Like they were in costumes: Seahawks look more like 2020 selves in routing Jaguars, 31-7
It was as if these Seahawks were in costumes.
Geno Smith was looking like Russell Wilson.
Tyler Lockett was looking like...Tyler Lockett of 2020.
DK Metcalf was catching two touchdown passes — and hugging the goal post, like a Koala bear hugs a tree. That stunt earned the happiest penalty of Seattle’s largely unhappy season so far.
The often-shredded defense looked for one day like one of the better ones in the NFL, albeit against rookie quarterback Trevor Lawrence and the fang-less Jaguars.
The previously scary Seahawks were like their playoff versions in eight of the previous nine years. They dominated and disposed of a far-inferior team, as they should. They methodically built a 24-0 lead by early in the third quarter of Seattle’s desperately needed, 31-7 victory over Jacksonville on a festive Halloween afternoon at Lumen Field.
Smith won a game he started and finished in the NFL for the first time since Dec. 28, 2014, when he was starting with the New York Jets to begin his career.
The next preseason, a Jets teammate punched him in the locker room and broke his jaw. He hasn’t been a regular starter for anyone since. He’s starting now only because Wilson is out indefinitely following finger surgery.
“Is that right, 2014?” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said.
“Holy cow, that’s a long haul.”
Smith was asked if he felt any validation after seven years between NFL quarterback wins.
“In the words of the great Kevin Durant, ‘You guys know who I am,’” Smith said, quoting the NBA superstar. “I show you guys every day. You see me the throw the ball. I’m not trying to be arrogant or anything like that, but I’ve done it for a long time. You can pull up tape from 2014 of me doing the same thing.
“The reality is that I know who I am. I’m never going to get too big or too high on it. I’m never going to listen to anyone else. I have the louder voice in my head. I know what I can do, and just have to keep working.”
Chants of “SEA! HAWKS!” echoed through the not-as-full-as-usual stadium near the end of the first win in four home games this season.
That sure beat the boos the echoed through the building while the Seahawks were losing their first three home games.
“We’ve got a long season ahead of us,” Smith said, knowing nine games remain on the schedule. “We can get it done.”
Six teams in the NFC have winning records. Seven teams will make the playoffs in the conference.
“We’ve got the guys in this locker room to get it done. We all believe in each other,” Smith said.
He deflected questions on his personal feelings about winning a start for the first time in seven years.
Smith played his fourth game and made his third start in four years filling in for Wilson, who may not be ready when Seattle (3-5) returns from next week’s bye to play the Packers (7-1) in Green Bay Nov. 14.
Smith was 20 for 24 passing for 195 yards and the two touchdown throws, to Metcalf. Smith also had his first rushing touchdown since 2014, when he was the New York Jets starter.
The Seahawks came within 1:49 of their first shutout victory in more than six years, since Sept. 27, 2015, a 26-0 home win over Chicago. That was three games into the season following Seattle’s last Super Bowl appearance.
Metcalf had his fifth career game with two touchdown catches, and second this season. He did it Oct. 7 against the Los Angeles Rams, the game in which Wilson tore a tendon and dislocated the middle finger on his throwing hand. The $140 million franchise quarterback hasn’t played since.
Lockett had a season-high 12 receptions for 142 yards. Three of his four career games with a least a dozen catches have come in the last two seasons. Lockett set the Seahawks’ record with 100 receptions last season, but had just two catches each in the previous two games entering Sunday, both Seahawks losses.
After two completions for 36 yards to Lockett got Seattle to the 1-yard line and Rashaad Penny got stopped twice from there, Smith reached across the goal line on fourth down for a touchdown on a quarterback sneak. Seattle led 7-0.
Wilson, with what appeared to be a new wrap over both his surgically repaired middle finger and his index finger, ran onto the field in his team jacket to congratulate Smith and the offense for grabbing the lead.
That came within 2 minutes of being all the points the Seahawks needed.
Now the question into and out of the bye week: when will Wilson play again? He’s eligible to come off injured reserve to play Nov. 14 against the Packers. But coach Pete Carroll has said the team doesn’t know when he will be fully healed.
Jacksonville scored its only points on Lawrence’s touchdown pass to Jamal Agnew past Jordyn Brooks and Jamal Adams in the end zone with 1:49 left.
The Jaguars attempted an onside kick after that score. Seattle running back Travis Homer caught the skipped kick cleanly, stumbled, then out-ran Jacksonville’s kickoff line to the the end zone for the touchdown and final points.
The Seahawks’ task and day got much easier after Jaguars lead running back James Robinson, seventh in the NFL in rushing and third in rushing scores entering Sunday, left the game in the first half with an ankle injury. He had a 14-yard run and 17-yard catch and romp on a screen pass before he got hurt.
Without Robinson, Jacksonville offensive coordinator (and former Seahawks play caller) Darrell Bevell put the game in Lawrence’s hands.
The Seahawks mostly dropped seven defenders into coverage and relied on a four-man rush at Lawrence. The coveted number-one pick in this spring’s draft from Clemson often checked the ball down to underneath receivers in front of all that Seattle coverage.
The Seahawks faked blitzes and played a lot of dime defense with sixth defensive back Ryan Neal. Twice Neal blitzed and got to Lawrence for hits to end drives. Neal had Seattle’s only sack and two of only three hits on Lawrence in his 43 drop backs. Those numbers were indicative of how much the Seahawks dropped off and chose to cover.
How bad were the Jaguars, across the board? They had 12 men on the field on consecutive plays in the second half. They got a penalty for the first time, then had to call a frantic time out as an official was throwing another flag on them for the second one.
