Seahawks couldn't come back from costly penalty in loss to Falcons

ATLANTA -- Nobody in the Seattle Seahawks locker room was willing to say that a crucial and bizarre sequence early in the second quarter cost them a victory at Atlanta. When you lose a playoff game 36-20, it's hard to put too much weight on one or two bad breaks.

Still, Seattle was ahead 10-7 and had forced a three-and-out. The entire feel of the game up to that point had been quite even, and here was a chance for the Seahawks to perhaps build a lead on the road.

Devin Hester had seemingly popped a huge 80-yard punt return, which would have set Seattle up with a first-and-goal. Instead, a holding penalty was called on Kevin Pierre-Louis, even though it did not appear to have any impact on creating room for Hester's return.

"It's unfortunate. It was a vital part of the game," running back Thomas Rawls said.

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How vital? Rather than knocking on the door of a two-score lead, Seattle was backed up to its own 7-yard line. Then, after a first down running play went backwards to the 4, disaster struck on second down when quarterback Russell Wilson tripped over the foot of backup right guard Rees Odhiambo on his drop and was tackled in the end zone, resulting in a safety.

Atlanta got a field goal out of the ensuing possession for a 12-10 lead and had complete control the rest of the way. Though Seattle didn't lose the game right there, the combination of those two plays - the penalty and the safety - undoubtedly turned momentum in Atlanta's favor.

"I'd have to go back and look at it and see what happened, but I'm sure it had some impact," cornerback Richard Sherman said. "It was a long return."

Odhiambo, a rookie from Boise State who had never played right guard in an NFL game, said the safety was a result of not splitting wide enough and felt bad about dropping his foot back right in Wilson's area.

But he was also placed in a very difficult situation after starter Germain Ifedi was injured in the first quarter.

"It was a challenge because I've never played that position once," he said. "It got a lot easier as the game went on."

Wilson said Seattle had called a pass play in that situation and that the entire sequence was an unfortunate microcosm of a game where things didn't fall their way.

"It was a crazy situation," he said. "Devin Hester is the best (kick returner) of all time and brings it to the (7) and we have to be able to overcome that penalty. Then a foot play happened. It's a crazy game, stuff happens. Unfortunately it didn't work out but there were a lot of things left out there after that."