Preplayoff face-plant: Carson and Prosise lost for season, Seahawks dominated by Cardinals
Chris Carson left the field with his head down, and his season over.
C.J. Prosise’s arm is broken.
Duane Brown needs knee surgery.
With their must-have running game, offense and season suddenly fractured and in jeopardy, the Seahawks have a new mantra entering next week’s NFC West title game at home against San Francisco.
“The adversity is temporary,” quarterback Russell Wilson said after Sunday’s loss in far more ways than the 27-13 defeat to the Arizona Cardinals at booing CenturyLink Field.
If the Seahawks play without a bye in the first round of the playoffs —or in Philadelphia— this will be why.
Four starters were already out injured with the NFC West title game coming up next week at home against San Francisco. Then 1,200-yard rusher Carson went out with a fractured hip in the first half.
Prosise broke his arm. Coach Pete Carroll also said left tackle Duane Brown is out into the playoffs and needs knee surgery.
That left Wilson to get hammered by Chandler Jones (four sacks) and Arizona’s swarming pass rush.
Not even Cardinals’ rookie No. 1 draft choice Kyler Murray going out injured could help Seattle’s defense, which was missing three injured regulars.
The Seahawks looked nothing like a playoff team in getting dominated by five-win Arizona.
The home fans booed throughout then began to leave with 4 minutes remaining in the debacle.
The Seahawks (11-4) entered Sunday knowing no matter the result against the Cardinals, Seattle must beat San Francisco at home next Sunday to win the NFC West.
That’s still true. But losing Carson coupled with the Seahawks’ performance Sunday makes the road ahead daunting.
“I think that ultimately the good thing is we have a chance to win the NFC West. That’s the reality. That’s the truth,” Wilson said.
“And the truth is, we’ve got to play better, too, as well.
“So both of those things are real. And so there’s...I don’t think there’s anybody better than us to be able to figure out how to answer back.”
With rookie Travis Homer as the only remaining healthy running back, Wilson got sacked five times. Four times he got dumped by end Chandler Jones steaming around fill-in Jamarco Jones, who was playing left tackle because Brown is having knee surgery Monday. Chandler Jones also had six of Arizona’s seven hits on Wilson.
With no running game to support him, Wilson completed a season-low 16 passes in 31 attempts for 169 yards; the yards were also a season low.
The breakdowns were universal.
Wide receivers caught just three passes. Top rookie DK Metcalf had no catches, and just one target, while Arizona’s Patrick Peterson shut him down.
In the fourth quarter on third down Wilson threw a deep pass down the right side to Malik Turner. The second-year wide receiver didn’t run. He stopped his route and looked around everywhere but at the pass he obviously didn’t think was coming to him. The ball skidded to no one off the turf in the end zone for an incompletion on third down. Jason Myers kicked a field goal on the next play to get Seattle to within 20-13 with 10 minutes remaining.
Arizona responded with a nine-play, 78-yard drive to a touchdown, on a 3-yard run by Kenyon Drake (166 yards on 24 carries).
And that was that for the Seahawks.
“It was really protection-related,” Carroll said of the three catches by wide receivers. “We weren’t able to get the ball off. We couldn’t get the ball out to them....
“Russ couldn’t do anything about it. It was a really hard day, protection-wise.”
The Seahawks had one first down and just 49 net yards from the end of the first quarter into the fourth period.
The score in that span went from 7-7 to 20-7 Arizona.
Seattle’s offense ruined just about everything through the first three quarters.
Seattle finally got the big play it desperately needed: Surging defensive end Rasheem Green leaped inside and blocked Zane Gonzalez’s 45-yard field goal. Rookie Marquise Blair scooped up the ball and ran 46 yards to the Cardinals 16-yard line.
But on the first play after that, Homer had nothing but Cardinals in his face running wide right for a 4-yard loss. He caught a swing pass for 11 yards on the next play. But on third and 3, Homer ran wide left. Left guard Mike Iupati and others missed blocks. Arizona linebacker Jordan Hicks crashed through to dump Homer for a 3-yard loss. On fourth and 6 the Seahawks had to settle for Jason Myers’ short field goal. Seattle still trailed 20-10 with 14:56 left.
Wilson finally connected with Tyler Lockett for Seattle’s leading receiver’s first catch of the game — with 12 minutes left in it. That, plus a 15-yard penalty for roughness at the end of that play and Wilson converting on a third down with a completion to Jacob Hollister on third down with Arizona only rushing four set up Myers’ second field goal. His 51-yarder closed Seattle to within 20-13 with 10 minutes to go.
