Defense’s dumb mistakes late doom Geno Smith, Seahawks in 13-10 loss to Saints. Now 2-5
Wait, did you expect games without Russell Wilson to be pretty?
For the third consecutive game without Wilson in his decade with Seattle, it was Geno Smith with the ball trying to rally the Seahawks to win.
For the third consecutive game, he and the Seahawks failed. For the third consecutive postgame, Smith said: Blame me.
“I’ve got big enough shoulders, I’ll take it all,” Smith, the 31-year-old veteran starting his first NFL games in four years, said late Monday night following the Seahawks’ third straight loss without Wilson, 13-10 to the New Orleans Saints.
“Put the blame right at my feet, man,” Smith said.
Through rain, wind and a blizzard of their own dumb mistakes, Seattle had 1:56 and the ball at its own 25 down by three points late. Smith lawn-darted his first pass, short and incomplete to DK Metcalf. He got sacked on second down. He held onto the ball too long trying to escape pressure and got sacked on third down.
It was 4th and 29. A fitting example of where the offense, this team, is now without Wilson. Smith ran around the end zone, nearly sacked again. His final, desperate heave across the field through sheets of rain to Metcalf was knocked away.
Wilson, wearing a team rain jacket and helpless on the Seahawks’ sideline, turned away from the field.
That, two missed field goals by Jason Myers and crushing sacks taken by an uncomfortable-looking Smith were how the Seahawks lost for the third time in three home games at soaked, absolutely bummed Lumen Field.
“Very similar results, in that we are getting the game when we have the chance to get the football game,” coach Pete Carroll said, punctuating his words with tones sharper than his sunny usual. “It’s really difficult, because we are so close to winning games.
“And we haven’t been able to do it, at home for sure. It’s a real shock to me. It’s a shock that we are not able to do that. We are still trying to get these games to finish. And that means you don’t make mistakes to give them a chance.
“You kick the ball. You don’t make the penalty.
“And,” Carroll said in an indictment of Smith, the 31-year-old veteran starting his first NFL games in four years, “you don’t eat the football for losses when you are in the right positions.”
The Seahawks are in the wrong positions now.
Seattle are 2-5 for the first time since 2011, Carroll’s second year rebuilding the franchise and a year before he drafted Wilson. The Seahawks have lost their first three home games to a season for the first time since 1992, the middling dark ages of this franchise. They are five games behind first-place and unbeaten Arizona in the NFC West with 10 games left in the regular season. The Seahawks are the 13th of 16 seeds in the conference.
They are so far behind, it’s not worth talking about the top. Getting to .500 is going to be a challenge.
And Wilson is going to miss at least one more game, Sunday’s at home against Jacksonville (1-5), if not more following surgery to repair the middle finger on his throwing hand.
Carroll again gave no updates Monday night on when Wilson might be able to return. He is out at least through the team’s bye Nov. 9. The earlier he can return, per NFL rules on injured-reserve players, is Nov. 14 at Green Bay.
At this rate, the season’s meaning may be lost by then.
The third game, counting the one in which Wilson got hurt, Seattle’s home loss to the division-rival Los Angeles Rams, was like the other two. Like this season has become.
Ugly.
Earlier in the fourth quarter with this mess tied at 10 Smith took a killer, 11-yard sack against an all-man Saints blitz on third down from the Saints 24-yard line. That turned Jason Myers’ attempt to grab the lead into a 53-yard field-goal adventure into the rain, wind and open, downtown end that is tricky on a perfectly clear day.
Myers missed the kick wide, his second miss of the second half Monday.
Carroll said Smith didn’t look comfortable in that and other situations.
That’s not good.
“That’s a part of playing quarterback, honestly,” said Smith, who completed 12 of 22 passes for 167 yards — 84 on a first-pass touchdown to Metcalf — and five sacks. “Being a quarterback, you’ve got to put your team in the best position to win. And whatever I’ve got to do to get the ball out, or evade a sack or whatever I have to do, to not have that happen, that’s part of my job.”
