Russell Wilson takes full blame for 3 turnovers, Seahawks’ 1st loss 37-34 in OT at Arizona
Just another ho-hum Seahawks game in Arizona.
Tyler Lockett appeared to be the absolute star of this latest extraordinary Seahawks game in the desert—until the Seahawks’ defense blew all of a 10-point lead with 3 1/2 minutes left in the fourth quarter.
Arizona’s Zane Gonzalez kicked the tying field goal as regulation time expired. Then he missed a would-be winning field goal with 2:47 left in overtime.
Lockett threw what would have been the game-winning block on a wide-receiver screen to DK Metcalf. But Seattle’s David Moore was called for holding next to Lockett’s block. That negated the winning overtime touchdown for the Seahawks.
Gonzalez ended up drilling his second chance, from 48 yards with 15 seconds left in overtime, and Seattle lost for the first time in six games this season, 37-34.
“Really disappointed night for us here. We had our shots,” coach Pete Carroll said.
“It’s hard to win them all. We are going to keep trying.”
The Seahawks’ offense that entered Sunday the highest-scoring one in the NFL, that rolled to 572 yards Sunday, scored just seven points in the second half then overtime.
Russell Wilson’s third interception late in overtime set up Arizona (5-2) at midfield for its short march to the winning points. It came after Arizona showed yet another all-out blitz before the snap, as it had done for most of the second half and overtime. But Isaiah Simmons and fellow Cardinals linebackers ran away from the line at the snap. Wilson threw a blitz-read throw intended for Lockett on a quick go route in the right seam directly to the not-blitzing Simmons instead.
That gave Arizona the ball at midfield. Seven plays later, Gonzalez kicked the field goal that ended Seattle’s seven-game unbeaten streak against the Cardinals in Arizona dating to Wilson’s first career start in the 2012 opener.
“I thought we played a great game except for those three plays. And those are my fault,” Wilson said.
“We usually win games like this. That’s the reality.”
Lockett set career highs with 15 receptions, 200 yards receiving and three touchdowns. His majestic, ballet-like toe drag inside the back boundary of the end zone on a fourth-down pass from Wilson put Seattle ahead 34-24 in the fourth quarter.
Lockett didn’t like seeing and hearing Wilson take the blame for Seattle’s first loss since the NFC divisional playoff in Green Bay more than nine months ago.
“It’s unfortunate to be able to see him beating himself up,” Lockett said.
”It’s not all on him. It’s on all of us.”
The game never would have reached overtime without an unforgettable play by DK Metcalf.
And it had nothing to do with catching a pass.
Metcalf’s legendary play
The NFL, like many aspects of life, has been taken over by analytics, statistical probabilities—just about every numeral but Pi.
But all those numbers that dominate sports can still can’t measure heart.
Metcalf’s almost continued the best start in the franchise’s 45-year history.
The second-year wide receiver sprinted more than 100 yards from the middle of the field on the Arizona goal line to the left sideline, past also-chasing Wilson, to run down Cardinals safety Budda Baker Baker, from Bellevue and the University of Washington, thought he was about to score a 100-yard touchdown on a return of a rare mistake throw by Russell Wilson at the goal line. The score would have given the Cardinals the lead in the second quarter.
Baker turned to stick an arm toward Metcalf before realizing the freakish 22-year-old wide receiver who is 6 feet 4, 229 pounds with 4.3 speed was about to tackle him. Metcalf did, saving the seemingly sure score.
It’s a play coaching will be showing the 2060 Seahawks.
“That was one of the best football plays I’ve ever seen,” Carroll said.
Carroll is 69.
It changed this wildly eventful NFC West game. As they almost all our for Seattle at Arizona.
Seattle’s Jordyn Brooks and Benson Mayowa ruined Cardinals plays on third and fourth and goal. Wilson marched the Seahawks’ offense 97 yards the other way, to a 30-yard touchdown run by Carlos Hyde behind left tackle Duane Brown. What would have been a 14-13 lead for Arizona, but for Metcalf, became a 20-7 lead for the Seahawks.
“A play for all time,” Carroll said.
Yet Arizona rallied from 13 and 10 points down in the second half to force overtime. Despite never trailing and gaining 531 yards of offense, the Seahawks had to play more.
Wilson to Lockett
Wilson and Lockett—eight catches on 11 targets for 133 yards and two touchdowns, in the first half—overcame Wilson’s first two-interception game in more than two years. They also allowed Seattle for, on this night, anyway, overcome injuries to lead running back Chris Carson and Pro Bowl cornerback Shaquill Griffin.
Wilson completed 33 of 50 passes for 388 yards, three touchdowns and the three interceptions. He hadn’t thrown that many since Dec. 10, 2017, at Jacksonville.
He tied Peyton Manning’s NFL record for kost touchdown passes in the first six games of a season. Wilson has 22 heading into Seattle’s home game next Sunday against division-rival San Francisco (4-3).
The third touchdown pass Sunday was the best, and biggest.
On fourth and 2 from the Arizona 3-yard line, Carroll decided against a short field goal that would have been Jason Myers’ third of the game and would have left Seattle ahead by only 30-24 with 6 minutes left. Carroll kept Wilson—and Lockett—on the field. Wilson took another shotgun snap from center Ethan Pocic and waited long enough to paint a desert’s landscape. It was long enough for Lockett run all the way across the field, from right to the back left corner of the end zone.
