AP

The Seahawks are a .500 team at the midway point of the season, but when coach Pete Carroll looks at the season so far, he sees a team that could be 8-0.

Carroll said on 710 AM in Seattle that Sunday’s loss to the Lions was frustrating in part because it was so close to a win he could taste it. And he has felt that way all four times the Seahawks lost this year.

“It’s so close. We’re so encouraged by where we are and what we’ve done,” Carroll said. “Look at these games. After eight games — we could easily be 8-0. We could be 8-0 right now. And I think — I hate to think of it this way — but if you go ahead and you look at us a year ahead from now, when these guys have been through all of this, then all of these edges that we need — these little edges that you need — if they fall in our favor then we have a great football team.”

It’s true that all four of the Seahawks’ losses were by seven points or less, so you could make the case that if you could just change one play in those games, the Seahawks would have won. On the other hand, three of the Seahawks’ four wins easily could have gone the other way as well: Seattle has wins by one point, two points and four points this season. So if you want to make the case that they’re “so close” to 8-0, you have to accept that you could also make the case that they’re “so close” to 1-7.

Basically, the Seahawks are a team that’s good enough to be in every game, every week, but not good enough to put every game away. Which means they are what their record says they are.