Russell Wilson not superhuman — until he is. QB, Jason Myers send Seahawks over 49ers in OT
As Jason Myers’ second, clutch, redemptive kick in as many quarters sailed true, Russell Wilson high-stepped off the Seahawks sidelines. Then, he screamed.
Coach Pete Carroll turned to his franchise quarterback who rallied Seattle yet again and hugged him. Then they each messed up the other’s hair.
They were beyond thrilled because they know—the 49ers know—the race for the NFC West title is now on. With six games remaining, the Seahawks (8-2) are a half game behind the 49ers for the division lead. And San Francisco comes to CenturyLink Field on the last Sunday of the regular season.
That’s the result of what Wilson called the craziest game of his eight-year career.
It was exhausting. It was sloppy. It was inexplicable. And it was thrilling.
The resilient Seahawks beat the previously undefeated Niners, 27-24 on Myers’ 42-yard field goal on the final play of overtime Monday night.
“That was the craziest game I’ve ever been a part of,” Wilson said after his 24 completions in 34 throws for 232 yards, one touchdown and one, rare interception that had happened only other time in the NFL in the last half century.
“You talk about a Monday Night Football game. That felt like an NFC championship game right there.”
He would know. Wilson has won two of those.
This victory over the 49ers keeps Seattle’s hopes realistic it can host playoff games. The Seahawks can only do that by winning the division. And the only three times they have reached the Super Bowl they had home playoff games throughout the NFC’s postseason.
“This is a significant opportunity,” Carroll acknowledged after his 28th win against five losses and a tie in prime-time games leading Seattle. “It’s an incredible opportunity.”
It is now.
“This was the craziest game of my career,” defensive end Jadeveon Clowney said after his mammoth night rushing 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.
“We ain’t ever out of a game.”
Wilson’s second interception of the season almost lost this.
Overtime began with a Seattle oddity. Tyler Lockett was on the bench, out with a “bad” contusion in his lower leg, according to Carroll. Seattle’s leading receiver was on his way to a Bay Area hospital perhaps overnight. Josh Gordon was two (big) catches and 10 days into his Seahawks career.
So of course in overtime, with the West and perhaps Seattle’s realistic hopes for a productive postseason at stake, Wilson relied on...Malik Turner? And Jacob Hollister?
Wilson made three huge completions to those two reserves on the opening drive in overtime. But then, 14 yards from a winning touchdown, Wilson threw too low and short to Hollister, after the tight end had broken free behind San Francisco’s Dre Greenlaw.
Greenlaw intercepted the pass and returned Wilson’s second interception in 10 games this season 47 yards to midfield. The company STATS said Seattle’s fourth turnovers of this sloppy, thrilling game was the second NFL interception thrown in the red zone, inside the opponent’s 20-yard line, in overtime in the last 25 years.
One 49ers first down later, Wilson paced Seattle’s sideline. He wiped his brow. As fill-in kicker Chase McLaughlin lined up for a winning field goal, Wilson he clapped twice. He watched the kick on the video board at the opposite end zone.
McLaughlin pushed his kick wide left. Wilson turned to a Seahawks assistant coach and hugged him.
New life.
Yet the Seahawks’ offense could do nothing. It punted, with 1:57 left in overtime.
But Garoppolo (24 for 46, 248 yards passing, one touchdown, one interception) then threw consecutive incomplete passes on a 14-second drive.
Voila! Wilson and the Seahawks had another chance, from their own 36 with 1:25 and no times out left.
“We were going to win,” left tackle Duane Brown said. “Russell Wilson is the best quarterback in the league. When you have him under center, I don’t care how much time is on the clock, we feel like we’ve got a chance.”
Wilson completed three consecutive passes. On a third down, the irrepressible quarterback found more open green space than in any other place in the Bay Area. He scrambled 19, crucial yards.
That put Myers in position to go from vilified last week for missing a kick that would have beaten Tampa Bay in overtime before Wilson won it in that extra period, to victorious and vaulted by teammates off the field. Myers followed his go-ahead kick late in regulation with the 42-yard field goal on the final play of Monday’s overtime.
“All week, I was trying to get my routine back and work on a couple things I wanted to work on,” Myers said. “But I know how sports are. And it always comes back around.
“When a game like that happened last week, I knew it was going to happen again. So I was preparing to get in that situation again.”
Carroll made a point of saying Monday’s ending was why Seahawks teammates encouraged Myers in the locker room immediately after the previous week’s escape past the Buccaneers. Why Carroll said that day of the Tampa Bay mishap: “Jason Myers, he’s our kicker.”
