Playoff Slips Are So 20 Years Ago

So where were you in December 1984?

Marty Schottenheimer was in Cleveland, having coached the Browns’ final eight regular-season games after replacing Sam Rutigliano at midseason. Schottenheimer’s record in those games: 4-4. A few months later, Schottenheimer would lead the Browns to the 1985 AFC Central title -- his record: 8-8 -- and a playoff game against Miami, which, of course, he lost.

The St. Louis Rams of Anaheim of Los Angeles of Cleveland were still in their Orange County honeymoon period, but the seeds of discontent and future franchise displacement had been sown in a 16-13 home playoff defeat to the New York Giants. A decade of similar disappointment followed, leading to the divorce that sent the Rams limping into the open, we’ll-take-anybody arms of St. Louis in 1995.

Chuck Knox, the coach who one day would oversee the ultimate collapse of the Rams’ Orange County residency, was still in Seattle, watching Dave Krieg and Steve Largent lead the Seahawks to their most recent postseason victory, a 13-7 first-round decision over the Raiders, who then played their home games in Los Angeles.

And 9-year-old Matt Hasselbeck was approaching that glittering holiday gift with great degree of uncertainty, not knowing whether to make a run for it and claim the prize or hesitate a moment and eventually pass.

Two decades and a couple of weekends later, there they were again on Saturday, Schottenheimer in San Diego and the Seahawks in Seattle, down to their last downs of the season, just a handful of yards from the tying touchdowns.

In Seattle, Seahawk quarterback Hasselbeck drops back and the left side of the line opens up for him, a great but fleeting parting of the Ram defense. Should he run? Or should he throw?

Hasselbeck thinks about scrambling, then cuts back toward the middle of field and throws over the middle, into the end zone, for wide receiver Bobby Engram.

Engram has a step on Ram defender Jerametrius Butler. The ball is fired low, but it’s catchable, at least by normal NFL standards, which are somewhat higher than 2004-05 Seattle Seahawk standards.

The ball hits Engram in his hands ... then hits him in the stomach

In an instant, Hasselbeck is on his knees, along with the rest of the Seahawk franchise and the city of Seattle, pounding his fists on the grass in frustration.

Rams 27, Seahawks 20.

Winless in the postseason since 1984, Seattle extends its playoff losing streak to 0-6, equaling the NFL record.

A few hours later in San Diego, Schottenheimer’s Chargers are staring at a similar fate. Fourth and goal, down by seven points, Drew Brees back to pass ... and back ... and back some more, retreating to avoid a pair of New York Jet defenders, flinging the ball into the end zone in desperation.

Jet cornerback Donnie Abraham bats the ball to the ground and that’s that.

Except for the yellow flag on the field not far from Brees, sent there with an illegal blow to the helmet by Jet linebacker Eric Barton.

Incredibly, Barton is cited for roughing the passer, the Chargers get another chance and on the next play, with 11 seconds left in regulation, Brees hits Antonio Gates for the tying touchdown, 17-17, bring on overtime, maybe Schottenheimer’s luckless streak in the playoffs has finally hit the wall.

Then again, upon further review....

Given an opportunity to win the game in overtime, with Brees and LaDainian Tomlinson having moved the ball well into Jet territory, Martyball reared its ugly, arch-conservative head. Rather than going for the touchdown and sparing his rookie kicker a nerve-rattling attempt on a rainy night, Schottenheimer played for the field goal.

It would be a 40-yard attempt from the right hashmark, hardly a chip shot for anyone. If Nate Kaeding had converted, he would have been the first NFL rookie to win a playoff game with an overtime field goal.

There’s a reason it would have been a first. On a wet field, under immense pressure, Kaeding did what many rookie kickers would given the same circumstances. He missed, pushing his kick wide right.

Ball, and sudden reprieve, to the Jets, who have an experienced hand at kicker, Doug Brien, an 11-year pro. And when Brien drilled his 28-yard attempt through the uprights seconds before the end of the first extra period, Schottenheimer had lost in the first round again, 20-17.

The sudden-death defeat left Schottenheimer with a career postseason record of 5-12. Twelve trips to the playoffs, eight trips without a victory.

Twenty years roll off the calendar, but some things do not change. For the Seahawks and Schottenheimer, old habits did them in again.

Schottenheimer went conservative in the clutch, and it cost him.

The Seahawks dropped a pass, their trademark play of the 2004 regular season, and it knocked them out of the playoffs.

Postseason runs of 0-6 and 5-12 don’t happen by accident.

Engram’s drop was one of five for the Seahawks in their third loss of the season against NFC West rival St. Louis. It symbolized Seattle’s entire maddening season, which began with three consecutive victories and talk of breaking through to the Super Bowl, an NFC title there for the taking, except the Seahawks dropped the ball, again and again.

The Seahawks can now wrap up their 2004 highlight video (suggested title: “Look Ma, No Hands”). Yet let the record show that on the day Seattle dropped five passes to bobble its way out of the playoffs, Jerry Rice, the greatest catcher of footballs in NFL history, was in the Seahawks’ starting lineup.

Let the record also show that Rice did not catch a pass against the Rams on Saturday. Largely because no passes were thrown his way.

So you can’t call 20 years without a playoff victory a hex or a curse. Not when the major damage continues to be self-inflicted.