As has been the case so many times in recent years, a physical, run-first offense and a fast, hard-hitting defense were the formula for success at CenturyLink Field.

But in the case of Sunday afternoon’s game between Dallas and Seattle, that was the winning formula for the Cowboys, not the Seahawks, who have made that style of play their signature under coach Pete Carroll.

And Sunday’s loss, combined with a similar-looking loss in San Diego, brings up an important question for the defending champs, who are now 3-2 and currently in third place in the NFC West.

Do the Seahawks have an identity crisis? Are they getting away from what made them the best team in the NFL last season?

Carroll says they haven’t abandoned what made them great. Or at least, that the changes you’re seeing aren’t by design. The Seahawks’ offense will feature some different looks, largely to get the most out of a healthy Percy Harvin, but Carroll, offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell and offensive line coach/assistant head coach Tom Cable all insist they still want to feature Marshawn Lynch and the running game.

Twice this season, both times in losses, the Seahawks have gotten away from that, and the results haven’t been pretty.

“Well we’ve had two games where we weren’t there,” Carroll said. “That’s a big factor, that’s 40 percent of what’s going on here. We’ve got to do a whole lot better here than we have. … We know what we’re trying to do, we know where it is and where it needs to be, but we’re just not quite there yet.”

Last season, the Seahawks ran the ball 509 times and threw it 420; this year those numbers are almost exactly evenly split, with 140 pass attempts and 141 rushes. The balance is skewed by two losses in which the Seahawks badly lost the time of possession battle, throwing 53 times compared to just 31 rushes in losses. In three wins, the Seahawks have looked more like the 2013 team, at least in terms of balance, running 110 times and throwing 87.

So the real question about these Seahawks is this: were those two losses just really weird anomalies that happened to occur relatively close together, or are they a sign of things to come?

Because if the Seahawks finish their season with two or three fluky games in which they’re struggle to move the ball, struggle to keep an opposing offense off the field, yet are still in the game into the fourth quarter, they’re fine. They had a couple of those last year as well. If, however, 40 percent of the season through five games is an indicator of what 40 percent of Seattle’s games will look like when the season is over, well then that’s going to be a problem.

And there’s more to running the ball, or in the case of two losses, not running it, than just play-calling.

As Carroll mentioned Monday, the games where the Seahawks feel like they’re playing their style often feature takeaways, which leads to both bigger leads and more possession for the offense, both of which are conducive to running the ball. The pass rush has been lacking, which contributes to the lack of turnovers, which leads to fewer plays, and thus, fewer runs. So if the defense gets back to being something close to what it was last year, that will play a big role in what the offense looks like.

In the case of the Dallas game, the Seahawks didn’t go into the game intending for Lynch to have 10 carries. “We don’t ever want to play a game when Marshawn carries the ball 10 times,” Carroll said. “That’s not enough. That’s not a format that we’re trying to build from.”

But the Seahawks did go into the game trying to get some touches to Harvin early to attack the perimeter of Dallas’ defense, opening things up for Lynch later. The Cowboys stopped those plays, however, then their offense did a good job keeping long drives going, so there weren’t the chances to feed Lynch the ball until the second half.

It’s completely fair to question whether the Seahawks should have given the ball to Lynch earlier in the game, regardless of what they had hoped to do with Harvin early on, but the coaches aren’t alone in the blame. First, Dallas deserves a lot of credit for what it did, but the execution wasn’t always there either. Had a few of those plays to Harvin been blocked better, that could have sprung a big play or at least led to more first downs, and more time to get the ball to Lynch.

And considering the comments made by receiver Doug Baldwin after the game, it’s fair to wonder if the Seahawks — despite everything we’ve heard over and over about complacency not being a problem, about the hunger still being there — might have relaxed just a little bit, leading to a lack of execution Sunday.

“We have to stop BS-ing ourselves,” Baldwin said. “We have to be real with ourselves. When we get in the meeting room, we actually have to pay attention to the things that are not going right. Pay attention to the things we are not doing right and correct them. And not just blow smoke up our tails and think that everything’s going to be all right just because we won the last game. It don’t happen that way.

“We need to take responsibility for the problems that we have in this offense and if we don’t do that, if we keep listening to what the pundits say and what the analysts say, talking about this and that, and all the positive things, and if we don’t actually look at the negative things and correct those things, then it’s not going to matter.

“I thought we played (expletive). I thought we played (expletive) last week, too. We didn’t correct the things that we needed to correct from last week.”

It’s way too early to say the Seahawks have lost their identity, or to panic and think they can’t repeat. They’ve played tough schedule, losing to two teams that are 5-1, a schedule that gets a lot easier starting this week. However, through five games and two uncharacteristic performances in losses, it is fair to say the 2014 Seahawks would be well served to remember what took them to a title last season. And if you want to blame Carroll for these early inconsistencies, he’s happy to take it.

“We didn’t improve as much as we needed to from the Washington game,” Carroll said. “That’s still at hand for us, there were too many things we did wrong. I feel like I did not do a good job taking them through this week. I told them I felt bad that I didn’t get it orchestrated well enough where we cleaned that stuff up. So we have to do a better job this week and really zero in …

“Point a finger at me first.”

John Boyle covers the Seattle Seahawks for the Daily Herald. He can be reached at jboyle@heraldnet.com.