Russell ‘I’m a fixer’ Wilson and the 3-6 Seahawks still have hope. Here’s why.
The Seahawks are broken.
Russell Wilson thinks he’s the man for this job.
“I’m a fixer of things. That’s what I do,” Seattle’s franchise quarterback said on his way out of Green Bay Sunday night.
It’s a testament to how relentlessly positive Wilson is that he said that about 30 minutes after he and his offense scored zero points for the first time in his NFL career.
There’s a lot to fix.
The last time Wilson had been shut out at any level of football was his first college start 13 years ago. He didn’t play that entire game. On Aug. 28, 2008, Wilson made his debut as a redshirt freshman for North Carolina State at South Carolina. He was knocked out of that game with 4 minutes left in the second quarter. He got a concussion running a read-option keeper in a scoreless game.
NC State went on without him to lose 34-0 that night.
So he might have to go back to his time starring at Collegiate School in Richmond, Virginia, or before prep high school, for the last time he had finished a football game scoreless.
After Wilson’s and Seattle’s 17-0 loss at Green Bay last weekend, his Seahawks are 3-6. Wilson and his flat-lined offense must come back Sunday at home against NFC West-leading Arizona (8-2).
Wilson needs to rebound from one of the worst games of his career.
It was his first game back after a month-plus out because of finger surgery. And it was awful. He was 20 for 40 passing for just 160 yards. In the second half, with the score 3-0 and 10-0, he threw two ghastly interceptions into five total Packers in the end zone. Those were decisive.
That was his return from missing the first three games on his 10-year career, because of his finger injury and tricky repair Oct. 8 of broken bones and tendon damage in the middle finger of his right, throwing hand.
He insisted that wasn’t his issue in Green Bay.
“My finger felt fine. ...I know myself really well. I know what I can and can’t do,” Wilson said on his way out of Lambeau Field, where he’s yet to win.
“I felt I could do everything.”
Except win a winnable game against Aaron Rodgers and the current top seed in the NFC on its home field.
“I don’t want to over-complicate it. I just think that it really came down to two plays,” Wilson said. “We were right there. We make those two plays…
“And those two things were on me.”
Yet hope remains.
Why they believe
Sunnyside-up coach Pete Carroll, Wilson and the Seahawks can rally this week around the fact that, fortunately for them, the rest of the conference has not run away from Seattle. Only six teams in NFC have winning records past the halfway point of the regular season.
A win Sunday at Lumen Field would keep his Seahawks at least 1 1/2 games out of the last playoff spot in the conference, with seven games to play. Then Seattle plays at Washington (3-6), hosts San Francisco (4-5), plays at Houston (1-8) and the Rams (7-3). The Seahawks finish the regular season at home against Chicago (3-6) and Detroit (0-8-1).
Since the NFL expanded the postseason to 12 teams in 1990, five teams that began 3-6 or worse have made the playoffs. That includes Washington, 2-7 last season. That rally has an asterisk: Washington won the weak NFC East with a 7-9 record, in the first season the league expanded the playoffs to include 14 teams.
In three of those five cases, the 3-6 team won out to get into the postseason.
Seattle’s advantage now: there’s an extra regular-season game, for a total of 17, for the first time this season.
The Seahawks need to win six of their last eight games to finish 9-8. That would give them a realistic chance of making the playoffs.
The big deal for Sunday’s game is the situation with the Cardinals’ quarterbacks.
Injured starter Kyler Murray is probably out. Fill-in Colt McCoy injured his pectoral muscle in the third quarter of Arizona’s 34-10 home loss to Carolina last weekend. Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury said Monday the 35-year-old McCoy’s status is “day to day.”
“Hopefully, over the next couple of days he feels better and can operate this week during practice,” Kingsbury told reporters in Arizona. “But we’ll have to see how that goes.”
Murray to miss Sunday?
Kingsbury hinted the Cardinals may keep resting Murray and his injured ankle Sunday in Seattle, because Arizona has a bye next week.
The Cardinals coach remembers last season when Murray played through an injured shoulder during the latter half of 2020. The first-overall pick in the 2019 NFL draft went from sterling league MVP candidate the first half of last season to mortal, banged-up thrower. Last year’s Cardinals went from a 5-2 start to an 8-8 finish, out of the playoffs.
“That was a nagging situation last year,” Kingsbury said. “(Murray) played through it and kind of toughed it out. But he probably wasn’t able to be 100% the back of the season. So, this year we want to make sure he can feel as good as possible. We have the bye coming up, and hopefully, that gives him more time to recover and hit that home stretch.
“If he can play Sunday, he will play. But we want to be smart with him.”
Of course, that also could be gamesmanship, to keep the Seahawks guessing.
If Murray sits out again and McCoy can’t play, Seattle would face Chris Streveler Sunday.
Who?
The 26-year-old former University of South Dakota quarterback was 6 for 9 for 36 yards passing entering for McCoy last weekend against the Panthers. Streveler also mopped up for the hurting Murray in Arizona’s finale last season. He completed 11 of 16 passes with a touchdown and an interception Jan. 3 against the Rams. Those were the first passes of his NFL career.
Streveler was born in Naperville, Illinois, the hometown of Seahawks rookie special-team player Jon Rhattigan. Streveler played 35 games in the 2018 and ‘19 Canadian Football League seasons for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. He won a Grey Cup with Winnipeg in 2019. He signed as free agent with Arizona in February, 2020.
No matter who plays quarterback for the Cardinals Sunday, he will be facing some frustrated Seahawks.
“I am frustrated,” veteran defensive end Carlos Dunlap said in Green Bay, “because we have let a lot of opportunities slip away, clearly.”
That was after he threw a Packers player’s shoe following a play Sunday. That drew a damaging penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct with the score 3-0 in the fourth quarter.
“The hope comes in execution,” Dunlap said. “When we execute better, the hope is there. We all believe that we have more than enough opportunities to come turn this thing around.
“But we know that we have to go make plays. ...We all have taken ownership.”
This story was originally published November 17, 2021 at 5:15 AM.
