The Seattle Seahawks found themselves on the wrong end of Sunday's NFC West battle with the Los Angeles Rams, and then in an friendly-fire war of words.
After Seattle's 42-7 blowout defeat at the hands of its division rivals to the south, two of the Seahawks' remaining leaders on defense -- Earl Thomas and Bobby Wagner -- took shots at each other through the media.
Thomas struck first, telling reporters that Wagner, who entered the game with a hamstring injury, held the defense back and should not have played.
"To be totally honest, I think you have to give your hats off to Wags and a couple guys that played," Thomas began, per The Seattle Times, "but my personal opinion, I don't think they should have played. The backups would have did just as good. The injuries -- Kam Chancellor, [Richard Sherman, K.J. Wright] -- they definitely hurt today."
When asked how limited he felt Wagner was against the Rams, Thomas responded, "I have no clue, but you normally see Wags running from sideline to sideline. He just couldn't do it today. But I think he waited just a little bit too long to take himself out."
It didn't take long for Wagner, who was in the same locker room as Thomas, to respond.
The star linebacker tweeted soon after, "E keep my name out yo mouth. Stop being jealous of other people (sic) success. I still hope you keep balling bro." Wagner later deleted the tweet, per The Times.
Wagner, who did not practice all week and was listed as questionable, finished the game with seven tackles. With a hampered linebacking corps, the Seahawks gave up 244 rushing yards on Sunday, their highest total surrendered since Week 12, 2010, the first year of the Pete Carroll era.
Once heralded this season as a Defensive Player of the Year candidate, the banged-up Wagner is suddenly on the receiving end of criticism from within his own unit. It's another mini-drama in the unraveling of this Seahawks season, which began when Sherman and Chancellor were lost for the year, continued last week when two defensive linemen were ejected at the end of their loss to Jacksonville and came to a head Sunday night.
