"The Seahawks lost by 7 to the heavy division favorities on the road. I don't think they are light years behind the top teams.

"They have a ways to go, but I don't think it's as big a gap as you seem to suggest. The two earlier losses to St. Louis and Arizona bothered me much more than this one."
    -- Reader e-mail

I didn't recognize it at first. After all, it's not the sort of e-mail I usually receive, which tends to come in three flavors:

1) You're being unrealistically hard on Russell Wilson.

2) You're being unprofessionally soft on Russell Wilson.

3) Seattle needs a new offensive coordinator.

So when the above e-mail arrived the day after Seattle's loss in San Francisco, it took me a bit to realize what it was: a rationale, well-balanced reaction to a close defeat on the road in the Seahawks' second game in five days.

And when the shock wore off that rationale and well-balanced people were not only on the Internet, but capable of e-mailing their thoughts. My in-box tends to be Exhibit A for the fact that only the irate and the irrational are willing to send their electronic missives.

But once the shock wore off, I could see how Thursday's loss was much less foreboding than my initial reaction. I saw that game as a test of wills in which Seattle caved. The Seahawks went up against a team that wants to play the same way and after holding a halftime lead, was taken to the woodshed.

But on the other hand, not only Seattle did hold a halftime lead on the road against a team that returns almost every starter after nearly reaching the Super Bowl a year ago, but they did it in a Thursday night game on the road.

so I put the question to you: How did Thursday's defeat rank in the scale of disappointment this season?