Amid the shards, leaks, broken glass and trash fires of a 20-6 deficit Sunday in Cleveland against the irked Browns, it seemed apparent that as good as the record was, the 2019 Seahawks weren't going to be a dominant team. Just too many talent deficits to be championship caliber.

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The Seahawks offensive line is in injury trouble -- two starters, LT Duane Brown (biceps)  and RG D.J. Fluker (hamstring) are likely out of Sunday's game at Cleveland (10 a.m., FOX), and versatile backup Ethan Pocic was put on the injured reserve list with a back problem.

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A side benefit for Pete Carroll on Greg Zuerlein's missed field goal that re-ignited the Seahawks season Thursday was that it relegated a fan favorite, debating the coach's judgments on third and fourth downs, to also-ran status. The 30-29 outcome couldn't have been more narrow, but the narrative couldn't have changed more completely.

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After absorbing the astonishments, the gaffes, the greatness of stars and the resolve of scrubs, and exhilaration and despair often in consecutive plays across more than three hours of exquisite tension Thursday night, the Los Angeles Rams and Seattle Seahawks demonstrated why pro football can be so compelling.

And random. Or cosmic. Depends on your point of view.

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When the 2019 NFL schedule came out, the first calendar date circled in Seattle was Thursday night's game at the Clink between the Seahawks and the Los Angeles Rams. The national-TV match between division rivals and 2018 playoff teams was expected to have all the habanero hot sauce anyone could expect for the first week in October.

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On multiple levels, the loss at home last week to the New Orleans Saints minus Drew Brees was among the worst in the Seahawks tenure of coach Pete Carroll. Bad as was the coach getting hit in the nose with an errant pre-game football,  the outcome's blow to the collective ego was worse.

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For all the bad juju that attends Seahawks games at Arizona, since Pete Carroll has been head coach, they are 6-2-1 in the Glendale House of Odd (and 0-1 in other games). For a division rival, that's good. Although in Carroll's time, the Cardinals have won four of nine at the Clink. So mere records don't tell the story.

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Apart from the blown coaching calls, clock mismanagement, penalties and poor execution that turned the Seahawks for a day into The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the Monday analysis of the 33-27 loss to the Saints can come down to ordinary football production from the prime running backs.

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Omens are for the superstitious. But foreshadowing? Yeah, we rational folks can run with that. So let's propose an NFL maxim that says: Anytime your head coach has to take stitches after the pre-game warm-up, it's going to be a bizarrely foul day.

Otherwise, there is no explanation for why the Seahawks were so astonishingly inept in nearly every phase of Sunday's game, including coaching decisions.

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After the injury downings of icons Drew Brees and Ben Roethlisberger, which followed the surprise retirement of the Colts' Andrew Luck, quarterback longevity is the raging topic of the early NFL season. The casualty rate across the league is so high that two former Washington State quarterbacks, Gardner Minshew and Luke Falk, have risen to starting jobs with the Jacksonville Jaguars and New York Jets.

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For fans tee-heeing over the alleged good fortune in the Seahawks catching the Saints Sunday without QB Drew Brees almost for the first time since New Orleans was still property of France, here's some advice: Stifle yourselves.

The last time his backup, Teddy Bridgewater, met the Seahawks, he out-played Russell Wilson. His team, the Minnesota Vikings, should have won the 2016 playoff game.

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Since 2004, New Orleans all-world QB Drew Brees has missed four games, three because the Saints had clinched their playoff berth and didn't need to risk injury. In 2015, a shoulder injury kept him out of week 3.

His second injury absence will be Sunday at the Clink, when the 2-0 Seahawks at 1:25 p.m. host the 1-1 Saints led by backup QB Teddy Bridgewater, who looked close to terrible in a 27-9 loss to the Rams Sunday in Los Angeles.

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The coincidence of Pete Carroll's 68th birthday made for an easy storyline. What may prove a more noteworthy narrative in 2019 is whether a successful Seahawks season was born Sunday at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, where the young guys learned how a championship mindset works.

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If pro football were the PGA Tour, Quinton Jefferson's career to this point would be one long scramble in local qualifiers to earn the last spot in the weekly field. But Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals, it was as if he won the tournament, and discovered the next tourney is on his home course.

The Seahawks play the Steelers Sunday at Heinz Field in his hometown.

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After quarterback and linebacker, the one position unit the Seahawks were all in on for 2019 was the offensive line. But after the first game Sunday, the Seahawks might want to claw back a chip or two.

Neither in run-blocking nor pass protection did the line distinguish itself, helping account for a modest 233 yards of total offense and the biggest disappointment in the unexpectedly tight 21-20 win over the Cincinnati Bengals, 4-12 last season.

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The Seahawks Sunday had the great good fortune to be facing one of the more notorious non-finishers in the NFL. Cincinnati QB Andy Dalton has an uncanny way of starting the race in a Lamborghini and finishing in a Corvair. Which, truth to tell, is the main reason the Seahawks are not 0-1 after losing at home to a 9½-point underdog.

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If you have thrown a stick for a young Labrador retriever, then you know the exuberance of Pete Carroll in the first week of the NFL regular season. All things are possible. Joy and light abound. The world is written in exclamation points, underscores, italics and boldface.

And pleasepleaseplease throw the stick again.

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After the Seahawks over the weekend went 1-0 to start the NFL season with the acquisition of DE Jadeveon Clowney, the next personnel question arises: Who catches passes besides  Tyler Lockett?

Presumably, general manager John Schneider's first remark figures to be: Hold my beer.

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Pete Carroll isn't necessarily an impulse shopper. But I wouldn't want to be behind him in  the grocery store check-out line when he spots the candy bars, breath mints and National Enquirers.

The Seahawks coach does like his shiny objects, especially when they come with exclamation points.

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If there is such a thing as a last chance to make a good first impression, LB Ben Burr-Kervin patented the trick Thursday night at the Clink.

After an injury-hampered start to his Seahawks career, the former University of Washington All-America linebacker embraced a final chance, watering up the eyes of the Oakland Raiders as if he were tear gas.

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