DK Metcalf’s record playoff debut, Jadeveon Clowney’s KO advance Seahawks past Eagles
In the end, enduring an ugly playoff game the Seahawks were almost inexcusably making more difficult than it should have been against a decimated foe, Marshawn Lynch and DK Metcalf just wanted it more.
That’s what sent the Seahawks to Green Bay for the divisional-playoff round.
Coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider didn’t get Lynch back into the NFL after 14 months away—and four years gone from Seattle—for him to have 100-yard games. They signed him back before New Year’s for effects like that jolt he provided Sunday night in the NFC wild-card game in Philadelphia.
In the second quarter, Lynch jumped and bulled through three Eagles near the goal line like they were clay pigeons, then lunged across the end zone for a touchdown. It was so prime Lynch.
“Whenever Beast Mode gets into the end zone it’s fun, man,” the most-tenured Seahawk K.J. Wright said.
Then in the third quarter Lynch took a flip pass on third and 1 from Russell Wilson. He ran 20 yards. Then Lynch pummeled a defensive back to the ground with a rude, crunching stiff arm. It happened right in front of the Seahawks’ bench. Lynch’s teammates and even coaches went bonkers.
Two plays later, Metcalf burned the Eagles’ poor, deep-pass defense with a diving catch. Then he rolled, untouched, to his feet straight into a sprint, like a gymnast. Metcalf, like Lynch, would not be denied.
That sequence, ending with Metcalf’s 53-yard touchdown, were the turning moments of Seattle’s otherwise ugly, 17-9 hold-on win over Philadelphia and 40-year-old backup quarterback Josh McCown.
“That was just like knockout shots for us,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll called the Lynch-Metcalf sequence. “The game was too young to knock them out, but it felt like those were really extraordinary plays for us.
“And they made a big difference.”
Sunday’s was the same score Seattle outlasted Philadelphia here in late November.
This one means far more.
After Minnesota upset the Saints in New Orleans earlier Sunday, the fifth-seeded Seahawks (12-5) play at second-seeded Green Bay (13-3) Sunday at 3:40 p.m. in the divisional round.
The Vikings play at top-seeded San Francisco on Saturday.
On the road again for the Seahawks? So what? They improved their franchise record to 8-1 away from home this season.
Then again, as Wright said of his wild-card team: “We HAVE to be comfortable on the road.”
Metcalf’s first postseason game: seven catches, and 160 yards receiving — the most by a rookie in a playoff game in NFL history and most ever by a Seahawk in the playoffs. And, oh, yeah, the decisive touchdown.
“He was spectacular,” Carroll said.
After Metcalf’s first career postseason touchdown, Lynch came over to the receiver and slapped his hands. Then Lynch kept throwing his hands down to his side, enthusiastically demonstrating his approval with the rookie’s will.
What did Lynch tell the rookie so emphatically?
“That’s, like, classified information,” Metcalf said, grinning.
Lynch gave his assessment of his new teammate in a way only Lynch can. And will.
“He a big-ass dude that can move like that,” Lynch said in his 30 or so seconds of speaking at his locker.
Lynch finished with 7 yards on six carries and his sparking catch and run. He played in his first Seahawks playoff win since Jan. 18, 2015, the NFC championship that got Seattle into Super Bowl 49. That conference-title win was over this coming Sunday’s foe: the Packers.
Clowney KO’s Wentz
Jadeveon Clowney delivered the game’s decisive hit.
It came on the Eagles’ first play of their second offensive drive. Seattle’s top pass rusher chased down Carson Wentz from behind on a scramble and hit the top of his helmet then shoulder into the helmet of Philadelphia’s $128 million quarterback. As Seahawks teammate Bradley McDougald got the sack, Wentz’s head stuck in the hard grass field like a dart.
Wentz stayed in a few more plays. Then he walked into the locker room for evaluation by Eagles’ doctors. He missed the final 3 1/2 quarters of his first career playoff game.
Philadelphians were and as you are reading this remain incensed that Clowney’s hit wasn’t penalized for helmet-to-helmet contact that the league is so vigilant on these days. Especially on quarterbacks.
Eagles people won’t like what referee Shawn Smith said on why he didn’t penalize Clowney, either.
“He was a runner and he did not give himself up,” Smith said of Wentz, to an NFL pool reporter. “We saw incidental helmet contact.”