On the ensuing Saints possession, Seattle nickel defensive back Marquise Blair was called for roughing Jameis Winston while sacking him on third down, because Blair led with the top of his helmet into the Saints quarterback’s face mask on his hit.
After that gifted first down, on the next third down, Blair again blitzed from nickel defensive back. He sold out for the pass. The Saints ran Alvin Kamara right past Blair for 12 yards on third and 10, to the Seahawks 29-yard line.
From there, New Orleans lined up for the go-ahead field goal, on fourth and 5. But Seattle defensive tackle Al Woods inexplicably jumped offside before the snap. That gave the Saints a first down, to the Seahawks 18. It also allowed New Orleans to run 68 more seconds off the game clock, down to 2 minutes left in the game.
Carroll said the Seahawks had an all-out block on for that field goal, including up the middle where Woods jumped offside. The coach said he didn’t know what made Woods jump offside there.
“Al is...as disciplined a football player as we have,” Carroll said.
The Saints then moved to field goal 15 yards closer than the one they were trying when Woods jumped offside. Rookie Brian Johnson made the 26-yard field goal, his second field goal of the night, to put the Saints ahead 13-10 with 1:56 remaining.
There were more dumb mistakes by Seattle.
Tight end Gerald Everett changed the momentum and direction of a Seahawks drive when he ended a catch and run into the Saints sideline by flipping the ball into the face of a New Orleans player who was standing and watching, not even in the game. That was a taunting penalty, 15 yards the other way, and the Seahawks ended up punting to end that lost drive.
“We can’t (do that). This is the new game,” Carroll said of the league’s emphasis on acts directed at opponents.
“We’ve got to get right,” All-Pro linebacker and co-captain Bobby Wagner (seven tackles) said. “We’ve got to really fix our mistakes and play smarter, make less penalties.
“That’s the message.”
Blair seriously hurt
Two plays after he blitzed past Kamara’s run for a key first down, Blair left the game with a knee injury. He got pushed down by Saints receiver Tre’Quan Smith, a pass-interference penalty on Smith, and landed awkwardly on his leg.
Carroll said it’s “a significant injury” with his patella, the small bone in front of his knee.
Blair, the team’s third-round pick in 2019 from Utah, missed all but the first two games of last season with reconstructive surgery in his knee.
Brooks saves
Who says Seahawks first-round picks don’t work out?
Jordyn Brooks was the reason the Seahawks were tied entering the fourth quarter.
Seattle’s first-round pick from last year leaped in the middle of the end zone and knocked down Jameis Winston’s pass that was destined for the back line of the end zone for Marquez Callaway. The Saints wide receiver was two steps ahead of Seahawks safety Jamal Adams for a likely touchdown catch had Brooks not gotten high enough to bat away the pass.
“I was pretty much playing the hooks,” Brooks said, of Saints hook patterns turning in the short middle of Seattle’s coverage. “They had a guy crossing. I felt somebody come behind me, and I just read Jameis’ eyes, and got up to get it tipped.”
New Orleans settled for a 21-yard field goal by Brian Johnson and Seattle stayed ahead, briefly, 7-3.
Late in the third quarter, Brooks raced over to recover the fumble teammate Ugo Amadi forced on Adam Trautman after New Orleans’ tight end caught a short pass. That gave the Seahawks the ball at the Saints 32-yard line. Seattle’s offense ran, ran and threw incomplete for zero net yards before Jason Myers tied the game at 10 with a 50-yard field goal.
Myers had missed from 44 yards to the same, south end zone earlier in the second half.
That’s seven points — four saved by Brooks batting down a likely touchdown pass plus three points his fumble recovery created for Myers — directly because of Brooks.
“I thought we did enough defensively to win. Offensively, as well,” Brooks said. “Like I said, it was just a couple plays here and there. Both sides, all sides, all phases, can be cleaned up, and we win the game. Easily.”
Metcalf bests Lattimore
Smith had started the game spectacularly. His first pass was an 84-yard touchdown pass down the right sideline to Metcalf.
