Record-breaking cook Russell Wilson sizzles, Ryan Neal late INT seals Seahawks’ 38-31 win
Russell Wilson knew it had to be him.
While Dallas was marching 16 plays from its own 6-yard line to the go-ahead field goal with 4 minutes left, the Seahawks quarterback was walking up and down the bench talking to his offensive teammates. He was encouraging them for what was ahead.
That was more Wilson magic, piling on to a magical season.
“You couldn’t ask a guy to be better mentally than Russ for these situations,” coach Pete Carroll said.
The NFL record-breaking QB led the Seahawks on a 75-yard drive that ended with a redemptive, 29-yard touchdown pass to earlier goat DK Metcalf. Wilson’s fifth touchdown pass of the day and two-point conversion pass to Jacob Hollister put Seattle ahead 38-31 with 1:47 left.
“Russell’s brain will just not accept anything but coming through and getting the win,” Carroll said.
Then the Seahawks’ defense, besieged all day and most of this season so far, came up with two gigantic plays. By two unlikely heroes.
Rookie Alton Robinson, playing in his first NFL game, sacked Dallas’ Dak Prescott. It was just the second sack this season by a Seahawks defensive lineman. Then Ryan Neal, playing safety only because All-Pro Jamal Adams was injured in the fourth quarter and Lano Hill woke up with a sore hip, intercepted Prescott in the end zone on the game’s next-to-last play.
That’s how the Seahawks won despite allowing 522 yards, a bizarre-as-Seattle’s-usual, 38-31 victory over the Cowboys at empty CenturyLink Field Sunday.
“We were down to our last guys,” Carroll said.
“That’s what the NFL is all about, people taking advantage of every opportunity that they get,” Tyler Lockett said after he caught three of Wilson’s touchdown throws.
Neal’s reaction at going from a three-year practice-squad inactive player to standing on the sideline for three hours Sunday to then making the game-winning play?
“I can’t even talk,” Neal said.
Right now, Wilson can’t even fail.
He completed 27 of 40 passes for 315 yards, with another sterling passer rating of 130.7. His second consecutive five-TD game broke Patrick Mahomes’ NFL record with now 14 TD throws in the first three games of a season, against just one interception.
“Another incredible day by the offense. Russ has just been so sharp,” Carroll said.
The Seahawks are 3-0 for the first time since 2013. They began 4-0 that year—on their way to their only Super Bowl and NFL championship.
With Seattle going from up 30-15 midway through the third quarter to down 31-30 with 3:57 left, Wilson extended his game-winning drive with a pass on fourth and 3 from the Dallas 47 to Greg Olsen, a dart into the tight end’s stomach for 11 yards.
Three plays later, left tackle Duane Brown and right tackle Brandon Shell provided Wilson a strong pocket against Dallas’ edge rushers. That gave Wilson time, an unusual 5 seconds, to wait for Metcalf to run away from Cowboys safety Darian Thompson across the field left to right. Metcalf ran under the lofted ball while Thompson fell down behind him for a 29-yard score and the Seahawks’ lead with 1:47 to go.
Wilson and Brown shared a loud celebration and slapping of hands way back upfield as Metcalf danced at his redemption.
Of Wilson, the coach said: “Russ is just on it. You are just watching a great football player do what he does best.”
But defensively, bad got worse for Seattle.
The Seahawks came into Sunday worst in the NFL in allowing total yards and yards passing. Then they allowed Dak Prescott 472 yards and three touchdown passes.
“We really have to improve our pass defense,” Carroll said. “And finish our sacks...
“We’ve just got to get better. Grateful to be 3-0.”
But the Seahawks intercepted Prescott twice, with fill-in Neal providing the biggest play amid all the Seattle defense’s bad ones.
“We shouldn’t have been in that situation,” All-Pro linebacker Bobby Wagner said of Neal’s unlikely play.
Yes, the Seahawks travel next week to Florida to play Miami (1-2) with the game’s best and hottest quarterback—and Wagner in the middle of a massively troubling defense.
It was a 23-15 game when Seahawks defensive tackle Jarran Reed made his biggest play since re-signing with the team for two years and $23 million this spring. Reed knocked the ball from Prescott before the Dallas quarterback tried to throw near his own goal line on the first play of the second half. End Benson Mayowa grabbed the ball out of the air for a fumble recovery and return to the Cowboys 5-yard line.
After a run to the 1 by Chris Carson, Wilson tied an NFL record and set another one with a flip to wide-open Jacob Hollister in the end zone. Hollister had lined up as the fullback in front of Carson in an I formation and slipped undetected by Dallas into the right flat for Wilson’s 13th touchdown pass this season. Seattle led 30-15 two offensive plays into the second half.
The flip made Wilson the first quarterback in the NFL’s 101-year history to throw at least four touchdown passes in each of his team’s first three games.
But nothing is going to be easy for Seattle this season, not as long as its pass rush is so feeble and quarterbacks get so much time to shred its secondary.
Prescott just kept having all afternoon into evening to throw. Dallas scored a touchdown on a 94-yard drive that took just 38 seconds. Shaquill Griffin, the Seahawks’ best and Pro Bowl cornerback last season, was easily beaten twice for catches of 52 and 42 yards. The latter play was Prescott’s 42-yard scoring pass to Cedrick Wilson with acres of open turf.