“I hope you can see why it’s so important to stay with your people, and hang with them,” Carroll said, adding the concept of “ostracizing,” like most others wanted to do to Myers is not in the coach’s or his program’s mentality or even vocabulary.
“Shoot,” Carroll said of Myers and his mates, “they are carrying him around in the locker room in there.”
All that drama preceded Myers leaning back and letting out a primal roar. He did that after drilling a 46-yard field goal with 92 seconds remaining in regulation to give the Seahawks a 24-21 lead.
On San Francisco’s ensuing, frantic possession, Seattle’s K.J. Wright dropped what would have been a game-ending interception on first down. Then All-Pro teammate Bobby Wagner did the same thing a few plays later.
That allowed the 49ers to move into position for fill-in kicker McLaughlin’s 47-yard field goal with 1 second remaining in regulation. That forced another Seahawks overtime.
Quandre Diggs made his Seahawks debut—and was huge.
In the third quarter, he ran over to intercept a Garoppolo pass that went off and through the hands of receiver Deebo Samuel, who was open in front of Diggs.
The Seahawks turned that into Chris Carson’s touchdown and a 21-10 lead.
Seattle was seemingly cruising with that lead with 12 minutes left. But then Arik Armstead broke in on Wilson on second and 7 and sacked the Seahawks’ quarterback while popping the ball from Wilson’s hands. Right tackle Germain Ifedi saw the ball fly out, caught it and tried to run out of the deep backfield with it. He fumbled, too.
San Francisco’s DeForest Bucker picked up Ifedi’s fumble and ran 12 yards into the end zone for a touchdown. After Garopplo completed yet another slant route in front of a defensive back, this one Tre Flowers, on the two-point conversion, Seattle’s lead was down to 21-18.
The Seahawks’ offense went three and out on their next series. Third down was Wilson throw to a slanting DK Metcalf against Richard Sherman. Wilson’s first target at Sherman on the night ended with the former Seahawks All-Pro cornerback batting the pass away, then celebrating with waving, negating arms.
Giving an undefeated home team division leader two turnovers in plus territory is absolutely the way to lose.
And the Seahawks almost did. Multiple times.
Down 10-0 after the 49ers zapped them in San Francisco’s dominant opening quarter, the Seahawks got back in the game with an out-of-nowhere play.
Like, from Mars out of nowhere.
The total yards at one point in the first half were San Francisco 101, Seattle 1. The Seahawks’ defense was missing tackles in the secondary—particularly nickel back Jamar Taylor and strong safety Diggs, who started in his Seattle debut after two weeks out with a hamstring strain following his trade from Detroit last month.
The Seahawks were not getting much pressure on Garoppolo, continuing a season-long problem for the 25th-ranked sack unit in the 32-team league entering this weekend.
Jarran Reed hadn’t contributed an impacting play since last season. The defensive tackle missed the first six games of this season on NFL suspension for alleged domestic violence. He had no sacks and nust one quarterback hit in his first three games since his 2019 debut last month.
Then, a happening akin to a meteor strike for the Seahawks’ defense.
Late in the second quarter, Reed beat his blocker and swarmed free in on Garoppolo. Reed knocked the ball from the 49ers quarterback. Defensive end Jadeveon Clowney scooped up the ball and ran 10 yards for a reviving touchdown. Suddenly, it was a 10-7 game.
The Seahawks’ defense forced San Francisco to punt again on the ensuing drive. Lockett’s 20-yard return of the 49ers’ short punt of 38 yards set up Seattle’s offense and the Niners 39-yard line.
Then the Seahawks were 2 yards from improbably taking the lead late in the first half.
Metcalf caught a quick pass outside and ran behind a nice block from hustling left tackle Duane Brown inside the 5-yard line. San Francisco safety Jaquiski Tartt grabbed at Metcalf’s arms for the ball. Tartt eventually ripped it from the rookie’s grasp at the 2-yard line before falling into the end zone along the sideline. After a long replay review of an on-field ruling of Metcalf being down before the fumble, the 49ers got possession at the 2-yard line instead of the Seahawks getting the lead.
So the half ended with Seattle fortunate to be down only 10-7 after getting dominated for much of it—yet also with the Seahawks smarting over not having the lead.
The Seahawks ended up with five sacks, 1 1/2 by Reed, and 10 quarterback hits. The sacks tied a season high. The hits were a season high.
That is perhaps the most encouraging, perhaps season-changing result of many from this wild Monday night.
Clowney, Wagner and other Seahawks said they took all the attention on the 49ers’ attacking defensive front as a personal challenge.
The result: season-best pressure in the season’s biggest game yet.
“If you ain’t competing,” Clowney said, “you should retire.”
