The Seattle Seahawks lost to the Dallas Cowboys 41-35 in Week 13. Dallas had won each of their home games by at least 20 points heading into the matchup, so maybe we learned that Seattle is a decent team after all in losing by just 6 and being ahead for a lot of the game. But we learned Seattle is just good enough to get beat by a good team as well.
The Cowboys are not an exceptional team. While they are among the better teams in the NFL, they really should not have looked so bad defensively against a Seattle team that was greatly struggling in the weeks before Thursday's contest. Maybe if Dallas gets home-field advantage in the playoffs they can be a threat, but the Philadelphia Eagles are unlikely to let home-field advantage slip away from them.
Yet the Cowboys are a more well-rounded team than the Seahawks. With Seattle, every week seems slightly different. The offense will be bad but the defense OK, or, as in the case of Week 13, the offense was pretty good while the defense stunk. Here are some things we learned about Seattle in their loss to the Cowboys.
Seattle Seahawks truth No. 1 - Pete Carroll's culture is fine...for now
Since 2010, head coach Pete Carroll has built a successful culture where players are mostly allowed to be themselves and the team comes first. Note I said mostly there. Possibly one reason young players relate to Carroll's style so much is they have not yet learned to be jaded by the business of the NFL and just want to play football. That is what Carroll wants to do, of course.
Teams who are facing three very tough games in a row and had already lost three of four games could easily quit and start thinking about their offseason plans. But the Seahawks did not quit and came out starting the game as if they were the 8-3 team and trying to get good playoff seeding. Teams that do not believe in their coaching staff would not do that.
Many 12s and websites, including this one, have spoken about potential changes to the Seahawks coaching staff this coming offseason. That may, and likely should, still happen. One game where the offense plays well does not really change anything as Seattle is far too inconsistent from week to week and that is partly a coaching problem. But at least we saw that the 2023 Seahawks are not going to quit playing hard.