Don’t blame Seahawks’ receiver David Moore on last play; more TD celebrations, Paul Allen honored

Yes, on the final play of the game, the ball and chance to send the game to overtime clanged off his chest.

Just about between the 8 and the 3 on the front of his blue Seahawks jersey in the back of the end zone, in fact.

But don’t blame David Moore for dropping Russell Wilson’s final throw into the back of the end zone on a final, untimed down Sunday.

It was the final scene in Seattle’s frantic, 25-17 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers at hushed CenturyLink Field.

Wilson talked about how Moore, with four touchdowns in his previous four games coming into Sunday, has made and will continue to make that play. Fellow wide receiver Doug Baldwin and other Seahawks talked in the locker room after the game about encouraging Moore, as if the 2017 seventh-round draft choice indeed dropped the ball.

“That’s the thing about being in tight in the red zone. You have tight windows. On the play to Nick (Vannett, for a touchdown on a similar dart of a throw by Wilson with 1:50 remaining Sunday), he made a great catch in a tight window.

“David is going to make that next time. Like I said, he’s a star and he’s going to be a star for a long time. He’s going to make that over and over again. I’m going to keep throwing it to him. He’s been making those plays all year. We have no doubt that he’s going to make the next one.”

Wilson said he talked to Moore after the final play “and I told him what I just told you guys. He’s obviously been doing it all year. The great thing is that he’s so young and so talented, it’s going to show up 100 times over in his career. I believe that the next 100 times, he’s going to make it 100 times over.

“I’m glad he’s on our team.”

It would have taken almost super-human physical reaction skills for Moore to catch that ball. It wasn’t easy to spot live as it happened, or even by watching replays on television of the final play, but Chargers safety Jaheel Addae made a brilliant, athletic play. Addae left his receiver, Tyler Lockett, who was running a more-shallow crossing route in the middle of the end zone, to the right and 5 yards ahead of Moore. Addae read that Wilson was throwing to Moore, not Lockett. He raced and reached over from out of Moore’s field of vision to tip the ball into a flutter a couple feet in front of Moore.

A split second before it reached Moore, the ball transformed from an easy-to-catch spiral into an end-over-end trick on a slightly different path.

Good luck trying to snare that pass.

“It throws off the trajectory of the pass,” said fellow wide receiver Jaron Brown, who caught Wilson’s first touchdown pass, 10 yards to end the Seahawks’ 13-play drive that took more than the first 8 minutes of the game. “Anytime it’s a tipped ball, especially if it’s that close, your hands really don’t have time to react.

“I think a lot of times people might see it as a receiver dropped a wide-open pass. But anytime a DB gets his hands on it and changes the trajectory of the ball it changes up our mechanics, too.”

And, ultimately Sunday, the result.

Dance Fever

The Seahawks trailed 19-10 after a first half in which they scored first.

The score ended a 13-play opening drive with nine runs then a touchdown pass of 10 yards from Wilson to Brown.

Brown then started the latest rendition of Seahawks’ wide receivers theater in the end zone to celebrate a score.

Brown said he had no idea where that dance routine came from, other than Lockett’s head.

The week before, after a touchdown in the win at Detroit, Lockett was the pitcher and Baldwin the hitter as they pantomimed a pitcher hitting a batter with a pitch. The other wide receivers broke into charging the “mound” at Lockett, while Wilson came to Lockett’s defense with his fists raised. All in the end zone after the touchdown, to honor what ultimately was the final day of the World Series.

Defense shredded early

Seattle rarely pressured Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers in the first half, and the back seven of the defense missed many more tackles than usual.

That allowed the iconic quarterback playing in his 200th consecutive game for the Chargers far too much time to find wide receiver Keenan Allen running free past Seahawks defensive backs for huge plays.

Allen had four catches for 95 yards, including a 54-yard move behind every Seahawks when Seattle rushed just three against Rivers on a third down in the second quarter. On the next play Melvin Gordon ran 34 yards for the touchdown that put the Chargers ahead 12-7.

Allen also had a 28-yard run on a fly sweep around Seattle defensive end Frank Clark on the Chargers’ first offensive play. That started a 10-play, 94-yard march by L.A. that led to Rivers’ touchdown pass to Tyrell Williams, past rookie cornerback Tre Flowers outside.

The Chargers extended their lead to 19-7 late in the second quarter on Mike Williams’ 30-yard catch then run through Flowers’ attempt at an arm tackle along the left sideline to the end zone.

McDougald’s cameo after injury

Strong safety Bradley McDougald, the Seahawks’ most consistent and best players since the opener, re-injured a knee that’s been bothering him off and on for weeks. He left in the third quarter, with 2017 draft choice Delano Hill replacing him.

“His knee that was sore all week long, after he played quite a while in the game, it just tightened up again,” Carroll said. “And he couldn’t finish.”

McDougald returned for one play with 9:45 left—at free safety, after starter there Tedric Thompson hurt his left arm or shoulder making a tackle after a Chargers catch for a first down near midfield. Thompson returned for the next play, Hill stayed in and McDougald watched the rest of the game from the sideline.

“He had the wind knocked out of him,” Carroll said of Thompson.

Dickson only punts

No, Michael Dickson didn’t take off running this time. The rookie punter did what the Seahawks drafted him this spring to do: provide booming punts.

Dickson nailed one punt 61 yards, had two more for 57 yards and one for 50. His “short” one, for 46 yards, was shorter on purpose; it rolled out at the Chargers 5-yard line in the first half.

Dickson was a large reason the Seahawks held Los Angeles’ offense scoreless in the second half.

“The field position really was huge for us,” Carroll said, “particularly in the second half. He’s a real weapon, and he showed it again.”

Allen honored

The Seahawks honored Paul Allen with a video tribute, then raised the “12th Man” fan flag just before kickoff in honor of their owner who died Oct. 15 at age 65 following complications from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

“Paul has meant so much to us,” Wilson said.

“You think about all the things that Paul has done. I read a quote from him the other day about how he chooses optimism each day. I think that’s our football team. Paul is the best leader for us, in that sense. He’s always been that way. I think about that and I think about all the things he’s done for the world.”

The quarterback ended his postgame press conference with: “Miss you, Paul.”

This story was originally published November 4, 2018 at 7:59 PM.