‘Out of this world.’ Chris Carson’s leap, flip run wows Seahawks, scares his mother
Mom didn’t like it so much.
The Seahawks sure as heck did.
Chris Carson pulled off the most wondrous play of Seattle’s win Sunday in Carolina. Coach Pete Carroll says he may not have ever seen one more impressive in his 67 years.
Carson going Matrix was also an emphatic way to continue the momentum the Seahawks’ Bradley McDougald created with his end-zone interception to turn what could have been a 20-10 Carolina lead into a 17-13 edge for Seattle late in the third quarter.
Of all that happened in the Seahawks’ wild rally to win 30-27 on the final play in Charlotte, nothing was better or maybe more memorable than what Carson pulled off.
Seattle’s lead running back took off on a carry up the middle, then approached Carolina safety Eric Reid. Reid is 6-foot-1, and he was standing about to go at Carson for the tackle. The 5-11 Carson leaped over Reid, and almost cleared him completely.
“I thought he was going to leap over him,” quarterback Russell Wilson said. “He almost did.”
Reid clipped Carson’s lower leg, causing the running back to go heels over head. Yet Carson landed on both feet, like a cat falling from upside down from a tree. He kept running, too, to finish off the most incredible 15-yard run any Seahawk had ever seen.
“I would give him a nine out of 10,” Wilson deadpanned.
Carson’s coach wasn’t dead-panning.
“That was out of this world,” Carroll said. “All of us said we’ve never seen that happen before. Maybe it has somewhere. But I’ve never seen a guy flip, land on his feet and make some more yards.
“That was extraordinary.
“I don’t think that will happen again.”
It won’t if Dina Rowe has any pull with her son.
Carson finished with 55 yards on 16 carries and Seattle’s first touchdown that tied the game at 10 in the second quarter. He said his mother (Rowe) texted him after — or heck, perhaps during — the game about his leap, flip, land-on-his-feet-and-continue running trick.
She had a stern message.
“Stay on the ground,” Carson said Mom told him. “You give me a heart attack.”
How jacked, to use one of Carroll’s words, did the Seahawks get about Carson’s feat?
They had 10 points and gained 154 yards with two sacks allowed of Wilson into the third quarter before Carson’s flip and run.
They scored 20 points with 243 yards and no sacks allowed in the final 1 1/2 quarters after it. Six plays after Carson’’s acrobatics, the Seahawks took their first lead of the game on Wilson’s touchdown pass of 12 yards to Tyler Lockett.
They went from trailing Sunday’s game and on the outside of the NFC’s playoff race with five games remaining to squarely in the middle of it. With its second consecutive rally to victory in the final seconds, Seattle (6-5) now controls its fate for the postseason. It can win its way in while playing four of the final five games of the regular season at home. The lone road game is at San Francisco (2-9) on Dec. 16.
“Do we play of four of the final five at home? Really?” Carroll said mockingly, knowing his Seahawks are the league’s only team to play seven road games so far, including to London and back already this season.
“We’ve got a long way to go. Really happy to be going home, get to play at home next week (against the 49ers). It seems like we’ve been away for so long.
“We’re already in the playoffs, as far as we’re concerned. We’ve got to win every game, and we’ve got to do it one game at a time.”
Or, with Carson, one leap at a time.
This story was originally published November 25, 2018 at 4:50 PM.