The looked like what they are: a team that has lost 21 of their last 22 games.
The 31-year-old Smith completed his first 14 passes of the game, the most in a row to begin a game in the NFL this season.
His first and only incomplete pass of the half was a throwaway out of the back of the end zone on third down in the red zone to avoid a sack and set up a easy field goal — exactly what he failed to do against New Orleans six days earlier in Seattle’s 13-10 loss.
Jason Myers’ subsequent field goal made it 17-0 in the second quarter.
Lockett had eight catches in the first half, when the Seahawks built that lead with little resistance from the Jaguars. Two of his eight catches in the half were conversions on third downs.
Seattle had thrown just five times to Lockett on third downs in the first seven games.
Asked if this win, their first in nearly a month since Oct. 3 at San Francisco, was reassuring that his Seahawks are capable of getting back to this level of performance, Carroll just about exclaimed.
“Absolutely,” he said.
“I’ve been seeing it, feeling it, for a month now. But we just haven’t been able to cash in and get it done.
“We have so many good numbers that are supporting good play. Our penalties are down. We are taking care of the football; we are staying in the plus on turnover stuff. Our kicking game is really solid, all of that.”
Sunday was the fifth time in eight games this season Seattle did not commit a turnover.
Diggs makes his case
Quandre Diggs became the only NFL player with at least three interceptions in each of the past five seasons (2017-21) in the second quarter.
He said he was very aware of that.
The question will soon become, how aware are the Seahawks, and how willing will they be to pay for it?
The Pro Bowl safety baited Lawrence into throwing on a line on third down deep into Seahawks territory. Diggs stayed behind Tavon Austin as the Jaguars’ wide receiver ran a deep cross from right to left. Lawrence saw only Austin as a he threw on a line instead of a loft. Diggs broke on the ball as soon as it left Lawrence’s hand, cutting well in front of Austin for a relatively easy, yet deft interception.
It was a total cat-and-mouse trick by a seven-year veteran against a seventh-game rookie
“Looks like he threw it right to me, but I actually jumped the route,” Diggs said.
His interception set up Seattle’s second touchdown, Smith’s 16-yard pass Metcalf exquisitely leaped and caught over former Seahawks cornerback Shaquill Griffin in tight coverage at the goal line. That put Seattle up 14-0 early in the second quarter.
Diggs said he knew former Seahawks offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell, now the Jaguars’ play caller, and ex-Seattle play caller Brian Schottenheimer on the Jaguars’ coaching staff would challenge him on a deep crossing route off play action.
It was the play the Rams and Cooper Kupp beat the overly aggressive Diggs for a long touchdown last season.
This season, Diggs has reminded himself to be less aggressive coming up too quickly on fake handoffs, to stay deeper in the center of the field and let fellow safety Jamal Adams zoom up towards the line.
“That’s the IQ that I play with,” Diggs said.
This season, Diggs has reminded himself to be less aggressive coming up too quickly on fake handoffs, to stay deeper in the center of the field and let fellow safety Jamal Adams zoom up towards the line.
Since this summer Diggs has been seeking a new contract beyond his deal that ends with this season. He held in a few days, present at the team facility but not practicing, at the end of the preseason trying in vain to get a new deal.
Diggs was asked following Sunday’s game if he believes the Seahawks will eventually take care of him financially.
“We’ll see. God only knows,” Diggs said. “They know how I feel about this place.
“We’ll see what happens.”
Holmgren honored
Former Seahawks coach, executive vice president and general manager Mike Holmgren became the 14th member of the franchise’s Ring of Honor during a halftime induction ceremony on the field.
His name will stay on the facade of the second level of Lumen Field, on the west, water side of the stadium.
Holmgren followed Matt Hasselbeck, his quarterback of the early 2000s with the Seahawks and their first Super Bowl, in 2005, into the Ring of Honor. Hasselbeck was inducted last Monday night at halftime of Seattle’s home loss to New Orleans.
“This is unbelievable!” Holmgren exclaimed from the stage set up on the field at halftime.
“I won’t talk as long as Matt did Monday night.”
Holmgren thanked his wife of 50 years, Kathy — they met when they were 12 years old — and the Paul Allen family of team ownership. He also thanked Seahawks fans for their support and for making Lumen Field, named Seahawks Stadium when Holmgren’s team moved into it in 2002, a true home-field advantage.
“You can be very proud of that Super Bowl flag in this stadium,” Holmgren told the crowd Sunday.
“There should be two.”
That, of course, is a reference to Holmgren’s Seahawks losing Super Bowl 40 to Pittsburgh amid a series of controversial officiating calls.
Holmgren said Friday people he doesn’t know come up to him at airports and places 16 years after that game and tell him “You guys got screwed in that Super Bowl.”
Cornerback issues
Rookie draft choice Tre Brown made his first NFL start, at left cornerback where Sidney Jones had started the previous four games since Seattle waived Tre Flowers.
Brown played the first quarter. Then Jones replaced him for a series, like Brown had been alternating in for Jones the previous two games.
Brown returned and played into the second half. Jones returned, at right cornerback, after D.J. Reed left the game early in the fourth quarter. Reed got evaluated in the blue medical tent behind the Seahawks’ bench, then emerged from it a few minutes later carrying his helmet and congratulating Brown for ending another Jaguars drive and the keeping the shutout intact.
Jones nearly intercepted a pass by Lawrence over the middle, breaking hard in front of a receiver on a crossing route.
Carroll said Reed pulled his groin and could not have returned to the game even if it was close. The bye week will help him, in particular.
This story was originally published October 31, 2021 at 4:04 PM.
