Who needs practice? Earl Thomas’ 2 INTs, Chris Carson’s running lead Seahawks 24-13 over Dallas
Of course Earl Thomas skips practices, faces a team fine, stays angry, tries to force a trade out of Seattle—then balls out on game day.
Thomas had two interceptions against his home-state team he famously asked in December to “come get me when Seattle kicks me to the curb.” His bowed to the Cowboys’ sideline after his latter pick, off a deflection by fellow All-Pro teammate Bobby Wagner.
That third turnover produced by Seattle’s defense ended Dallas’ last attempt at rallying in the fourth quarter of the Seahawks’ first win this season, a 24-13 reviver over the Cowboys in the home opener at sunny-again CenturyLink Field.
Afterward, his teammates from quarterback Russell Wilson through defensive end Frank Clark sounded fine with Thomas doing whatever between games if he excels as he did on Sunday.
Shocker: Thomas did, too.
“I need to make sure my body is 100. And I’m invested in myself. If they was invested in me, I would be out there practicing,” Thomas said.
“If I feel like anything— don’t give a damn if it’s small, I got a headache—I’m not practicing. But I don’t want that to be taken the wrong way. I know I’m going to get fined, but that’s just where I’m at with that.
“Obviously, I put myself in this position. I’m going to do what I want to do.”
After weeks of mysteriously refusing to call running plays, the Seahawks finally did what they’ve been saying since January they would do in 2018: return to the run. Chris Carson’s 102 yards on 32 carries, both career highs were 18 more rushes than he had in the first two games combined. That led the offense for Seattle (1-2).
All that running allowed the Seahawks to control the game, and keep the Cowboys’ pass rush from swarming Wilson, as it did early in the game. Wilson, who was sacked an NFL-high 12 times through two games, was sacked twice.
“This is how we want to play,” coach Pete Carroll said. “We couldn’t be any more specific about it. We want to run the football. We want to play defense and use the kicking game as much as we can to control the field.
“All those things happened today.”
Again without his injured top target Doug Baldwin, Wilson completed 16 of 26 passes for 192 yards, with touchdown throws to Jaron Brown and Tyler Lockett.
“I just loved how physical we were,” Wilson said of Seattle’s 39 rushes for 113 yards. “That’s how we want to be.
“The first two weeks, we were so off schedule. ...If we can stay on schedule like we did (Sunday), that gives us a great, tremendous chance.”
Thomas not only started like nothing happened following two days of blowing off practices and the Seahawks reportedly considering a “significant fine” for him, he excelled right away.
The six-time Pro Bowl safety who wants a new contract or a trade intercepted his second pass in three games since he ended his holdout this month. Sunday, he pinned against his shin a pass from Dallas’ Dak Prescott that teammate Tre Flowers deflected. Thomas kept the ball at his shoe tops for his 27th career interception. That was 10th among active NFL players.
“He is the G.O.A.T,” Seahawks defensive end Frank Clark said of Thomas, meaning “greatest of all time.”
“He keeps playing like greatness. He’s playing like he deserves one of those yellow jackets. At the end of the day that’s Earl. Earl is going to do Earl. Everybody is panicking and wondering where Earl is at. But I’m sure he’s getting better somewhere in his little cave, or something.
“But at the end of the day, I’m just glad to have him.”
One play in the third quarter showed Thomas knows playing all out in these games will maximize his money, at least next spring in free agency if not before then. Thomas ran from the center of field to the right boundary, past Wagner, to keep a catch and run by Dallas’ Tavon Austin for no gain. Say what we will about disrupting practices being ticked off and disrespected, but Thomas was the absolute opposite of dogging it on the field Sunday.
Midway through the fourth quarter, with Seattle ahead by 18 points, Bradley McDougald continued his sterling start to this season as Kam Chancellor’s replacement at strong safety by forcing a fumble by Dallas running back Ezekiel Elliott from behind. Nickel back Justin Coleman recovered.