Wilson’s throw forced Lockett deeper than the quarterback wanted. Lockett reached up and out for the ball. His body was out of bounds, but he refused to let his feet follow him there. He got one and then a second foot down, the latter the tops of his toes and cleat.
The lead back-line official on the play initially called it a touchdown. Two colleagues, apparently not believing a man could do that successfully, called the pass incomplete and Lockett’s second foot out of bounds.
Carroll threw the red challenge flag, one of the better ones of his career. The replay review showed Lockett was indeed a magician, the call was reversed, and the Seahawks led 34-24 instead.
Arizona answered that play with a touchdown on a 14-play drive in which Seattle’s defense dropped off. The Cardinals had kicked a 51-yard field goal for a seven-point game, but Seahawks defensive end Benson Mayowa was called for leveraging himself over a Cardinals lineman to try and block it. That “Kam Chancellor rule” is now a 15-yard foul. The Cardinals took the penalty and turned the call into Murray’s touchdown pass to Christian Kirk with 3 minutes left. Seattle’s lead was down to 34-31.
Lockett’s start
Lockett got a step, just a step, behind Arizona’s three-time All-Pro cornerback Patrick Peterson on the game’s first play. Then Lockett made a brilliant catch with one hand while falling for a 34-yard gain.
He had three catches on that opening drive. The last one was an easy 3-yard pitch by Wilson to the left side in the end zone for a 7-0 lead.
Lockett’s second score of the half victimized Baker and Peterson. Lockett blew past Baker’s initial coverage deep. Then at the goal line, Lockett secured Wilson’s rainbow pass as Peterson grabbed Lockett’s face mask. The 47-yard score put the Seahawks ahead 27-14 with 51 seconds left in the half.
Wilson became the fourth player in NFL history with 20 or more passing touchdowns in his team’s first six games.
Manning in 2013, Tom Brady in 2007 and Brett Favre in 1996 all won the league’s MVP award and advanced to the Super Bowl that season.
Wilson threw his 20th passing touchdown on his 174th pass attempt of the season. That’s the fewest pass attempts to a player’s 20th pass TD of a season since at least 1991.
But Arizona scored the game’s next 10 points. The Cardinals’ touchdown in that span came late in the third quarter, Kyler Murray on a 5-yard run. Arizona’s 93-yard scoring drive came after Seahawks All-Pro linebacker Bobby Wagner got a rare personal foul for hitting Arizona tight end Dan Arnold in the back with a forearm as an incomplete pass went pass them on third down.
Wilson’s rare night
Wilson threw two interceptions in a game for the first time since Seattle’s 2018 opener at Denver.
The second one came early in the fourth quarter with the Seahawks driving to answer Arizona cutting the lead to 27-24. Wilson scrambled right and expected Metcalf to keep running deep. The receiver stopped his route at the sideline instead. Peterson kept running after the pass into the end zone and intercepted it.
But on the next play, Seattle’s otherwise depleted, besieged defense got its second takeaway of the night and 12th in six games this season. Quandre Diggs ran back on Murray’s pass over the head of his tight end for an interception near midfield.
Carlos Hyde, playing for the injured Carson, was determined running through two Cardinals for a first down on third down. Then David Moore converted another third and short, with a 4-yard run on a wide-receiver fly sweep.
And then Wilson threw a third pick, at the winning time late in the game he usually owns.
“None of those had to happen,” Carroll said of Wilson’s turnovers. “He’s disappointed about those, for sure.”
Carson, Griffin injured
Carson, the team’s 1,200 yard back last season, left in the first half with a foot injury. He did not return, after five carries for 34 yards early looked like he could control the game.
Carlos Hyde replaced him. Hyde was the closer. Grinding for tough first downs, including on runs in the final 2:54 to force Arizona to use all their time out on defense. But Arizona stopped him on third and 2 with 1:25 left, forcing the Seahawks to punt back to Murray and the Cardinals.
Michael Dickson’s 66-yard punt meant Arizona started at its own 20 with 54 seconds and no time outs.
Carroll said Carson has a midfoot sprain. The Seahawks will be sending him to a magnetic resonance imagining exam in the next day or so to see the extent.
Griffin left in the third quarter to be evaluated for a concussion. He didn’t return to the game, either. Tre Flowers and Quinton Dunbar were the cornerbacks for most of the second half.
“He was pretty clear(-headed) afterward,” Carroll said of Griffin.
Griffin will go into the league concussion protocol deep into this coming week before the team will make any determination on him being able to play Sunday against San Francisco.
Seattle’s secondary was already missing All-Pro safety Jamal Adams again. He missed his third consecutive game with a strained groin. Carroll said Friday the team is planning for Adams to practice this week to play against the 49ers next weekend.
Murray completed 34 of 48 passes for 360 yards, three touchdown passes and one interception, by Diggs.
The Seahawks did not have a quarterback hit, let alone a sack.
“I’m confident. There’s 10 games left. We have a lot of talent...we just have to make our minds up. No more talkin. Just do it.”Either we do it, or we don’t.”
This story was originally published October 25, 2020 at 9:23 PM.
