Man-to-man on DK Metcalf? Eagles have no man as big, fast as Seahawks rookie
Playing man-to-man against DK Metcalf?
You got a man 6 feet 4, 230 pounds? Who runs a 4.3 40-yard dash?
The Eagles don’t, either.
“Coach (Tom) Donatell told me at the beginning of the week that they’re going to play a lot of man,” Metcalf said Sunday night of the Seahawks’ quality-control offensive assistant who works with receivers.
“I’m just blessed to be in this position.”
In man coverage? Metcalf was blessed to be in that position throughout the NFC wild-card playoff game in Philadelphia.
The Eagles stayed in man. And Metcalf kept making them like more like boys. He ran past them, jumped over them and once even rolled and ran by them for a touchdown to set an NFL playoff record for rookies in Seattle’s 17-9 win that has it headed to Green Bay for round two.
Metcalf’s first postseason line of his NFL life: seven catches on nine targets from Russell Wilson for 160 yards, and a game-breaking, 53-yard touchdown.
Metcalf yards were the most by a rookie in NFL playoff history.
“The night was stolen by DK Metcalf,” coach Pete Carroll said. “He just had a phenomenal night. He showed you what he is capable of looking like. He’s had a great season in his rookie year, but to have a night like that in his first chance ever in the playoffs, that was spectacular.
“He did some stuff that’s hard to imagine anybody else doing.”
Midway through the third quarter of a four-point game, Metcalf burned the Eagles’ poor, deep-pass defense with a diving catch of Wilson’s rainbow of a throw. Then the rookie second-round pick rolled to his feet straight into a sprint and into the end zone. Seattle led 17-6.
“Russ laid it up. I look up, I saw it was in front of me, so I just stretched out and caught the ball,” Metcalf said. “I didn’t feel like I got touched, so I just got up and stretched out for the end zone.”
Then on third and 10 with 1:47 and the Seahawks on their own 11-yard line after their defense got a fourth-down stop there, play-caller Brian Schottenheimer banked on Philadelphia going to cover zero with no deep safety and more man coverage. He got that when the Eagles figured the Seahawks would run on third down to force Philadelphia to call its final time out on defense.
Schottenheimer called for Metcalf to run a go route as the slot receiver on the right side. He blew past two Eagles. Wilson expertly threw his pass high so only Metcalf could grab it. Metcalf caught the ball at its highest point, soaring over safety Marcus Epps.
No, Epps is not 6-4, 229 either. He’s 6 feet, 191. Metcalf easily won that ball and the game.
“Russ laid it out. It was in the air for a minute,” Metcalf said. “All year, Russ has been telling me, ‘Don’t let the ball come down. Don’t let the ball come down.’ That’s all I was thinking: Just attack the ball.
“It’s just amazing that he believed in me just to throw it up to me in that situation. But I just had to go make a play.”
Wilson said Metcalf’s plays were the products of the rookie working out this summer with Wilson on the campus at UCLA. The franchise quarterback hosts his receivers on a retreat of work and play every summer, usually in Southern California, before training camp begins in late July.
“All the extra work, all the early mornings—throwing at 5:20 in the morning in the summertime—that’s what greatness looks like,” Wilson said.
“And he’s done it.”
It’s been a transforming year-plus for Metcalf. His college career at Ole Miss ended with a cervical fracture in his neck that had him scared in a hospital bed wearing a brace. When it happened in October 2018, some medical experts told him he might not play football again.
“I’m blessed, man,” he said Sunday night before boarding the Seahawks’ flight home. “That’s all I can say. I’m blessed, I got ‘miracle’ tattooed on my back because God performed a miracle with me in college.
“So I’m taking anything for granted. I’m taking every practice, every rep, like it’s my last.
“I’m just excited to be a part of this team, this organization. And that’s pretty much it.”
The Seahawks loved Metcalf taking off his shirt with Carroll at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis last winter; the 68-year-old Carroll’s physical, um, did not quite match Metcalf’s other-worldly one.
Surprised no one had taken Metcalf yet in April, the Seahawks traded back into the bottom of the second round to draft Metcalf. He wowed coaches and trainers with how quickly he rebounded from knee surgery in late August to play in the opener. Metcalf had four catches for 89 yards in the 21-20 win over Cincinnati on Sept. 8 just 19 days after his operation to clean up lingering knee issues.
That was about the time Metcalf was telling Carroll and Seahawks teammates he’s Wolverine, the Marvel comics superhero from X-Men and Avengers that has superhuman healing powers.
Maybe so.
He finished second among rookie receivers in the league with 58 catches and third with 900 yards receiving in the regular season. Both were second in franchise history for a rookie, behind Joey Galloway in 1995.
Metcalf has bulled through a later-season funk of fumbling after catches, twice near the goal line making extra efforts to score. Wilson and the coaches counseled him not to try so hard, to take the plays he’s already made knowing he’ll make more.
Sunday, in his first playoff game, Metcalf made more. Many more.
“More importantly, as the season has gone on, some people hit the rookie wall. There’s no such thing for him,” Wilson said. “He’s stayed the course and he continues to get stronger.”
Then Wilson went horse racing to describe his thoroughbred receiver who’s still just 22 years old.
“He’s like American Pharaoh out there,” Wilson said, smiling. “He gets stronger as the race goes on.”
Metcalf said his first playoff game was a blast, but not completely.
“It was fun,” he said, “and it was scary at the time time. The way the season’s been going, this team, you know, I didn’t want this to be our last time playing football.”
This story was originally published January 5, 2020 at 8:39 PM.
