Seahawks thaw out from Minnesota, move on in the postseason

We missed a chip shot field goal. The 23-year CFL veteran kicker was the target of numerous threats from angry fans while his home was pelted with eggs and manure dumped on his lawn.

Minnesota Vikings kicker Blair Walsh (3) misses a field goal during the second half of an NFL wild-card football game against the Seattle Seahawks, Sunday, Jan. 10, 2016, in Minneapolis. There will be no solace or moral victory in being that close, but it does give hope to the masses of Vikings’ fans that they are on the cusp of becoming one of the league’s few elite teams.

That all came into focus on Monday with some explanations from coach Pete Carroll. “So to survive this game, to get on out of here and to get on to the next ball game, it’s an enormous accomplishment”.

“You want to yell and scream at the game?” You go out on the field. He needs to feel like he could do those things. He gained 417 yards on 111 carries and three touchdowns this season.

In Sunday’s game, Walsh hooked his kick into the wind in -32 C conditions after making all three of his prior attempts.

“The communication was a little off for some instances”, said Wilson who completed 13 of 26 passes for 142 yards and a touchdown.

McCallum, 46, downplayed the roles the laces, weather or pressure of the moment had on Walsh missing.

That said, it’s a tad easier to believe when your quarterback finished the season with the best passer rating in the NFL. “The pressure, that’s just the job, it doesn’t matter”. “There’s plenty of things that people are going through, battling cancer and sickness and other things, that are real adversity”. It’s not where you have to do anything different to kick it harder… all you have to do is hit it true.

Bennett’s instincts lead him to take chances in Seattle’s defense.

Walsh wasn’t alone in blaming himself. Michael is coming off a career-high 102 yards rushing in the regular season finale against Arizona. “The last field goal, being an inch away from the first down, that haunts me”.

But upon seeing the replay of Walsh’s shank, the four-time Pro Bowler immediately empathized with his Minnesota counterpart. The only other nonblocked failed kicks from inside 30 yards were 29-yard attempts, by Adam Vinatieri for Indianapolis on September 21 and Kyle Brindza for Tampa Bay on October 4. “Don’t let one mistake define your career”.

“It’ll take a while for me”. Kicking a field goal was like kicking a frozen turkey, for crying out loud. While he felt acceptance from his teammates, McCallum admits he didn’t feel the love from then head coach head coach Danny Barrett and GM Roy Shivers.

“I’ve got to do better than that”, Walsh said.

However, McCallum said jilted fans have long memories.

“I thought it was a tremendous illustration of what it takes to play great run defense against a really excellent football player”, Carroll said. The Vikings did enough to nearly win the game, but they would ultimately fall short.

“When it comes back and it bites you in this type of way, it’s something I want to put an emphasis on for this offseason”, Peterson said. “There’s going to be times that he’s going to penetrate instead of play the block the way another guy would because he knows where the ball’s going”.