THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: Time for Seahawks to address their issues with time

The Seahawks have a problem with time.

Oh, they’re not the only ones.

You’ll see plenty of coaches and players — both in college and pro football — botch some clock issues every weekend.

However.

Seattle’s Pete Carroll, offensive coordinator Shane Waldron and quarterback Geno Smith seem to be turning these screw-ups into a habit.

An ugly finish to the first half against Washington saw the Hawks throw away a field goal that could have cost them a game they won 29-26.

Then last Sunday, they DID blow one — losing 17-16 to the Rams when they bungled a last-minute series of plays and wasted time with some madness that would have embarrassed a youth league team.

So?

How can these professionals, with a couple dozen coaches available to watch everything down to the last centimeter, make such a mess of things?

Maybe it comes with the Seahawks franchise.

Yes, I’m joking, but former coach Mike Holmgren — for all his success — became infamous in Green Bay for going totally blank at the end of games.

Holmgren’s paralysis once pushed Brett Favre into such a rage that teammates had to wrestle Favre away from the coach — with the QB screaming about the clock.

FAVRE had good reason to lose his mind.

Minnesota trailed the Packers by a point with time running away inside two minutes.

The Vikes ultimately managed a first down at the Green Bay 8-yard line.

Holmgren, for whatever reason, chose not to use any of his three timeouts.

Minnesota said thanks, ran plays up the middle that got stuffed, and time kept winding down.

Obviously, without anyone stopping the clock, the game would be decided on that series — and the Packers let it run.

Finally, on fourth down and with less than 10 seconds remaining, Minnesota’s Fuad Reveiz bunted through a short field goal that won the game.

Favre threw his helmet about 40 yards in fury.

Why hadn’t Holmgren used those timeouts to give his offense a chance to rally after a Minnesota score?

Mike admitted later that he goofed, but I always wondered what his platoon of assistant coaches was doing.

Surely SOMEONE had to grasp that they were handing away the game.

On the other hand, there have been coaches who were brilliant using the clock alongside game management to win tight games.

San Francisco Hall of Famer Bill Walsh, for instance, directed a late touchdown drive in the Super Bowl by running the ball several times on sweeps while Cincinnati’s defense had deployed seven pass defenders.

The plays easily ate up big chunks of yardage, and stopped the clock when the runner just hustled out of bounds.

Not everyone is Bill Walsh, however.

Maybe it’s the sheer chaos of the final minute that causes so many blunders.

Coaches are on headsets, everyone on the sideline (and in the stands) is screaming like crazy, and now you have quarterbacks connected to play callers via signals to receivers in their helmets.

AH, BACK to the Seahawks.

In the Washington game, they were trying to break a 9-9 tie with a field goal just before halftime.

Seattle had driven from its own 28 to the Commanders 24, and used a second timeout with 15 seconds remaining.

It was only second down, so rather than ask Jason Myers to kick from 51 yards, they chose to pick up a few more yards.

In a comedy of errors, however, Geno Smith held the ball too long, realized he might be sacked, and tossed a little basketball pass straight to the turf while in the grasp of a defender.

He was called for grounding, which carries an automatic 10-second run-off, and that finished the half.

Against the Rams, Seattle was down 17-16, but Geno led a last-minute drive that got to the L.A. 37.

There were only 24 seconds remaining with no timeouts, but that’s plenty of time for ANY play to get Myers closer — because you can still spike the ball to stop the clock.

Geno said later that his helmet receiver went dead, and he never got a play from Waldren.

In a time crunch, he called a simple bash up the middle by Zach Charbonnet.

It gained only 2 yards, they still had to spike the ball, and surely you know by now that Myers missed the field goal from 55 yards.

From 10 yards closer, it would almost have been a gimme and a Seahawks victory.

Carroll said afterward: “There were other choices (on the Charbonnet run). We didn’t handle that right.”

Basically, they wasted the final 24 seconds when ANY easy throw (or two throws) probably would have won the game.

The Seahawks, safe to say, could use a course in clock management.

But.

At least they’re not alone.

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Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press four times each week, normally Tuesday through Friday unless, you know, stuff happens.

Steve suggests you take his opinions in the spirit of a Jimmy Buffett song: “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On.”