Clowney is already hated in Philadelphia like he stole Ben Franklin’s kite, for a hit on former Eagles Super Bowl-winning QB Nick Foles when Clowney was with Houston. The three-time Pro Bowl defensive end said Sunday night he was already getting massive heat from Eagles fans in person and online.
“They are just lighting me up,” Clowney said, “telling me ‘Go to Hell! Die! Go to prison. Go to jail, you and your family, all y’all...
“I didn’t think it was that crazy of a hit,” Clowney said. “I thought it was a small, really just tagging-him-down hit. I fell on him, a little bit. I didn’t think it was that big of a hit. I really ain’t even put a lot into it. For him to go out I was like...surprising.”
And huge.
It left the Eagles without their starting quarterback, starting running back, top three wide receivers and two starting offensive linemen. Plus, star tight end Zach Ertz played with a broken rib. And that was just on Philadelphia’s offense.
Yet the Seahawks kept letting a 40-year-old journeyman backup quarterback run around them and the Eagles stay in the game.
Diggs divine in his return
Down 17-9 in the fourth quarter, McCown led the Eagles from their own 12 to the Seattle 30. The Eagles got backed up by Seattle’s fifth sack, by Quinton Jefferson, and a false-start penalty on Ertz. On third down, McCown got 12 yards on a dump-off pass.
Eagles coach Doug Pederson chose to go for the first down on fourth and 3 from the Seattle 24 with 6 1/2 minutes left down 17-9. Clowney did not appear ready for Philadelphia’s quick snap.
That’s when Quandre Diggs proved yet again how important he’s become to Seattle’s defense since his trade in late October from Detroit.
Wright said Diggs, playing from his deep free-safety spot for the first time in three games following a high-ankle sprain, noticed Clowney wasn’t ready for the snap. Nor was Clowney recognizing the swing pass Diggs had just dignosed was coming right at the defensive end. Wright said just before the fourth-down snap Diggs alerted Clowney that running back Miles Sanders was about to run a swing route at Clowney. The three-time Pro Bowl defensive end got the heads-up fro Diggs just as Sanders was running at him on, yes, a quick swing route.
But Sanders dropped McCown’s pass in the open field.
“It’s crazy. He saw Clowney almost mess up. And he came from the post (deep center of Seattle’s defense) to help a defensive end out,” Wright said. “That’s just something that he’s just capable of.
“He’s just an outstanding football player. I’m glad he’s on our team.”
For the steal of Schneider sending but a fifth-round pick to Detroit, too.
After Diggs’ read and Sanders’ drop, the Seahawks took over on downs still leading by eight with 6:21 left. But when a long drive likely would have clinched the win, Seattle’s offense went three and out. Philadelphia got the ball back at its own 31 with 4:56 left.
Seahawks cornerback Tre Flowers then got called for his second pass-interference penalty of the second half, a 39-yard flag because he didn’t turn around to face McCown’s long pass to fifth-string wide receiver Shelton Gibson, who was just up from Philadelphia’s practice squad. That gift got the Eagles into the red zone with 3 minutes left.
All-Pro linebacker Bobby Wagner got into the Seahawks’ defensive huddle and issued a demand: “They don’t get in! Do everything in your power!
“They don’t get in.”
They never did.
Defensive end Rasheem Green, resurgent late in his second season, dropped McCown for another sack. Sanders ran around left end but Wright nailed him after just 1 yard. On third and 13, McCown could only manage a dump-off pass short to Sanders. McDougald, for the third time Sunday and about 25th time this season, stopped the ball carrier short of the line to gain on third down.
That was another benefit of Diggs’ returning. His excellence manning the entire deep middle third of the defense allows McDougald to play closer to the line against the run and short passes as a Kam Chancellor-like strong safety. At times Sunday, McDougald was lining up on the edge like an edge linebacker. That’s why he had a game- and his season-high of 11 tackles, two for losses.
On fourth and 7 from the Seattle 10 and 2 minutes remaining, Clowney sacked McCown. It was Seattle’s seventh sack of Eagles QBs. Most came because they were holding onto the ball longer than any passer had all season against the Seahawks.
“We were definitely poised today,” Wagner said. “We had a lot of chances for them to change momentum with the score...but we didn’t let them in.”