In one switch, forgotten second-year linebacker Shaquem Griffin finally went to the outside, straight-line edge rusher he was two years ago starring at the University of Central Florida.
Carroll said Griffin will get more chances to do what Seattle’s coach said they intended to do this year way back in May’s minicamps.
And the Seahawks still have chances to win the West after a zany, exhausting Monday night by the Bay.
“We’ve had some wild ones here,” Wilson said. “I would say it was wild throughout the game. Sixty minutes of football, plus another 10. Seven minutes of football, just back and forth, back and fourth. ...
“As tough as it gets. We found a way to win.”
Cha-ching! for Clowney
Clowney is in a contract year. He knows at his position, sacks equal money.
And he’s seeking $20 million or more per year at the top of the market for edge pass rushers in next spring.
He may have earned that in one night Monday, with the entire league watching.
Before the third quarter was over, Clowney had three tackles, one sack, four hits on Garoppolo, one forced fumble, one fumble recovery, which he returned for a touchdown late in the second quarter. That resuscitated the Seahawks, who were seemingly inert while falling behind 10-0.
In the fourth quarter, San Francisco had all the momentum driving for perhaps the go-ahead touchdown. On third down, Clowney did not go for Garoppolo’s fake handoff. As the quarterback rolled right at him, Clowney leaped and prevented him from throwing. Seahawks teammate Al Woods took advantage of that extra time Clowney gave him to get Seattle’s season high-tying fifth sack of the game.
The 49ers had to settle for a field goal instead, and the game was tied at 21 with 6 minutes left.
Clowney had two sacks in nine games entering Monday.
Diggs debuts—and shines
The Seahawks got Diggs on the field for the first time. And he’s got a new job.
To keep.
The former Detroit Lions captain until his trade last month started at strong safety in his first game after two weeks sidelines by a strained hamstring.
Diggs’ debut sent rookie Marquise Blair to the bench, though he didn’t deserve to be. The second-round pick was one of Seattle’s best players in his previous two starts, while Diggs was rehabilitating and original starting safety Tedric Thompson was going to injured reserve with a torn labrum in his shoulder.
Diggs missed multiple tackles early in Monday’s game. But he also had a couple of his signature hits before his key interception.
Gordon debuts, Brown to bench
Gordon made his Seahawks debut late in the first quarter.
His first target and touch game with 3 1/2 minutes left in the game. He entered on third and 6 at the San Francisco 49. The 2013 All-Pro wide receiver Seattle claimed on waivers 10 days earlier lined up wide left opposite Richard Sherman. Wilson didn’t hesitate. He looked left and quickly threw to the slanting Gordon, who made the catch and run for 13, crucial yards to the San Francisco 36.
“Sometimes you have to just go for it,” Wilson said of targeting Sherman late.
“I mean, we make eye contact, a lot,” Gordon said already, after just three practices and one game with Wilson. “Some plays I think we know that we would like to do this. ...
“You might see me going in and out of the game, a lot. I think going forward, we’re going to be able to build that continuity, that relationship, that rhythm, and get into doing what we love to do. And that’s make plays.”
Gordon’s arrival and debut with the Seahawks came at a cost of one veteran’s playing time.
Jaron Brown was inactive for Monday night’s NFC West showdown at unbeaten San Francisco. It was the first game for Gordon since the 2013 All-Pro wide receiver arrived in Seattle off waivers from New England 10 days earlier.
Brown, 29, had been active for the first nine games of this season. Last year’s free-agent signing from Arizona has 13 catches for 205 yards and two touchdowns in 2019.
But Gordon, 28, is now the much more accomplished veteran wide receiver to play alongside Tyler Lockett and rookie DK Metcalf.
Gordon entered with 1:57 left in the first quarter for his first Seahawks play, on the offense’s second drive. Seattle was already down 10-0 by then.
Rookie first-round draft choice L.J. Collier was inactive for Seattle. It was the fourth time in 10 games the defensive end wasn’t in uniform for a needy Seahawks pass rush.
Collier has no sacks and two tackles in spot duty over six games.
No surprises among the rest of the Seahawks inactives players against the 49ers: rookie wide receiver John Ursua, running back C.J. Prosise, cornerback Akeem King, injured safety Lano Hill and rookie guard Phil Haynes.
Haynes came off the physically-unable-to-perform list Nov. 5. He has surgery before training camp for a sports hernia.
The most notable player inactive for the 49ers was star tight end George Kittle. He is San Francisco’s leading receiver by far with 46 receptions and 541 yards in nine games.
This story was originally published November 11, 2019 at 9:16 PM.
