutely not acceptable.”
Jim Mora was understandably pissed because he knows that the little things like failing to make an adjustment on a field goal can be the difference from a winning season and a losing season. He knows it’s the little things like that which get a coach fired. The thing is Mora is not exactly endearing himself to the players (the kicker at least) by going on a rant like this. He deflects the blame from himself to Mare and it makes everyone else feel the same way. Now why would that be a bad thing? Is there another kicker available who would be better than Olindo Mare? He better hope so because Mare’s not exactly going to be comfortable in Seattle the rest of the year. And how about the Bears winning two weeks in a row thanks to a pair of missed field goals by the opponent? Unreal.
