An uprising: Last-ranked Seahawks defense beats Murray, Arizona 28-21 on Dunlap sack late
DK Metcalf determined he would impact this Cardinals game, no matter if they blanketed him with Patrick Peterson plus the entire state of Arizona.
For three quarters, Bobby Wagner, Quandre Diggs, Carlos Dunlap and friends on the Seahawks’ defense determined it would stop playing like it was: the league’s last-ranked unit and the most gained-on unit over a half-season in NFL history.
Then, with that depleted defense exhausted by extended plays by Arizona’s Kyler Murray and the Cardinals’ long drives in the second half, it stood up one more time.
Protecting a seven-point lead with 2 minutes left, blitzing All-Pro Jamal Adams forced Murray to throw a pass away. Fellow safety Quandre Diggs almost intercepted an incomplete pass but it hit linebacker Bobby Wagner’s helmet as they covered Larry Fitzgerald on a 30-yard heave to the goal line. Yes, Wagner, a middle linebacker, 30 yards down the field glued to a legendary wide receiver.
“Bobby Wagner’s insane,” his Seahawks co-captain Russell Wilson said.
On third down with 45 seconds left, defensive tackle Jarran Reed looped in and forced Murray to throw wide as D.J. Reed broke up the pass.
Fourth and 10 for Arizona, 38 seconds remaining. Carlos Dunlap, in his third game since a trade from Cincinnati, storms in on Murray from his right side. He dumps Murray for his second sack Thursday night. The Cardinals’ QB never had a chance.
The Seahawks’ offensive players ran onto the field. Some threw capes. Some threw water.
Seattle’s exhausted defense looked like it wanted to throw up.
It was a fitting end to a maligned unit’s rebound—and Seattle’s huge, 28-21 victory over Arizona in a taut, pivotal game atop the NFC West at empty Lumen Field.
As Dunlap got to the Seahawks’ sideline amid the bedlam after his final sack, 69-year-old Pete Carroll, the NFL’s oldest coach, well, he....
“P.C. almost tackled me on the sideline!” the 6-foot-6, 285-pound Dunlap said. ”Crazy.
“This is a whole different environment, man.”
Yes, the coach who has always been defense-first was just about gaga over Dunlap’s night and finish.
“Our guys really wanted to turn things, and get back on track,” Carroll said.
“A walk-off sack. Really cool.”
Yet the two-time Pro Bowl pass rusher for the Bengals didn’t know what all the commotion was about.
“This is exactly what they brought me here to do,” Dunlap said.
The Seahawks were as varied defensively as they’ve been in years. Carroll had defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. mixing his blitzes he had to use to affect Murray. Sometimes they sent only All-Pro safety Jamal Adams, their best blitzer. Sometimes they sent multiple blitzes. Other times, they showed they were bringing extra guys and dropped off, fooling Murray and the Cardinals.
That showed up as the Seahawks repeatedly ruined wide-receiver screens outside that Arizona called thinking Seattle was bringing more blitzers. Instead, the defense dropped off and had plenty of defenders—including hustling Dunlap from the defensive line—to outnumber the screeners and play outside.
“Definitely, I felt like it was causing confusion,” Wagner said. “We learned from the last time we played them.
“We had to get to this guy. We had to get this guy uncomfortable. That was the only chance we had to win this game. ...
“I definitely feel like he felt us.”
Four games ago, Murray never felt the Seahawks. Seattle played back, not blitzing—and not sacking or hitting Murray once in his 48 drop backs in an overtime loss at Arizona last month.
Thursday, the Seahawks Seattle’s defense sacked Murray three times and hit him seven more times. The Seahawks allowed just 314 yards, 134 yards below their NFL-worst season average.
“Kenny went after them differently than the last time we played them,” Carroll said.
Russell Wilson completed 23 of 28 passes for just 197 yards and touchdown passes to Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf. And that wasn’t even half the story, for a change.
The Seahawks (7-3) got back into first place in the NFC West, ahead of the Rams (6-3 pending a Monday game at 7-3 Tampa Bay) and the Cardinals (6-4).
How pivotal is this win? Seattle retakes the division lead with the Rams and Cardinals yet to play each other behind them. The Seahawks have just one game remaining among their six left in the regular season against a team that has a winning record: the next-to-last game at home against the Rams.
Seattle got a break on what would have been a fourth and 2 late in the third quarter. Its field-goal unit was coming onto the field when Metcalf got into a rumble with Peterson and fellow Arizona defensive back Dre Kirkpatrick. After some shoving and players massing in a mosh pit in the middle of the field, officials penalized Kirkpatrick for taunting. The 15-yard foul extended the Seahawks’ drive. Carlos Hyde, in his first action in four games returning from injury, ran 15 and 2 yards, the latter for a touchdown. Seattle led 23-14.
Arizona’s touchdown with a 15-play, 91-yard drive on which Murray smoked the Seahawks’ tired defense with more long, scrambling runs and throws. His flip pass for a touchdown to wide-open running back Chase Edmonds on third and goal from the 3 made it 23-21 with 13 minutes left. Adams angrily slapped his hands and glared at teammates over the missed coverage on the play.
Then with Arizona backed up onto its goal line, defensive end L.J. Collier, who’s done little since he became Seattle’s first-round pick in 2019, broke in toward Murray pass rushing. Arizona guard J.R. Sweezy, a former Seahawk, had to hold Collier to keep him from his quarterback. Referee Tony Corrente flagged Sweezy for holding in the end zone, a safety.
Seattle led 25-21 with 9 minutes left.