Wilson passed Matt Hasselbeck for first place all-time in Seahawks history for passing yards during the third quarter when Wilson got to 29,439 career yards.
Arizona led 20-7 by then. The Cardinals converted David Moore’s lost fumble following a catch on the first possession of the second half into a 46-yard field goal by Gonzalez.
Then Murray, the Cardinals’ dynamic, zooming rookie quarterback and top-overall draft choice in the NFL this spring, left with an injured hamstring. One-time (briefly) Seahawks backup Brett Hundley entered for Murray — and the Seahawks promptly sacked Murray’s far-less-mobile backup while getting a three and out.
The Seahawks’ running game was down to Homer or bust.
It busted.
Homer had five carries for 16 yards, plus six receptions for another 26 yards.
Seattle finished with 224 total yards, a season low. Arizona had 412 yards.
It was a blowout by every measure, an entirely suboptimal way to go into the game for the division championship.
“That’s a lot of game for Homer to play by himself,” Carroll said, knowing he and general manager John Schneider are about to sign another running back this week.
Can they fix all this before next Sunday’s division-title showdown with San Francisco (12-3), which beat the Rams on the final play Saturday night?
Or for the playoffs, which now increasingly looks like they could start for Seattle in the wild-card round Jan. 4 or 5?
“We do kind of like to run the football, you know,” Carroll said, with a wry smile.
“It’s a challenge. John has to get working. He has a plan, and he was already preparing for every position that has a fallout, wherever we go.”
Seahawks-49ers flexed to Sunday night
As expected, the NFL announced the Seahawks-49ers game next Sunday at CenturyLink Field is now a 5:20 p.m. kickoff for prime time national television as the league’s final, featured game of the regular season.
Four starters out
The Seahawks were missing four injured starters Sunday: lead pass rusher Jadeveon Clowney, cornerback Shaquill Griffin, left tackle Brown and free safety Quandre Diggs.
Clowney missed a game for the second consecutive week and third time in five games. The three-time Pro Bowl defensive end just got through a bad flu. He continues to be pained by a core-muscle injury that may need surgery after this season.
Carroll said on Friday he and the team have “some” concern Clowney’s injury isn’t improving, even after two weeks of no football. He missed the Carolina game because of his nasty flu.
Second-year end Green, who has emerged in the last week to become Seattle’s sack leader entering Sunday, and rookie first-round draft choice L.J. Collier were poised for more playing time again with Clowney out.
End Ziggy Ansah was active for the first time in three games. He had been sidelined by a nerve issue in his neck.
Griffin strained his hamstring last week in Seattle’s win at Carolina. Akeem King was poised to start for him again at cornerback.
“Both those guys were not right,” Carroll said Sunday of Griffin and Clowney. “They weren’t right...really, it wasn’t even a tough call when we came down to it. We held out hope that maybe they could turn a corner, but neither one did.
“It’s interesting: a few of our guys, sometimes earlier in the season you get to the end of the week and they can make it back. Here, these guys didn’t in this case.
“So, we’ll just see how that goes this week.”
Diggs sprained his ankle against the Panthers. The Pro Bowl alternate has reformed how the Seahawks play in the secondary since his trade from Detroit at the end of October. Lano Hill and rookie Marquise Blair were ready to play at free safety again for Diggs, with Bradley McDougald the other safety.
Brown missed a game for the first time since Oct. 20 against Baltimore. The 34-year-old tackle’s had knee and biceps pain most of this season.
George Fant was one option for the Seahawks to start for Brown at left tackle. But that would take Fant away from his usual role as extra, blocking tight end. To keep Fant at that, the Seahawks started Jamarco Jones at left tackle. Jones entered Sunday having started two games at right guard this season. The Seahawks drafted him last year as a tackle.
Jones held off Arizona stud pass rusher Chandler Jones in the first quarter. Then he got steamrolled by him after that.
Asked if the Seahawks plan to start Jamarco Jones at left tackle again next week against the 49ers, and beyond, Carroll said: “We declared that...Jamarco would be the next guy up so that we can keep George in his role and do that. We’ll figure it out next week. I can’t tell you what’s going to happen.”
The rest of Seattle’s inactive players Sunday: rookie wide receiver John Ursua and rookie guard Phil Haynes again, plus backup tight end Tyrone Swoopes.
This story was originally published December 22, 2019 at 4:50 PM.
