“Finally”: Russell Wilson throws the TD ball to Jimmy Graham you’ve been begging for

Doug Baldwin and Pete Carroll had the same reaction you did to Jimmy Graham’s first touchdown of the season.

“Finally,” Baldwin said.

Not just that Graham finally scored in the fifth game on Sunday. But how the star tight end and Russell Wilson connected in the first half to begin the Seahawks’ comeback from being down 10-0 at Los Angeles to a revitalizing, 16-10 win.

For three seasons, it hasn’t taken a scientist to break down how the 6-foot-7 Graham, a college basketball power forward and shot blocker at Miami, has a decisive height advantage near the goal line against every cover man in the NFL. None are 6-7.

Yet for three seasons, the Seahawks have not taken advantage — or at least not nearly enough as they expected to when they traded two-time Pro Bowl center Max Unger and a first-round pick to New Orleans in the spring of 2015 for the league’s most prolific pass-catching tight end.

Graham had 46 touchdown receptions in his final four years with Drew Brees and the Saints. He had eight in three seasons with Seattle entering Sunday’s game for the NFC West lead.

When the Seahawks got to the 7-yard line in the second quarter while down 10-0 to the Rams, play caller Darrell Bevell sent Graham where many believe he always should be in the red zone: Outside, wide left, matched up man-to-man with 6-foot Rams safety John Johnson.

Then Wilson did what all of the Northwest has been begging for him to do over these three seasons. He took the snap, then just one step and lofted a simple pass that Graham could easily snag well above the helpless defender.

Easy touchdown. Seahawks back in the game.

“Well, first and foremost I want to say: Finally,” Baldwin said. “Why was it a good throw? Because Jimmy is six foot seven, 280 pounds. I know that it’s football, there’s a lot of Xs and Os, there’s a lot of strategy behind it. But sometimes it just doesn’t get any more simple than that.

“He’s 6 feet 7. Throw the ball up to him. You don’t even have to throw it. Just underhand toss it over the there. He’s going to go up and get it.”

Well, sometimes.

Wilson had tried to do that in the opener at Green Bay last month, but it was on one of his constant scrambles for his life. His pass had too much momentum behind it and sailed well over Graham’s head out of the back of the end zone incomplete, an opportunity lost in a 17-9 defeat.

Wilson is notoriously averse to taking risks with the ball. That trait is what made Carroll fall in love with the third-round pick in 2012. He made Wilson Seattle’s starter from week one of that season.

But last November against Buffalo, Wilson threw twice at the goal line to Graham even though he had a Buffalo Bills defender hanging on his arm. Graham caught both for his only two-touchdown game as a Seahawk.

“We just kept it simple and just went up and got it,” Wilson said of this TD to Graham on Sunday.

“He’s special at that. … We were looking to find Jimmy there and the matchup, and, obviously, give him a chance to go make a play. He’s arguably the best tight end if the National Football League and one of the best to ever play the game, so we want to give him opportunities to make those plays.

Carroll does, too.

“It was great to see that,” the coach said. “We’ve been hoping to get that done, and we’ll continue to work that. Obviously, Russell threw the ball perfectly this time. Earlier in the year we missed it. But we won’t miss very many of those.”

As long as they try it, that is.

Graham had a game-high six receptions, but for only 37 yards. Once again he did not talk to the media following the game.

SEAHAWKS ALL STAND FOR ANTHEM

Michael Bennett and his fellow defensive linemen did something different before Sunday’s national anthem.

They all stood.

Bennett sat for anthems before all four preseason games and the first four regular-season ones, to protest mistreatment of minorities and the need for police reform in our country. Two weeks ago before its game at Tennessee, the entire team stayed in the locker room during the anthem. Last week at home before the win over Indianapolis, Bennett and his fellow defensive linemen sat during The Star Spangled Banner.

“The main reason that we stood was we want to pay our respect to those people who lost their lives in Las Vegas,” defensive end Frank Clark said of the massacre Oct. 1 in which 59 people died and more than 500 were injured by a gunman who shot at a crowd at a music festival. “I think that was important.

“It’s not about the flag. It’s not about disrespecting our military. That’s not what this is really about. It’s about social awareness of what’s going on in our country, and the (need) for equality for all. That’s what this is about. It’s not about anything else, disrespecting…

“We are just going to continue to bring awareness to that and chance to enlighten the situation that is so dark. I feel like just doing it in a positive manner.

“There is a time and place for everything. And I feel like today was not the time, honestly, to sit down.”

JOECKEL SURGERY?

Starting left guard Luke Joeckel said he and the team are thinking about him having “clean-up” surgery on his surgically repaired knee during Seattle’s upcoming bye week.

Joeckel had season-ending surgery on the knee in October when he was with the Jacksonville Jaguars. He then signed a one-year,deal with the Seahawks with $7 million guaranteed. He has started and played all five games this season, but while taking midweek practices off to rest the knee.

“We’re still considering it,” Joeckel said of surgery this week, as he walked to the team bus outside the Coliseum. “If we do it, it will just be a clean-up.”

Joeckel said he didn’t know how that would impact his availability for Seattle’s next game, Oct. 22 at the New York Giants. But any kind of knee surgery, even a minor “clean-up” one, would seem to be tough to come back from in just over a week.

Undrafted rookie Jordan Roos has been Joeckel’s backup at left guard.

NO SURPRISES

One week after Thomas Rawls was a healthy scratch for the first time in his three-year career, three weeks after the same thing happened to Eddie Lacy, there were no surprises for the Seahawks this time on the inactive list.

Rawls and Lacy were both active, after rookie lead running back Chris Carson went on injured reserve and had ankle surgery this past week. Lacy started and was the lead back to begin three of the first five drives. He had 19 yards on nine carries. Rawls first entered to begin the second drive, then got more carries to protect the lead late. He finished with 20 yards on eight rushes.

Pro Bowl defensive end Cliff Avril (neck and spine issues), cornerback Jeremy Lane (strained groin), running back C.J. Prosise (ankle issue) and defensive lineman Quinton Jefferson (broken hand) were all inactive because they were injured. Reserve offensive linemen Mark Glowinski, Isaiah Battle and Jordan Roos were inactive as Seattle again went with two active backup blockers.

EXTRA POINT: Bennett was the only injury during a game. He left late in the first half with a foot injury but returned to play the entire second half. Carroll said Bennett has a “sore foot.” … The Seahawks have the entire week off for the bye. The return to practice Oct. 17 for the Giants game.

This story was originally published October 8, 2017 at 8:06 PM with the headline "“Finally”: Russell Wilson throws the TD ball to Jimmy Graham you’ve been begging for."