After being shredded by the Rams for 455 yards, the Seahawks defense will be without two starters, and possibly a third, for the game in Charlotte Sunday against the Carolina Panthers. DE  Jadeveon Clowney  and LB Mychal Kendricks are out, and CB Shaquill Griffin is questionable with a tender hamstring.

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It would be errant to say that Russell Wilson will have his get-well game Sunday at Carolina (10 a.m., FOX), because that assumes Wilson is sick (he isn't) and the bedraggled Panthers will lose (probably, but all us have been around the NFL long enough to be dope-slapped by assumptions).

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After several questions about the perplexing failures in Sunday's 28-12 loss to the Rams, coach Pete Carroll offered a hint to media members at Wednesday's presser on the direction he'd like rest of the conversation to take:

" . . . moving on," he said.

To Carolina. To a road game Sunday morning against a Panthers team that fired its long-time coach last week, is without injured star QB Cam Newton is 5-8 this season and 1-6 in the regular seasons against the Seahawks during Carroll's tenure.

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Since the outcome Sunday was the Rams' fourth win in the past five games against the Seahawks, and eighth in the past 12 meetings, there probably shouldn't be much shock in Seattle's 28-12 loss at the Coliseum. But 10 wins in the season's first 12 games created an expectation that somehow things would have gone better.

In fact, the Rams own the Seahawks.

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For a good team, it was hard to imagine playing worse. Under-energized. Over-matched. Out-coached. Borderline helpless. They embarrassed themselves in a big national game.

But enough about the Los Angeles Rams. How about those Seahawks Sunday night on national TV at the Coliseum?

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The 7-5 Washington Huskies will play 12-1 Boise State, coach-in-exit Chris Petersen's former team, in the Las Vegas Bowl Dec. 21, and the 6-6 Washington State Cougars will play 10-2 Air Force in the Cheez-It Bowl in Phoenix Dec. 27.

A post-season Mountain West (Conference) Fest sure to thrill several people.

Meanwhile, the Pac-12 Conference, in accord with recent tradition, will be nowhere when it comes to deciding college football's national champion.

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Pete Carroll was asked a question Wednesday about whether he agreed with a national commenter who said the Seahawks seem to have more fun than any team in the NFL. Obviously, it's easy to have fun at 10-2, but the Seahawks coach has always understood a basic teaching principle that there's a direct correlation between enthusiasm and learning.

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Setting aside the matter of lush compensation, coaching big-time college football is the worst job in major sports. Among all jobs, it's a step shy of shoveling asphalt daily in a Georgia summer.

In fact, Chris Petersen is setting aside millions of dollars because coaching football is such a brutal experience. Even at his dream job at the University of Washington, where football in a big metropolitan area means, to his delight, "four million people don't even know football exists."

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The path the Seahawks have taken to get to 10-2 and the top of the NFC West is mindful of the old Paris-Dakar auto rally, the off-road endurance race in Africa where participants had to survive heat, mud, dunes, floods, criminals, animals, washouts and blowouts. The goal is not to end the day upside down.

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Shocking all wearing purple, not to mention everyone else in college football, Chris Petersen is stepping down as University of Washington football coach, according to a statement from the school Monday morning. Athletics director Jen Cohen immediately appointed defensive coordinator Jimmy Lake to the permanent position as head coach.

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As closely aligned as are the quarterback careers of Russell Wilson and Kirk Cousins, in college and the NFL, there's one big discrepancy.

Wilson has eight playoff wins and two Super Bowl appearances. Cousins has none of either.

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Normally sports history is written after the big game. Ever the iconoclast, Washington Huskies senior C Nick Harris decided to write history before the Apple Cup. He took out a Sharpie Thursday and, along the bottom of his game undershirt, wrote in big letters, "WE DON'T LOSE TO COUGS." He put an X through the final word.

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Costello had Abbott. Hardy had Laurel. Stimpy had Ren. Butthead had Beavis. Mrs. Doubtfire had Robin Williams.

Good comedy partnerships usually need a foil. The Apple Cup once had some of it when the Huskies' Don James was the period and the Cougars' Jim Walden was the exclamation point.

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The last time they played in Seattle, how bad did the Minnesota Vikings suck?

So bad that Vikings coach Mike Zimmer the next day fired his first-year offensive coordinator, John DeFilippo -- in December, when the Vikings were 6-6-1 and still in playoff contention.

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This Huskies football season got away from coach Chris Petersen.

It's hard to say how or why, since media can't watch practice and the players are trained to avoid honesty in public. But the conclusion nevertheless is visible and inescapable, following Pac-12 Conference defeats to 4-6 Cal, 5-5 Stanford and 4-6 Colorado. The 20-14 loss Saturday to the Buffaloes in Boulder was a stark depiction of a team getting worse instead of better, with minimal excuses for injuries.

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A breakthrough.

The Seahawks won a football game when Russell Wilson didn't display every superpower on the roster of The Avengers.

As likely you are aware, the Seahawks have become so reliant on Wilson that there was talk he might adopt the entire team as dependents. After all, a rich guy like Wilson needs every tax deduction he can get.

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On a Saturday wherein sixth-ranked Oregon fell to 5-5 Arizona State and Washington State gave up 29 points in less than 10 fourth-quarter minutes and still won, the Pac-12 Conference events on a cold, dry evening in Boulder, CO, may be little noted nor long remembered.

But that's only if you don't wear purple.

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If the Washington Huskies Huskies win Saturday at Colorado (7 p.m., ESPN) and Nov. 29 at home in the Apple Cup, both of which they will be favored to do, they will finish 8-4 overall and 5-4 in the Pac-12 Conference. They can make the argument they are the third-best team, since they beat USC, the only other contender for the auspicious claim of "We're No. 3."

Granted, given the league-wide mediocrity beyond Oregon and Utah, it's a little like being designated the world's tallest Corgi. Coaches like to call such a season "well-balanced," but we all know better, mm-kay?

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Remember when Philadelphia Eagles were the trendiest thing in the NFL? Me, neither.

The Eagles, whom the Seahawks play in Philly Sunday (10 a.m., FOX), were immediate national darlings when they smited Emperor Palpatine and his Storm Troopers in Super Bowl LII. 

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Could it be that the Seahawks defense is . . . well, um, you know . . . respectable?

One game proves nothing, but it did inspire speculation after the Seahawks' 27-24 overtime over San Francisco last week that the weak link might be made of something other than straw and duct tape.

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