//start .NET conspiracy theory//
Actually, this is going along with what Pete Carroll has been planning. He knows his young defense is good, but that they need constant fuel to take their game to the very top.
So he designed an offense that will keep games close, losing a couple here and there, in order to throw the national media off of our bandwagon any time they get the feeling they might want to jump on. So the talking heads will continually dismiss our team, giving the defense bulletin board material.
As evidence, we were getting too much hype coming out of the preseason, so Carroll instructed Wilson to throw the Arizona game. Wilson, being the perfectionist he is, did it so well that it's had the media doubting the team ever since.
The only time it got close was the miracle win over Green Bay. Tate was actually supposed to drop that Hail Mary "on accident" but the Packers defender actually knocked it into Tate's hands and then pinned Tate's hands against the ball, forcing the TD catch. That wrestling match you saw at the end of the game was Tate trying to pull his HANDS away, not the ball.
So Pete had the offense go out and dump the Rams game just to throw the media off our scent again. Then the slight improvement just enough to win the Panthers game (which is how Pete wants to play it... continual "improvement" from the offense that just wins us games, keeping scores close enough that no talking heads get wise to how dominant the team really is).
Carroll knows that if all the talking heads saw what the Seahawks can really do and started talking them up, the defense might rest on its laurels a bit (since it's still quite young) and not maintain that hunger. So he's like the puppetmaster, stringing everyone along on his brilliant scheme.
//end .NET conspiracy theory//