For the entire season, the Seahawks were on a tightrope, swaying in the breeze, an almost unprecedented 10-1 in games decided by a single possession. They nearly made it across. Sunday, they fell.

Because there's a minimum of two games left, it can't be said they have hit the canyon floor. But it has certainly grown cold and breezy, and the ground is coming up fast.

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The first official act of Jimmy Lake as University of Washington head football coach was to fire two offensive assistants that he worked alongside Saturday at the Las Vegas Bowl, coordinator Bush Hamdan and tight ends coach Jordan Paopao, the Huskies announced in a statement Sunday afternoon.

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Among the Seahawks, 'tis the season to be busted.

This time, DT Al Woods was suspended Friday for four games for violating the NFL's policy on using performance-enhancing drugs. The ruling follows by five days the indefinite suspension of WR Josh Gordon for PEDs as well as substances of abuse.

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The instant the matchup was revealed, the game was called the Chris Petersen Bowl. But that's not even the half of it. The less-than-epic Las Vegas Bowl Saturday (4:30 p.m., ABC) between the Washington Huskies and the Boise State Broncos should be called the Awkward Bowl.

You know, like when you're in the neighbor's tool shed, and he comes in and asks why you didn't seek permission. You would, um, rather be somewhere else.

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The arrival Sunday at the Clink of the Arizona Cardinals, the only NFC West team out of contention for a playoff spot, serves as a reminder of how fortunate Seahawks fans should feel about eight post-season appearances in the 10 years directed by coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider.

Kliff Kingsbury is the the Cardinals' fourth head coach in the same period, in which the franchise has appeared in three playoff games, winning once.

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Given the facts that the Washington Huskies went 7-5 and are playing Saturday with a two-headed coach in a minor bowl, there's an argument that Wednesday's letter-of-intent day might have been their best day of 2019.

As opaque and mysterious is each class at every school, none of UW's 23 verbal commits bailed after the news that Chris Petersen was stepping down and Jimmy Lake was stepping up.

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Late in the first half Tuesday night, Seattle University's 6-7 senior guard, Mattia Da Campo from Venice, Italy, had the ball 80 feet from the Huskies hoop. He started pounding his left-handed dribble and bore down directly upon the basket. Quade Green sort of moved in his general direction, which was better than anyone else on Washington's defense.

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The grip on Josh Gordon goes way back.

"Initially it started for me, (because of) a lot of childhood and adolescent trauma-based fear," he said. "I was using in my childhood. That environment brought me into that a lot sooner than a normal—whatever normal is—kid should be brought into that, to be able to make a decision on their own of what to do.

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If the Saints and Seahawks were to win their their final two regular-season games  . . .

Wait. What? You there, the gray-haired gentlemen with his hand up. What is your NFL postseason-speculation question?

"I don't really care," said Pete Carroll. 'I really don't. We have to win a game, then we'll see where we are. That's the only thing that matters to me."

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During practice last week, Russell Wilson offered up a point of emphasis to coach Pete Carroll and offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer.

"I told the coaches, the ball spins good for me in North Carolina," he said, referring not only to his three starring years at North Carolina State, but to the Seahawks' run of four wins in five games in Charlotte against the Panthers.

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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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