The Seahawks received the ensuing free kick. Bo Scarbrough, signed to the practice squad Tuesday and called up to the roster Thursday, ran until he injured his hamstring with 4 1/2 minutes left. Hyde re-entered and the Seahawks chewed off more clock, keeping Murray, All-Pro receiver DeAndre Hopkins and Arizona’s offense on the sideline.
Hyde saved the Seahawks three key points with 2:31 left when he recovered his own fumble on a mishandled pitch from Wilson at the Arizona 23.
Jason Myers kicked a 41-yard field goal with 2:19 remaining, to end a timely, 7-minute drive. That increased Seattle’s lead to 28-21.
This is what Hyde and Chris Carson (whenever he gets back from his sprained foot; he missed his third consecutive game) brings to Wilson and the Seahawks’ top-ranked offense: balance. Thursday, the Cardinals were not able to blitz Wilson, batter him into turnovers and control the game that way.
“I was watching (on TV) at home. The run game was missing,” Hyde said of his last month before Thursday.
Hyde had 79 yards on 14 carries. Scarbrough added 31, tough yards on six runs. Add in Wilson’s 43 yards on scrambles and rookie DeeJay Dallas’ 13-yard romp and Seattle gained 166 yards rushing on 30 carries.
Thursday with Hyde and Scarbrough is how Carroll wants to play. An alternate, more sustainable way to #LetRussCook, against the better teams the Seahawks will have to beat to make the Super Bowl.
“It felt like the Seahawks,” Carroll said.
So did the defense. Finally.
Until they tired noticeably late in the third quarter, the Seahawks’ defense brought next-level physicality and energy. If they’d played with this earlier they wouldn’t have the last-ranked defense.
They played ticked off.
Diggs was screaming “Whooo!” after decking Arizona tight end Dan Arnold.
K.J. Wright refused to get blocked on third and short, in the first half. The longest-tenured Seahawk held his ground and stopped the stunned Murray in the open field for no gain to force a punt.
Blitzing and dropping off in a way that confused the Cardinals, Seattle had three three-and-outs on defense. That’s as much as the Seahawks had in the entire previous two games combined.
Then, behind Dunlap, they hung on.
Metcalf’s (essentially) 9 points early
Like in Arizona, the Cardinals continued to have their best cornerback Patrick Peterson shadow Metcalf, but this time with a safety helping in coverage over the top.
Metcalf’s only pass thrown his way in the first half was a touchdown he created. Peterson and a safety bracketed him in double coverage on his assigned, deep crossing route in the first quarter. Metcalf saw that and broke off his cross into a deep go route down the middle, between the hash marks to the end zone. When the safety reacted to that, Metcalf made another improvisational move, to the sideline in the direction Russell Wilson was scrambling. Wilson read Metcalf’s change and threw to the sideline away from the coverage for a 25-yard touchdown pass that was advanced in its complexity and anticipation.
That and two three-and-outs by the Seahawks’ defense their first two drives is how the game began. It was nearly a perfect start for Seattle. The only thing better for the team would have been if its fans were inside the silent stadium rockin’ silent instead of in front of their televisions at home because of COVID-19.
Wilson looked Metcalf’s way at least three other times in the opening half but stayed away from the double coverage and threw elsewhere. Mostly it was to Lockett again. He had six catches for 48 yards in the opening half.
Lockett scored the game’s second touchdown on a pattern as exquisite as Metcalf’s scoring one. Lockett stopped as if on a curl, in route short of the goal line on a red-zone play in the second quarter. The Cardinals’ secondary bit on the stop. Lockett ran past it and glided free into the back corner of the end zone. Wilson lofted the ball over his shoulder for his 30th touchdown pass of the season.
Wilson joined Drew Brees (nine consecutive times) and Brett Favre (five years) as the only quarterbacks in NFL history to throw for at least 30 touchdown in four consecutive seasons.
Metcalf increased Seattle’s 13-7 lead on the final drive of the first half. He again changed his route to a deep go on Peterson as Wilson scrambled to buy time. As Wilson’s deep throw to the 5-yard line arrived, Peterson pulled on Metcalf’s Shrek-green jersey. Metcalf felt the tug and began falling. It was the savvy move of a 10-year veteran. No way the second-year wide receiver who is 6 feet 4 and weighs 230 pounds could get truly felled by a shirt tug. As he fell down and the ball skidded past, officials flagged Peterson for a 46-yard pass-interference penalty.
Metcalf almost had his second touchdown catch of the half on the next play. But he appeared to get distracted by the back-judge official who was standing next to him next to the goal post as Wilson’s rifled pass clanged off not his hands but his facemask. Metcalf clapped those hands in anger at missing the TD.
“I gave him a Randy Johnson fastball there,” Wilson said, adding he teased his 22-year-old receiver and protege in the locker room about it.
Myers kicked a 27-yard field goal on the final play of the half, and Seattle took its 16-7 lead into the break.
The Seahawks’ held Arizona to 107 yards, six first downs and a lone score in the opening half.
Lockett joins Jerry Rice in history
Lockett joined Jerry Rice as the only players in the Super Bowl era with more than 20 catches, 250 receiving yards and four or more TD catches against one team in a season.
Lockett had nine catches on nine targets from Wilson for 67 yards and a touchdown.
Last month at Arizona he had 15 catches on 20 targets for 200 yards and three scores.
Rice, the former 49ers, Raiders (and briefly Seahawks) Hall of Famer, did the trick against the Rams in 1994 and Falcons in 1990.
This story was originally published November 19, 2020 at 8:50 PM.