The clinching play
Wilson and Metcalf finally clinched the win on the ensuing drive. On third and 10, play caller Brian Schottenheimer anticipated correctly that Philadelphia would sell out for Seattle running the ball to make the Eagles use their final time out on defense. He got the man-to-man coverage with no safety deep, cover zero, he hoped he’d get. Schottenheimer had Wilson throw deep outside right on a go route to Metcalf. The rookie ran past two defenders then leaped to catch the ball at its highest point. It would have been a touchdown had Wilson not been so careful to throw it up to ensure Metcalf just caught it, knowing a first down would win the game, too.
The 36-yard gain sent Seattle to Green Bay.
“Yeah, it was an awesome play by DK,” Wilson said. “First of all, we scouted what we had done before in that situation. Very similar situation as last time: we threw the little quick ball (then). And we knew they were going to try and stop us (running) and go cover zero. Sure enough, we went over the top, and DK made an unbelievable play. ...
“It was an awesome play by him, great awareness by the fellas and a great call by Schotty. It sealed the game for us.”
Wilson completed 18 of 30 passes for 325 yards, the touchdown and a sterling passer rating of 108.3.
Moore changes game early
McCown, on his ninth NFL team, replaced Wentz late in the first quarter and out-ran 30-year-old Seahawks defensive end Ziggy Ansah for 11 yards and a first down in the second quarter.
Ansah left the game with a neck-nerve injury on the pla. He angrily slammed his helmet to the ground on the sideline on his way into the medical-evaluation tent behind the bench. That play got Philadelphia in position for the field goal that tied the game Seattle should have been leading by plenty at 3-3 instead.
Then David Moore made the first game-changing play by a Seahawks receiver Sunday.
On third and 10 from the Eagles 43-yard line, out of field-goal range, Wilson scrambled deftly to buy more time to throw. Moore ran across the field on a improvisational scramble route, then back to the quarterback to help him. Moore caught Wilson’s throw, and him coming back for the ball pulled him away from tightly covering Eagles cornerback Cre’Von LeBlanc. Moore sped past two other defenders down the right sideline for 38 yards, all the way to the Philadelphia 5.
“That was a huge, huge momentum swing,” Wilson said.
It was a subtle, veteran, Doug Baldwin-like play on third down from the 24-year-old Moore. He said he knew coming back to the ball would get him around LeBlanc after that key catch.
“For sure,” Moore said. “I knew he was behind me somewhere, but I didn’t know exactly where. When I caught the ball I felt him touch my feet. I just immediately picked up my feet, broke out of it. Turned up, and it was just green grass. Just took off.”
It was one of seven conversions Seattle had in its first 11 plays on third down. Many of those were long yardage, with Wilson scrambling to get added time to find receivers breaking up against Philadelphia’s dare-you-to-burn us, man-to-man coverage.
After Moore’s catch, and just when it appeared the Seahawks would be punting in a 3-3 game, they were in prime position to take a touchdown lead.
Lynch gave them that.
He took Wilson’s hand-off and immediately cut inside a great kick-out block by fill-in left tackle George Fant, starting again for injured Duane Brown. At the 3 Lynch jumped — right into a mosh of three Eagles. He spun off all of them, churning his legs, and lunged across the goal line for a thudding score reminiscent of his Beast Mode championship days of seven and six years ago for Seattle.
After his second touchdown run in as many games since his return to the Seahawks after 14 months out of football, Lynch shook the hands of his linemen and Wilson. As Lynch got to the roaring Seahawks sideline Wagner went facemask to facemask to talk excitedly to him. Then Carroll came over and giddily slapped the neon-gloved hands of the 33-year-old running back, who is providing exactly what Carroll sought in bringing Lynch back for these playoffs.
The Seahawks led 10-3 at halftime. Crisis averted.
And, eventually, perhaps more adventurously than warranted, onto Green Bay.
“We really have found a rhythm (on the road) throughout the season and we’ve had a lot of momentum,” Carroll said. “We had one mistake down late in the season when we didn’t get it done (the 28-12 loss at the Los Angeles Rams in early December). But other than that, we’ve found the way to play and the way to play together regardless of the setting and the fans and all the difficult environments that you are in, weather and whatever.
“These guys have really found it. And it’s really exciting to see. It’s just one week at a time, but there’s a real confidence about us. We don’t care where we play.”
This story was originally published January 5, 2020 at 4:45 PM.
