Michael Bennett fires expletive-laden rant at reporter, calmed by Richard Sherman

The Seahawks' defensive end was in no mood to talk about the team's pass rush vs. the Falcons

The Seahawks' season ended ingloriously Saturday, thanks in large part to the runaway Matt Ryan for MVP train.

When it was over, Ryan was 26 of 37 for 338 yards with three touchdowns and no turnovers in the 36-20 victory. Ryan was sacked three times, but for most of the afternoon, had plenty of time in the pocket.

Knowing that -- and that the Seahawks' defense is predicated on pressuring the quarterback and creating turnovers in the secondary -- it seems reasonable that Seattle's lack of pass rush would come up after the game. But Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett, who had one of those sacks, wasn't trying to hear it. Not even a little bit.

"We got a lot of pressure," Bennett said in response to a question from a Seattle television reporter, according to USAToday.com's Dan Wolken. "He threw the ball really fast and there was a bunch of stuff going on and obviously you don't know football.

"There's some (expletive) that happened. He threw the ball pretty fast. He did his thing, we rushed as good as we could."

And things escalated from there.

"Don't point (at us) and say we didn't do what we needed to do, OK? Don't do that, OK? Get out of my face now," Bennett continued. "Don't tell me I didn't do my job, mother------. Get the (expletive) out of my face. Like I said, get out of my face.

"Don't play with me! I just put my heart on the (expletive) field! Don't play with me. Get the (expletive) out of my face! Try me again and see what happens. I ain't one of these mother------ . Don't tell me what I didn't do, mother------.

"We lost the game! That's the NFL, you non-playing mother------! What you do with your life? What you do with your lifetime, mother------? What injury you play through? What adversity you went through?"

Wolken reports that the television reporter never responded but Bennett's voice continually grew louder. Eventually, cornerback Richard Sherman left his own interview to calm Bennett down.

When the Seahawks and Falcons met back in October, Bennett hit Ryan five times in two-plus quarters of work before he injured his knee on a cut block by offensive lineman Jake Matthews.

Bennett had arthroscopic knee surgery weeks later and missed five games, but returned for the stretch run and had a sack in each of his last four games.

In the rematch, Bennett was clearly frustrated and at one point appeared to try to gouge Falcons offensive tackle Ryan Schrader in the eye.

"Those guys, they just kept going after the whistle," Schraeder said. "We do it between the whistle, and I don't know, they were doing extra stuff. It's not really a big deal."

The Seahawks are headed home while the Falcons will face the winner of the Packers-Cowboys game.