Dallas closed to within 30-28 when Michael Gallup beat opposite Seahawks cornerback Tre Flowers, who was starting because Quinton Dunbar was inactive with a new knee injury. Gallup’s 43-yard touchdown from Prescott made it a two-point game. Seattle’s Quandre Diggs and new nickel back Ugo Amadi combined to stop wide receiver Noah Brown from getting to goal line on his short catch in the right flat on Dallas’ two-point conversion try following Gallup’s touchdown. So Seattle stayed ahead, 30-28 early in the fourth quarter.
Amadi was playing because Marquise Blair is now on injured reserve and needs major knee surgery.
Zany first half
Lockett set his 87-game career high for touchdown catches in a game in just the first half. He and Wilson connected three times for scores in the zany opening half.
It had 469 yards combined by both offenses. It had five penalties on the Cowboys’ beleaguered defensive secondary, three of which led directly to 14 points for Seattle.
The first half also had a kickoff botched, fumbled and downed by Dallas at its 1-yard line. It had a safety for the Seahawks on the next play, when Dallas’ Ezekiel Elliott tripped over his own feet 3 yards inside his own end zone and Seattle’s Bryan Mone tapped him down before he got the ball back out from beyond his own goal line. That made it 9-3 Seahawks in the first quarter.
And it ended with officials initially penalizing Olsen for going out of bounds then coming back in to catch a pass from Wilson to the 1-yard line. The officials huddled, then decided to rule Olsen was illegal contacted out of bounds by Dallas’ Jaylon Smith before the catch.
Given that reprieve, Wilson threw to wide-open (again) Tyler Lockett for a 1-yard touchdown pass and a 23-15 lead for Seattle into halftime.
Metcalf’s costly blunder
Carroll, Wilson and every Seahawks coach and player rave about Metcalf’s maturity and beyond-his-years knowledge of the game.
But Metcalf looked younger than his 22 years while committing a haunting gaffe in the first half.
Wilson should have had a career-record six touchdown passes Sunday. He unfurled another majestic, rainbow pass onto Metcalf’s hands 50-plus yards down the field. Metcalf was way open behind Dallas cornerback Trevon Diggs. But the Cowboys rookie didn’t do what Metcalf did: give up on the play.
Metcalf coasted after his catch, beginning a premature, preening prance into the end zone. Diggs ran back to the prancer. He punched the ball from the startled Metcalf’s hand just before he reached the goal line. The force of Diggs’ punch forced the ball through the 10 yards of the end zone and across the end line of it for a fumble touchback. A totally avoidable one, for Seattle.
Instead of a 16-9 lead for the Seahawks, Dallas got the ball at it own 20 and the game remained tied.
Metcalf pounded the turf in the end zone with his hand while on both knees as officials announced the touchback instead of touchdown. A minute later, on the sideline, Metcalf stood with his hands on his hips and his shoulders dejectedly slumped as assistant coach Sanjay Lal talked to him.
“It was a terrible play,” Carroll said. “The fact he came back? Of course he did.”
Wilson talked to Metcalf on the sidelines after his gaffe.
What did Wilson tell his receiver he feels is a younger brother?: “Never do it again.”
Lockett had nine catches on 13 targets for 100 yards. He said he was relieved as much as happy that Metcalf scored the winning touchdown, after a play that obviously should never happen.
“That’s a learning experience...that’s something we can all just think about,” Lockett said.
“I’m really happy he scored that touchdown.
”I’m really just happy we found a way, honestly. That was a tough game.
Prescott threw for 176 yards in the first 1 1/2 quarters. The teams had combined for 403 total yards in the first 1 1/2 quarters. The Seahawks had allowed 1,007 yards passing in the first 9 1/2 quarters of the season.
Adams injured
The All-Pro safety left the game in the fourth quarter, after two tackles, a quarterback hit and a pass defensed. Carroll said Adams, indispensable on a defense that absolutely needs him to blitz to provide the only constant pressure on quarterbacks, has a strained groin.
Neal, activated from the practice squad to the roster for Sunday, replaced the do-it-all Adams for the final 12 minutes.
Carson hurt, too
Lead running back Chris Carson went down and stayed there for minutes with an apparent leg injury at the end of a 2-yard run with 3 minutes remaining.
Dallas defensive tackle Trysten Hill tackled him then rolled his leg over after the tackle, a move hated across all levels of football.
Carson eventually walked off slowly with a team doctor into the observation tent set up behind the Seahawks’ bench.
Carroll said Carson has a sprained knee. He, like Adams, will be getting further evaluations before the Seahawks know his status for next weekend’s game at Miami and beyond.
Carson had 64 yards on 14 carries. The back who has rushed for 2,400 yards in the previous two seasons has yet to finish a complete regular season since junior college.
Lewis also injured
Rookie right guard Damien Lewis, the starter since his first practice in training camp last month at right guard, left in the first quarter. Jordan Simmons replaced him for the rest of the game.
Carroll said Lewis has a sprained ankle. The coach said X-rays at were negative. He also will be getting evaluated more this week.
This story was originally published September 27, 2020 at 5:08 PM.
