For the longest time during Russell Wilson's season-ending Zoom conference Thursday, I felt like a rookie rush end trying to pin him in the backfield. With an almost perpetual smile, he took each question and swooped and soared with bromide-rich answers that dodged facts, insight and candor.

Indeed, Russ again was cooking -- an eggless omelette.

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While blame for the Seahawks' early departure was widespread, one person paid for it with his job -- offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer "parted ways" with the club, which announced what amounts to a firing Tuesday afternoon via Twitter.

The news was startling, given that coach Pete Carroll, when asked about staff changes following the unexpectedly limp 30-20 loss to the Rams Saturday that ended the season, said, "I'm counting on everybody coming back." Schottenheimer also rates some credit for an offense that scored 459 points, most in club history.

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Recently I asked Pete Carroll on Zoom about whether there was someone or something he has relied upon when it comes time to fill vacancies on his Seahawks coaching staff. Since the NFL's annual Black Monday of coach firings was pending, I figured it was a good time to learn about methods and practices.

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Here's my attempt to summarize in two words the state of the Seahawks, based on developments and conversations over the past several days, as well as recent history, that concluded the weirdest season in the club's history:

Yes, but.

Yes, the Seahawks have been to the playoffs nine times in Pete Carroll's 11 years. But they haven't been to the Super Bowl since the 2014 season.

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The post-mortems that follow the conclusions of pro football seasons necessarily involve discussions about coaching changes, contract extensions, pending free agency and draft needs. Before we get to those discussions -- and suddenly there seems more time for personnel stuff now in Seattle than was anticipated -- let's get to one item that lingers from the Seahawks' awkward collapse Saturday.

Did the Seahawks lose the battle of wills with the Rams?

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After the first home playoff loss in Pete Carroll era, after the worst postseason performance of Russell Wilson's career, it was plain Saturday at the Loo that something was broken with the Seattle Seahawks.

Granted, the ferocious defense of the Los Angeles Rams did a lot of the breaking. But some things in the Rams' way-too-easy, 30-20 playoff victory (box) came pre-broke, destined to help end the season in what many, including bookies, felt was premature fashion for a 12-4 Seattle team that won the toughest division in football.

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On the eve of the NFL playoffs Friday, LB Bobby Wagner was voted to the Associated Press's All-Pro first team, and SS Jamal Adams and WR DK Metcalf to the second team. This is the most prestigious of the pro football awards given annually, and those selected deserve hearty congratulations.

Now that we're in the awards season of the most peculiar year in NFL history, I'd like to offer up a new accolade:

Team That Figured It Out on the Fly Award.

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In times that now seem almost quaint -- before we stared Wednesday into the abyss to see what an American collapse looks like when the federal government is in the hands of a gangster -- the NFL was pulled into a national political controversy.

In September 2017, President Trump, in a speech in Alabama, savaged players who followed the lead of Colin Kaepernick in 2016 and knelt during the national anthem. They offered protest over police brutality and racial injustice: No words, no histrionics, only silent dissent, a right many Americans gave their lives to preserve.

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Without looking it up, do you recall the name of the most recent quarterback to beat the Seahawks?

If you said Colt McCoy, you win the Case Keenum Trophy for Obscure Quarterback Triumphs over the Seahawks.

On Dec. 6, McCoy, 34, who had started three games in the previous four years, subbed for injured starter Alex Smith and led the New York Giants to a surprising 17-12 win over favored Seattle.

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Something that gets less coverage in the NFL relative to its influence, over time, on seasonal outcomes, is how well front offices work together. Apart from the sort of data that covers things like drafts and free-agent signings, my observation is that most front offices operate somewhere on a continuum between The Sopranos and Curb Your Enthusiasm.

I mean, no one is being killed, but few get out without being humiliated.

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The Seahawks entered play Sunday against San Francisco at their desert rental in Arizona with a chance to improve their position from the No. 3 seed in the NFC playoffs to second or first. But since the Packers and Saints, playing at the same time as Seattle, claimed the higher spots with easy wins, the Seahawks-Niners outcome, regarding seedings, became moot.

So the game watered down to style points. The Seahawks' style was dirty overalls on a highwire. They made it across safely, but looked kinda funny.

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It took until the final weekend of the regular season, but the coronavirus caught up to the Seahawks Saturday, previously the only NFL team that had skated past the troubles. The club put starting RT Brandon Shell and backup FS Damarious Randall on the reserve/COVID-19 list, a seasonal first for players on the active roster.

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In 1985, Seahawks coach Chuck Knox, inventor of diabolically mundane Ground Chuck offense, found a way for QB Dave Krieg to complete 79 passes to WR Steve Largent for 1,287 yards, breaking his own 1979 mark and setting a franchise standard that has lasted in Seattle for 35 years.

That was so long ago that fans actually attended games in person. Shoulder to shoulder. Maskless. Indoors.

It sounds made up, I know. But it's true.

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At this juncture a year ago, the second game in the annual Seahawks-49ers disputation had some of the old-time tingle: Teams with Super Bowl aspirations were about to decide the NFC West title in front of 70,000 hops-infused, clinically disturbed customers at the Clink.

This Sunday (1:25 p.m., FOX), not so much.

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In the short time Seattle has come to know SS Jamal Adams, he has proven to be a voluble storyteller, trash-talker and buckler of swash. So it was little surprise that after the Seahawks beat the Los Angeles Rams Sunday to secure the NFC West title, he offered up a bold assessment that, spoken two months earlier, would have invited a team intervention and an emergency gathering of mental health professionals.

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An abundance of game developments could have inspired coach Pete Carroll to begin his post-game remarks with, "This was a great Seahawks day," including a defensive achievement so breathtaking it might rate recognition as the biggest sports turnaround since Bruce Jenner.

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Sports fans are long familiar with recovery stories of athletes rehabbing from injury, none greater than the one this year with Washington Football Team's QB, Alex Smith, returning to start this season after 17 surgeries to repair a leg broken gruesomely in 2018.

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In his fourth season, Sean McVay has become part of the woodwork in the Seahawks-Rams division rivalry. It's easy to take the Los Angeles Rams coach for granted, mostly because he's not a cartoon character, as were NFC West coaching predecessors Jim Harbaugh and Jeff Fisher.

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Apparently, the Seahawks can't count on Josh Gordon. Again.

A day after the NFL allowed him to return to the 53-man active roster ahead of the biggest game of the season Sunday against the Rams, the league stunned the club by disclosing that Gordon had not satisfied the terms of his conditional reinstatement, according to the Seattle Times Tuesday afternoon. Later, the league's house organ, the NFL Network, reported that Gordon, 29, “had a setback in his battle with substance abuse and now won’t be allowed to practice or play indefinitely.”

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The game of the season is upon the Seahawks Sunday. But since the previous meeting with the Rams in Los Angeles Nov. 15, the menu for the holiday weekend has changed: From #LetRussCook to potluck.

In the five games since the 23-16 loss, in which Russell Wilson was the victim of six sacks, 12 QB hits, two interceptions and a fumbled snap, he has nine touchdown passes, three interceptions and 10 sacks, including no sacks the past two games. And the Seahawks were 4-1: Beating the Cardinals 28-21 and the Eagles 23-17, losing to the Giants 17-12, and beating Jets 40-3 and Washington 20-15.

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