He and Saints star cornerback Marshon Lattimore were grabbing each other before the pass arrived. Metcalf then stiff-armed Lattimore to the ground and made the catch, a man-child play by the 6-foot-4, 230-pound physical marvel.
“Exquisite play,” Carroll said.
The opening quick-strike touchdown was just the beginning of the action between Metcalf and Lattimore.
Metcalf spent September getting talked to by Russell Wilson and coach Pete Carroll about not letting opponents get into his head, and not talking with them after plays.
Monday, Metcalf got in Lattimore’s head.
Also in the first half with the Seahawks up against their own goal line, Metcalf pushed the New Orleans cornerback near the end of a running play away from them. Lattimore pushed back — and drew a personal foul and 15 yards for Seattle.
In the third quarter, with Metcalf still without a target after that touchdown on Smith’s first pass of the night, the 23-year-old wide receiver woofed in Lattimore’s face after a running play. Lattimore put a forearm onto Metcalf’s face mask. Officials flagged him for another personal foul and 15 yards in the Seahawks’ favor.
Alternating cornerbacks
Carroll had said earlier this season — and shown in his first 12 seasons coaching Seattle — he doesn’t like to alternate cornerbacks. He plays one and stays with him.
That changed Monday night.
Sidney Jones started again at left cornerback over rookie Tre Brown. Brown had debuted marvelously the previous week at Pittsburgh, with two tackles on his first five NFL plays and two stops on third downs. He finished that game after Jones injured his chest early in the second half. Brown made sure tackles, including one to stop the Steelers in overtime.
But Jones, who got healthy again over the last eight days, started against the Saints. Carroll and defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. alternated in Brown every other series in the first half, beginning with the second and fourth defensive series. Jones played the first, third and fifth series.
The alternating ended at the start of the second half. Jones was the left cornerback for the first two series after halftime. He got beaten on consecutive plays down the right sideline on long routes midway through the third quarter, by Kevin White and then by Kenny Stills.
But White had Winston’s second-and-10 pass go off his hands. On third and 10, safety Jamal Adams came over late to help distract Stills from making what would have been a catch into the red zone.
New Orleans punted still leading only 10-7.
The last defensive possession that ended with the Saints’ winning field goal, Brown was back in for Jones.
Asked to assess how the two left cornerbacks played, Carroll said after the game: “I have nothing to tell you.
Long drive shouldn’t have been
The Saints’ fourth possession of the opening half was a 19-play, 86-yard, 10:16 march to a field goal.
It was 10 plays longer than it should have been.
On fourth and 1 for New Orleans at the Seattle 45, the three Saints on the right end of the line all false-started before the snap: tackle James Hurst, tight end Trautman and wing back Garrett Griffin.
Instead of fourth and 6 and likely a punt, New Orleans converted on a sneak by quarterback Winston for the first down.
Because of the gifted drive, Seattle’s Smith did not throw a pass for 26 minutes of real time in the first half.
Using Adams
After blitzing Adams and having the Pro Bowl safety less in coverage and more at the line of scrimmage early in the previous game at Pittsburgh, the Seahawks had Adams mostly in the back of the defense Monday.
Of the 39 defensive snaps in the first half, Adams was within 2 yards of the line of scrimmage just eight times. He blitzed four times in those 39 plays, to no effect.
Against the Steelers the previous week, Adams was on the line seven times and blitzed five times in the first 14 plays of that game.
Hasselbeck Ring of Honor
Matt Hasselbeck, the Seahawks’ first Super Bowl quarterback in the 2005 season who represented them in three Pro Bowls, raised the fans’ 12 flag immediately before kickoff.
At halftime he became the 13th person inducted into the team’s Ring of Honor.
In a ceremony on the field, Hasselbeck had his wife Sarah and their three children on the stage with him. He then shouted his thanks to Seahawks fans from all over, including “the 253” — even Hawaii.
This story was originally published October 25, 2021 at 8:29 PM with the headline "Defense’s dumb mistakes late doom Geno Smith, Seahawks in 13-10 loss to Saints. Now 2-5."