On the sideline after the play, Thomas was clapping, hugging and high-fiving Seahawks teammates and coaches. A few minutes later, rookie Shaquem Griffin leveled Tavon Austin with a bolting tackle to end a Dallas punt return. Thomas was one of the first Seahawks off the sideline to mob Griffin in celebration.
“What I do know is he gave everything he had today,” Carroll said of Thomas. “He was in, every step of the way, every aspect of the game. The communications, the focus and the adjustments...I was with him on some of those things on the sidelines. He was in everything. He played his tail off, and he had a blast playing, and he had a blast in the locker room.
“I’ll talk to him next week about whatever.”
Carson’s 5-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter, on his 23rd carry, made it 24-6. It was the second scoring rush by a Seahawks running back over two seasons. Converted wide receiver J.D. McKissic had the only one last season, in October. He’s now on injured reserve.
One of Brandon Marshall’s three drops in the first half kept Seattle from taking advantage of Thomas’ interception. It punted on that subsequent drive, as the game stayed scoreless into the second quarter.
Meanwhile, the Seahawks’ makeshift defense dominated Prescott and the Cowboys offense—while missing Pro Bowl outside linebacker K.J. Wright again and still adjusting to like without Richard Sherman, Michael Bennett and Cliff Avril. Dallas was 3 for 12 trying to covert third downs. The Seahawks sacked Prescott five times and intercepted him twice.
And Clark was manhandling any Cowboy trying to block him on third downs.
He said he took playing Dallas All-Pro left tackle Tyron Smith as a personal challenge.
Clark won.
“I was focused on Tyron. They said that’s the best offensive tackle in the game,” said Clark, who has sacks in each of the first three games this season, and 22 in the last two seasons plus three weeks. “I like rushing against the best. ...I feel like if I can keep doing that, I can keep getting greater and greater.”
Running the ball consistently for the first time this season—finally, after promising it for months—the Seahawks took their largest leads of the season so far, 14-3 then 17-3, late in the second quarter. They did that by exploiting a Cowboys injury, then their lack of discipline.
While Dallas starting safety Jeff Heath was in his locker room getting X-rays on his ankle, Wilson targeted Heath’s replacement. Second-stringer Kavon Frazier took a poor route, too flat trying to outside in deep coverage on Lockett down the right sideline. Lockett easily raced behind Frazier, caught Wilson’s third-down pass and high-stepped as if on Broadway the final 20 yards of the 52-yard touchdown pass with 2 minutes left in the second quarter.
Think that play didn’t make the Cowboys want Thomas even more?
This play made Dallas even sicker: The Seahawks were stopped at the Dallas 44-yard line with 6 seconds left in the half and no time outs. As the coaching staff was contemplating a 62-yard field-goal try by Sebastian Janikowski, Cowboys’ defensive lineman Randy Gregory stupidly shoved Seahawks center Joey Hunt in the helmet during the dead-ball period between plays. That 15-yard foul made Janikowski’s attempt an easy 47 yards instead, and gifted Seattle three more points for a 17-3 lead at halftime.
Carson’s 14 carries, seven in each of the first two quarters, were one more than he had through two games entering Sunday. He gained 50 yards in the half.
After Marshall had those three passes go off his hands on three third downs early, Wilson threw to Lockett and Nick Vannett to convert consecutive third downs early in the second quarter. With Marshall out of the game, Wilson converted on third down for the third straight time on the drive, on a swing pass outside to Carson for 19 yards.
Going quickly for the next play, Wilson threw a dart to Brown running down the right hash marks into the end zone. The 16-yard touchdown gave Seattle a 7-0 lead.
Now, can the Seahawks keep this—actually running the ball throughout a game, and also controlling it with defense—continue next week at winless Arizona?
“We just got clear on the commitment and the value of running the football, and we just stayed with it,” Carroll said. “We talked about it all week. We’ve been talking about it for some times. ...This is where we want to be, so we’ve righted it, hopefully.
“It won’t mean anything unless we come back and do it next week. One week was good, though. And it’s a great illustration of what we can be.”
This story was originally published September 23, 2018 at 4:33 PM.