Unthinkable is asked after Seahawks’ latest loss: Still going to roll with Russell Wilson?
The question was once unthinkable.
That was before the finger surgery on his throwing hand. And the pin getting removed early. And the miraculous comeback to practice in half the time his surgeon initially estimated he might be out.
And it was before the three, mostly awful games and losses Russell Wilson and the Seahawks have had since their franchise quarterback of 10 glorious years returned to play.
The third was a 17-15 loss on the last play at Washington. On his 33rd birthday, Wilson and his offense malfunctioned for all but one drive of the first 57-1/2 minutes of the 60-minute game Monday night just outside D.C. Seattle had five consecutive three and outs from the second quarter until 2-1/2 minutes remained in the fourth, with 25 total yards in those five possessions.
So, coach Pete Carroll was asked the previously unaskable as Monday night became Tuesday morning in Maryland: Will the 3-8 Seahawks continue to roll with mostly struggling Wilson over the final six games of a lost season, beginning Sunday against the hot San Francisco 49ers (6-5) at Lumen Field?
Would they dare bench Wilson and go to backup Geno Smith, the 31-year-old veteran who won one of three starts when Wilson missed the first games of his career last month?
The fact Carroll answered that question earnestly rather than dismissing it tells plenty about where Wilson and this wayward offense is right now.
“Yeah,” Carroll said.
“He needs to make his plays when he gets his chance. I can’t imagine that he won’t. I can’t imagine that he won’t get it done.”
Wilson hasn’t won since Oct. 3, at San Francisco.
It’s now December.
Wilson’s only touch of familiar magic Monday came at the very end. His completed eight of 10 passes, marching the Seahawks 96 yards in 2:04. His 32-yard touchdown pass to Freddie Swain with 15 seconds left was Wilson at his best: stepping up in the pocket away from pressure, with his wide receiver faking an outside route against two-deep safety coverage then running inside the safeties wide open for a catch and run.
But this season, Wilson’s best is fleeting.
The Seahawks still needed two more points. On the ensuing two-point conversation, Wilson had DK Metcalf running a long crossing route from the left side to the right boundary of the end zone. Wilson said he saw two defenders go with him. Swain was crossing behind Metcalf. No Washington defender was with him by the time he reached the middle of the end zone.
But Wilson never saw Swain, not until he’d run into two more Washington defenders. Swain said he believed Wilson was forced by the pass rush to step up and avert his eyes from Swain when the receiver was open. By the time Wilson decided to throw the ball, Washington’s Kyle Fuller was waiting. Fuller intercepted Wilson’s last throw to seal Seattle’s eighth loss in 11 games.
It was Wilson’s third interception in the end zone in three games since his return. Two came in the 17-0 loss at Green Bay, game one of his comeback. That was the first time in his career he’d been shut out.
Wilson has never been 3-8. Not in his 10 years in the NFL as Seattle’s franchise quarterback from week one of his rookie season. Not in his three years starting for North Carolina State or one year leading Wisconsin to the Rose Bowl. And probably not at the Collegiate School, where he starred in high school in Richmond, Virginia, about two hours south of where he played Monday.
This was his first loss of his career at Washington.
There are a lot of unfamiliar firsts for No. 3 this season.
“It’s just disappointing,” Wilson said, his eyes noticeably moist and red after addressing his teammates in the locker room and taking full accountability, as coach Pete Carroll said.
“We have a good football team ... We are in a storm.”
With Seahawks chair Jody Allen’s right-hand man, vice chair Bert Kolde watching the press conference a few feet from the quarterback as he does after every road game, Wilson said, “There’s going to be challenges, you know, people (saying) this and that, talking this and that.
“But what we know is that we’re together.”
Playing for pride, obligation
Playoffs?
Forget those.
He, like Carroll, talked about playing the final six games for pride and out of obligation.
“We’ve got to step up to the challenge, and, as crazy as it may seem and as tough as it is, it’s our obligation to that,” Wilson said. “It’s a gift to be able to play this game every day.”
Wilson’s and Seattle’s biggest problem on offense remains third downs. They converted only two of their first 10 Monday night. They’ve been near the bottom of the league at 33% success rate on third downs most of the season.
Wilson massively missed open tight end Gerald Everett twice in the first half on third downs, once way high and once far wide. He threw inside to Tyler Lockett in the third quarter when Lockett ran outside; the pass was nearly intercepted.
“I could have been a little cleaner,” Wilson said, repeating what he said the previous week after going 20 for 40 in a home loss to Arizona.
“The biggest thing is just being able to make the stuff that’s not that great right now and make it a little better, and just stay focused on that task.
“And it starts with me.”
Where’s Metcalf?
Metcalf, the team’s record setter last season with 1,303 yards and making it to the Pro Bowl for the first time, didn’t get a target until deep into the second half. Wilson called Metcalf “one of the best football players in the world” after the game in which he had one catch — for 13 yards and a first down on that final, frantic drive — on just four targets.
Four targets, among Wilson’s 31 throws.
“Yeah, I think, obviously, we need to get DK the football,” Wilson said. “We actually called several plays for him.”
Wilson said Metcalf “actually had a sweet deep cross that he was going to be wide open for, maybe even for a touchdown” in the second quarter. But Wilson was forced by more pass pressure to throw outside short to running back Alex Collins. Collins lost a punched-out fumble on his run to ruin the last functioning Seahawks drive until the final one of the game.
“Then we called some other stuff for him (in the third quarter) and they doubled him,” Wilson said of Metcalf.
The quarterback put out what seems to be a task for him and for first-year play caller Shane Waldron, who’s not having an exactly wowing Seattle debut season.
“He’s one of the best football players in the world,” Wilson said of Metcalf. “You gotta get him the football, gotta find ways to do it, gotta move him around some more, maybe.
“We’re going to study it and see what we can do.”
As for what Wilson can do now, in the final six games? This is all new to him.
“I haven’t been in this situation before like this,” he said. “But what I do know is, I know there’s only one way to respond. That’s with your head up, your mind right ... That’s with perspective that everything in life isn’t always easy.
“This journey, this season, it’s been challenging. It’s been tough. But at the same time, there’s more football left. I know for me, personally, I’m going to give everything, like I always do, every day, every play...just because I don’t know any other way.”
This story was originally published November 30, 2021 at 12:17 AM.
