Well, two years ago the talk was about a really young team capable of winning "multiple" Super Bowls.
clock is ticking.
I'm not one for excuses but I find it remarkable after the poor start they made it as close as they did on the road against a 15-1 squad.
Perennial Super Bowl contenders are rare. Wins come at the price of lower draft picks and decisions on which core players to keep through extensions. Deals for Wilson, Thomas, Sherman, Wagner, Bennett, and Lynch and the unavailable $8M tight end make it difficult to field a complete team.
You end up with an offensive line of primarily late round picks and undrafted free agents and thin depth across the board. Carolina overwhelmed the Hawks Oline early and jumped to a big lead.
Unfortunately you cant out recruit your opponents and are at the mercy of injuries.
I'm not going to split hairs and question Carroll's decision to go for it on 4th and 5. He's got stones and it carries over to the players.
I have come to accept that is who Pete is, but if he gets the fg before half. They have the ball first and ten from the 14 with 1:27 left on the clock and don't have to waste a down by spiking it needing a td to tie it and force overtime.
The NFL is a 1 play here/there league because of parity. At SC he had superior talent and he could roll the dice because his Jimmie's were so much better than their Joe's, penalties, time outs, game/clock management 98 times out of 100 didn't come into play.
If I am doing end of year self assessment on myself and coaching staff, this is what I would be working on.