The Seattle Seahawks turned on the jets six games into the 2014 season, winning nine of their last ten after a less-than-inspiring 3-3 start to secure an NFC West championship and homefield advantage throughout the NFC Playoffs.
According to Seahawks wide receiver Doug Baldwin, Seattle buckled under the pressure of being defending Super Bowl champs over the season's first month and a half.
“It was several things, but one of the more glaring things was the fact that we did win the Super Bowl last year,” Baldwin said. “Through that process, when you go to the parade and the ceremony and the ring, it makes you forget how difficult it was to reach the mountaintop.
“We were 3-3 and felt the pressure from the media, from ourselves and let it feed into the negativity and forgetting that it isn’t easy last year. But we also were one third-down conversion and one fake punt away from being 5-1.”
Baldwin points to the Percy Harvin trade as a needed sea change for the team.
“Percy is such a dynamic player that we tried a lot of things to get him the ball,’’ Baldwin said. “I think it made it more difficult on us as an offense because teams were scheming against that to prevent us from having success with Percy.
“When it did change, fortunately, we have a guy at quarterback [Russell Wilson] that passes it around to everybody and made it easier for our offense as a whole.”
The dynamic wideout also says that the team's attitude as improved from an overall perspective.
“We just needed to trust in each other and believe in each other,” he said. “It was about not putting anyone above the team and being successful together.”
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