Weakened by food poisoning, Frank Clark shows Seahawks what he’s really worth

Frank Clark — and more important for him, the Seahawks — learned two key things about their top pass rusher on Sunday.

One: They need to pay him. Soon.

And two: Don’t eat Butterball turkey burgers.

Clark was all over the line of scrimmage, in the Rams’ opposing backfield and even got his first career interception to turn away Los Angeles’ top-ranked offense from the goal line and set up Seattle’s first score in the Seahawks’ frustrating, 33-31 loss at CenturyLink FIeld.

Two tackles, one for a loss, plus a hit and forced fumble on quarterback Jared Goff and that interception at the Seahawks’ 2-yard line while speeding past Los Angeles’ All-Pro left tackle Andrew Whitworth would have been a fabulous game any Sunday.

It was incredible because it came after Clark spent three days this past week with food poisoning. He was in the hospital twice, the second time on Friday less than two days before the game. He took eight intravenous treatments trying to get re-hydrated after throwing up for days. He lost 12 pounds.

Then, he balled out, as the players say. And said, after Clark’s Herculean performance.

“Man, he’s a beast. He lost 12 pounds this week. Didn’t practice,” Seahawks teammate Bradley McDougald said. “To go out there and have the game he did, man, it’s just nothing less than incredible.”

Clark got sick after trying to be good and cut down on his fat intake. He lost trying to be lean.

“Oh, yeah, I had food poisoning man. Yeah, don’t eat turkey burgers by Butterball,” Clark said, losing one endorsement possibility. “It’s not a good brand. I actually like Jennie-O.

“The Butterball ones, they are kind of thicker. So they take longer to cook through, if you know what I mean?”

We do now.

“Oh, man, it’s hard, bro. My wind, it wasn’t where I needed it to be or wanted it to be,” Clark said.

Then he put his tough week, this game, his sport and livelihood, in proper perspective.

“At the end of the day, none of that matters, man. I look at my boys, I look at the people I have lost in my past, losing my father — I lost my father (this past offseason) in a fire (in which three other family members also died, inside a house in Cleveland). Nothing I go through is going to be harder than that.

“That’s how I look at this football stuff. I can go through anything in life, and it’s not going to challenge me like that challenged me.

“So at the end of the day, me being in the hospital or not, me not being able to practice, I didn’t look at it that as an excuse not to go out there and get the job done on my side, and do what I have to do for my teammates.

“If you’ve got any type of nuts, you go out there and compete.”

Clark continues to do that. He has 22 sacks in the last two seasons plus five games, including three in the first three games this season. That’s while he plays through what he said were broken hands last year, and following wrist surgery this offseason and more pain the hands and wrists this summer into fall.

He is entering the final year of his rookie contract. The Seahawks’ controversial first pick in the 2015 draft after an arrest and brief jailing in Ohio on a domestic-assault charge has 25 sacks in his career. His ratio of sacks to snaps played after his first three years spent behind now-gone Pro Bowl ends Michael Bennett and Cliff Avril are tops in the league in that span.

Clark’s price tag on a new contract for 2019 and beyond seems to rise with each game. Especially given this passer-and-sack-the-passer league places upon edge rushers.

And especially after the performance Clark gave against the Rams to end the week he had.

CARROLL EXPLAINS TIME OUT

Tedric Thompson, the Seahawks’ new free safety with All-Pro Earl Thomas probably never playing for the team again after he broke his leg in the win the previous weekend at Arizona, slammed into a pile of players to turn back Los Angeles’ Todd Gurley inches short of the line to gain. It was fourth down at the Rams 42-yard line with 1:39 remaining and Seattle trailing 33-31.

Coach Pete Carroll decided to use the Seahawks’ final timeout there. He notified officials of that choice from the sidelines, before they measured to confirm Gurley was indeed short of the first down. The Rams had their punt team on the field during the measurement, and it appeared the Seahawks would get the ball back for a final chance.

Referee Clete Blakeman announced after the measurement the Seahawks were taking their final timeout. During it, Rams coach Sean McVay took his punt team off the field and his offense back on it. Quarterback Jared Goff then sneaked a yard past the line to gain on fourth down to effectively end the game. Los Angeles took two kneel downs from there to expire the clock.

“What happened there is that the clock would have been running and we would have used the time out,” Carroll said. “But, because of the stoppage there (for the measurement) we get the timeout back, so (for the moment) we had another time out. What would have happened there is they were going to wind the clock (after the measurement) and I think there was 33 seconds on the (play) clock. And at 1:39 that would have taken us down to a minute. So it was worth using the time out to save that 33 seconds right there.”

That assumed, of course, that the Seahawks were getting the ball back there.

Asked a second question about taking the time out and giving the Rams more time to change their minds and go for the first down instead of punting, Carroll tersely replied: “I’m not quite sure why you’re asking that. We’re just trying to keep as much time on the clock as possible. I might be missing what the point is that you are asking that, because I see 1:39 on the clock and it’s going to run down to 1:06, and so that’s why I used it there.”

Told the point was he gave more time for McVay to change his mind and go for the first down that ended the game, Carroll said: “He can do whatever he wants.”

EXTRA POINTS

This was the first time in Russell Wilson’s seven-year career of 101 consecutive regular-season starts and 12 more in the postseason including two Super Bowls that the Seahawks’ quarterback did not have a rushing attempt. Not even on a scramble away from pass rushers. He threw the ball away numerous times. ...

Forgotten RB C.J. Prosise, Seattle’s third-round draft choice in 2016, was a healthy scratch Su It was the second time in three games Prosise was inactive. He has yet to carry the ball this season. He had three catches for 22 yards at Chicago as a third-down back in week two. Those are his only touches of the ball this season. Mike Davis’ 100-yard rushing day last week at Arizona and Chris Carson’s the previous week against Dallas have pushed the oft-injured Prosise further out of favor. ...

Pro Bowl outside linebacker K.J. Wright missed his fifth consecutive game since arthroscopic knee surgery in late August. The Seahawks barely used backup middle linebacker Austin Calitro at weakside linebacker for Wright, as they’d been expected to. They were in nickel defense with only two linebackers, Bobby Wagner and Barkevious Mingo, most of the game. ...McDougald on the Seahawks playing at the Rams Nov. 11: “We’ve got another shot at them down there in L.A., and it might be a different result. Right guard D.J. Fluker and Clark both said they “can’t wait” to play the Rams again.

This story was originally published October 7, 2018 at 8:06 PM.