From Philadelphia: The key players in Seahawks’ wild-card playoff game at Eagles
Back in Philadelphia for the third time in six weeks.
If the Seahawks can beat the Eagles Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field for the second time since Nov. 24, Seattle will play its 17th playoff game with Pete Carroll as their coach next weekend.
That’s as many playoff games as the Seahawks had in franchise history, 1976-2009, before Carroll arrived.
Here are the key players to Seattle’s chances of advancing to the division round next Saturday or Sunday:
1. This could be a game Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf win—yes, in Seattle’s run-based offense.
The Seahawks will still need to run rookie Travis Homer and returning Marshawn Lynch one-two to keep Philadelphia from storming in on Russell Wilson trying to pass. But the Eagles against outside wide receivers were last in the NFL in pass defense, 29th in touchdowns given up, 27th in yards per target and 29th in big-play receptions 15 or more yards down the field by wide outs.
Lockett was ailing in the first Seahawks-Eagles meeting in Philadelphia in late November. He had just spent two nights in a Bay Area hospital with a complicated leg injury. He had just one catch in Seattle’s 17-9 win. Metcalf dropped a touchdown pass when a stiff wind blew the ball away from him. It’s supposed to be windy in that stadium again on Sunday.
Metcalf—and Lockett—will be better than they were the last time.
2. Lynch has the full game plan this week, advancing from last week when he had just four practices between signing back with the Seahawks then playing in his first game for them in nearly four years.
“He had a really good week. Seemed like it was smooth for him, all the way throughout,” coach Pete Carroll said Friday before the team boarded its flight to Pennsylvania.
“He took all the reps that he needed to take. I was a little surprised at that.”
Lynch played 23 of 75 offensive snaps against the 49ers in his first game for the Seahawks in nearly four full years. He was working on a limited part of that game plan after just four practices before playing. And second-year offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer’s terminology is different than what Lynch had with Darrell Bevell as his play caller the last time he’d played for Seattle.
Lynch said after the game the main purpose of that 49ers re-debut game was to get his legs in game shape for the playoffs.
Expect it still to be Lynch as the second back behind rookie Travis Homer Sunday against an Eagles defense that has been far stronger against the run this season than against the pass.
Homer impressed Carroll and Seahawks teammates with how hard he ran against San Francisco replacing Chris Carson, who is out for the season with a cracked hip. Homer’s shoulders were always down and driving forward through defenders. He played in 50 of Seattle’s 75 snaps against the 49ers. The sixth-round draft choice from Miami had 10 carries for 62 yards in his first career start, plus five catches on five targets by Russell Wilson for 30 yards.
Lynch had 34 yards on his 12 carries. He had his first touchdown for the Seahawks since November 2015, a leaping dive over a pile along the goal line that surprised Carroll.
3. Quandre Diggs is back in the Seahawks’ defense this week. That is absolutely huge to Seattle’s playoff chances.
The defense transforms when Diggs is roaming sideline to sideline with pounding tackles from the back end. He’s missed the last 2 ½ games with a high-ankle sprain. His return means the Seahawks get to play how they want to: single-high safety coverage with strong safety Bradley McDougald closer to the line to play the run and short passes underneath Philadelphia loves to use.
“I think I get targeted more when Quandre is back there,” McDougald said. “They might not want to go to certain areas. They know he roams the field.”
McDougald had an intercerption of Carson Wentz in the first meeting this season. That was one of five Eagles turnovers that day, four by Wentz.
The Seahawks’ defense has been a decisive, turnover-making force when Diggs has played—eight in the back-to-back wins at San Francisco and Philadelphia in November, the first two games Diggs played for Seattle.
“He’s a sideline-to-sideline safety. Definitely a great, great tackler,” Seahawks All-Pro linebacker Bobby Wagner said of Diggs. “He understands how to get certain angles on guys and come down and hit. He’s really, really vocal. A leader out there. Wants to communicate with guys. He’s been in the game for a long time. As you get older, you speak more.
“Having that experience definitely helped us.”
4. The Eagles’ battered offense is basically down to Wentz throwing to tight ends Dallas Goedert and Zach Ertz. And Ertz had a broken rib and is coming off a lacerated kidney. Ertz practiced Thursday and may try to play; he’s officially questionable.
How effective Ertz can be while so hurt will be a key for Philadelphia.
Seahawks linebacker K.J. Wright says he can’t imagine playing with a broken rib, which make merely breathing painful.
“That sounds tough,” Wright said. “That sounds super tough.”
But, Wright also says of Ertz, “I expect 86 to be out there. ...I hope the best guys are out there.
“A lot of plays are drawn up for him. You can tell, he may not even been (Wentz’s) first read but he’s just go to know that if I just look at Ertz, if I throw it up his way, something good’s going to happen. So, we know that, if he does play.
“I’m telling you, if we eliminate Ertz it will be a good day for us.”
5. Wagner and Wright effectively did that in the first Seahawks-Eagles game. They diagnosed and stopped most of Wentz’s quick passes to his tight ends.
Seattle stayed in base defense the majority of that November game with Mychal Kendricks making 13 solo tackles. But Kendricks sustained a season-ending knee injury last weekend.
Rookie Cody Barton is the man on the spot—and in the Eagles’ game plan to attack—as the strongside linebacker on the line replacing Kendricks.
Barton says he knows the Eagles are going to be targeting him.
“That’s just part of it,” Barton said. “When you get a young guy out there, you go after the young guy. I’m expecting that.”
6. Can Jadeveon Clowney return to his November pass-rush form while playing through a core-muscle injury that may require surgery?
The three-time Pro Bowl defensive end has not been the same since he dominated Seattle’s win at the 49ers on Nov. 11. He got hurt in that game. His limitations make secondary pass rushers Quinton Jefferson and Rasheem Green extra important Sunday.
Jefferson has quietly been steady as an inside rusher on passing downs, with Clowney and Ziggy Ansah on the edges.
Green—not the far more heralded and expensive Clowney nor Ansah—leads the Seahawks in sacks with four. This has been a strong late season for the third-round pick in 2018.
Clowney has been missing practices in hopes of preserving whatever he has left to play in these biggest games at the end of the season.
Coach Pete Carroll said this is the way it’s going to be with the three-time Pro Bowl defensive end: no practicing and preserving him for the playoff games.
“Yeah, we are just getting him to game time is all we can get done right now,” Carroll said.
“If this is what we’ve got then this is what we’ve got. And we’ll work with it.”
