Check out what Chris Carson didn’t know on wowing TD at SF
Chris Carson made his unforgettable touchdown run even better, three days later.
On Sunday, he bounced off a wicked, immediate hit from D.J. Jones. He bulled through two other 49ers defenders on his can’t-stop-me touchdown run.
It was so improbable, and appeared so much like he was going down stopped short of the goal line, San Francisco defenders Earl Mitchell and Marcell Harris were running of the line and the field celebrating their teammates stopping Carson—while the Seahawks’ running back was still refusing to go down.
“That was the best part,” Seahawks running backs coach Chad Morton said.
“That was great,” Carson said. “I can see why they did. They thought they stopped me.”
On fourth down, out of shotgun, Carson took the handoff from Russell Wilson and got hit almost immediately by Jones, who out-weighs Carson by 99 pounds. Yet Carson bulled off him. He rammed through Niners linebacker Elijah Lee. He charged through two more defenders at the goal line. Then, with a push from left tackle Duane Brown, Carson lunged across the goal line for the TD.
Wednesday, Carson made his touchdown in the fourth quarter that tied the game at San Francisco even more remarkable.
“I didn’t even realize it was fourth down, to be honest,” Carson said, four days before he ramps it up yet again Sunday night when the Seahawks (8-6) try again to get a playoff berth against the high-flying Kansas City Chiefs (11-3).
Wait...what?
All that effort, the legs churning and heart growing that had Doug Baldwin, David Moore, D.J. Fluker (who wasn’t even in uniform, out injured), Carson’s fellow running back Mike Davis just about every Seahawk back to Dan Doornink ran over to Seattle’s bench to shout their congratulations to Carson after his score—and he didn’t know it was fourth down?
“No, I didn’t. I didn’t even realize,” Carson said.
He only found out after he got to the sideline. Davis told him.
“That was crazy! It was fourth down!” Davis told his fellow running back.
“Oh,” Carson said.
Morton, after Carson rested during practice on Wednesday, rolled his eyes at that.
“Gotta know your down and distance,” the position coach said, not smiling.
Thing is, Carson runs every down like it’s fourth and goal from the 1 with the game on the line down by 7.
“That whole drive Doug and Russ they were all saying, ‘Don’t be denied. Let’s finish the drive off. Don’t let anybody stop you,’” Carson said. “I kind of took that to heart.
“I didn’t want to get tackled.”
Here’s the issue: Can Carson keep playing this way and stay on the field?
His two years at Oklahoma State after transferring from Butler Community College in El Dorado, Kan., were shortened by wrist and other injuries. Then he broke his leg and had severe damage to ankle ligaments Oct. 1, 2017, in his fourth NFL game. Hip and groin injuries have kept him out of two games this season, Sept. 30 at Arizona when Davis had his 100-yard day replacing him and Nov. 11 at the Rams when Penny got his 100.
Earlier this month, Carson dislocted his finger in the home win against San Francisco. He played on through that.
Carson’s injury history—and the Seahawks having seven lead running backs since Marshawn Lynch left the team after the 2015 season—is why Seattle spent its first-round pick on Penny this spring.
“It’s tough, you know what I mean?” Morton said. “But we always just talk about running hard, physical. Because when you start worrying about getting hurt, that’s when the injuries happen, who you start running a little bit timid.
“So as long as he continues to get his pads down, getting long, always working on that—because now these guys are coming at him low.
“That’s why you see all the hurdling.”
Oh, yeah, that.
His mother hasn’t been thrilled about her often-injured son continuing to jump over opponents. Carson said after his wowing flip then landing on two feet and continuing to run for more yards in the win at Carolina last month Dina Rowe called him and said: “Stay on the ground. You give me a heart attack.”
It’s Carson’s counter to defenses going lower at him as this season’s gone on, trying to combat his physical runs. He did it again last weekend against the 49ers.
Sorry, Mom.
“That’s something that’s not going to change in him. That’s his style, as a runner,” Morton said.
“As long as he takes care of the ball. Even in the Carolina game, when he flipped over, they tried to punch it out....while he was in the air flipping over. That’s something he’s got to be cognizant of....
“You can do that stuff, no problem. Just take care of the football.”
Last year’s seventh-round draft choice out of Oklahoma State got coach Pete Carroll’s attention for how he punished college defenders who tried to tackle him in his two years in the Big XII Conference.
He’s still doing it in the NFL.
While Davis and rookie first-round draft choice Rashaad Penny also have 100-yard games this season, Carson is the relentless engine behind Seattle’s number-one ranked rushing offense in the NFL. Last week’s 119 yards at San Francisco was the most of his 16-game career. He has 1,121 yards in those 16 career games, including the four he played last season as a starter before a broken leg ended his rookie season.
Carson needs 87 yards Sunday night against the Chiefs to reach 1,000 yards this season. And he is going to get many chances to get those yards. The Seahawks will again feature his running on consecutive downs early in the game to slow down a Chiefs pass rush that is second in the NFL in sacks, to give Wilson and his better offensive line a fairer fight later in the night.
Plus, Seattle may be without Penny again Sunday because of a knee injury he got two games ago against Minnesota. Carroll said Wednesday Penny is “going to try to do some stuff (Thursday). It’s still uncertain” whether he will play against Kansas City.
The Seahawks signed former Alabama masher back Bo Scarbrough off Jacksonville’s practice squad to the active roster as “insurance for us” if Penny can’t go, Carroll said.
Carson hasn’t rushed for 1,000 in any season since his senior year at Parkview High School in Lilburn, Ga., in 2012. He tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee nine games into his senior season. That and other issues is why he didn’t end up playing at Georgia as he intended to, and ended up to Butler Community College.
He rushed for 996 yards in one of his seasons there.
What would 1,000 yards in his first full NFL season mean to him.
“If we make the playoffs, it means a lot,” Carson said.
“It’s a compliment that a lot of running backs want to have. That century mark is great...means a lot, I would say.
“But getting into the playoffs would mean even more.”
This story was originally published December 19, 2018 at 5:22 PM.
