Russell Wilson to DK Metcalf often, but not effectively, in Seahawks’ season-dooming loss
When the Seahawks look back on what went wrong this sunken season — viewing that can begin, well, now — the most glaring reason is the same one that propelled the franchise to its most successful decade.
Russell Wilson.
There’s no denying the quarterback came back too soon from his surgery in early October on his throwing hand, in half the time his surgeon told him he would. That was evident after Wilson missed the first three games of his career. It was so when he got shut out for the first time in the NFL or college football in his first game back. And when he uncharacteristically threw interceptions into the end zone in four consecutive games.
Tuesday, in the moment the Seahawks needed the Wilson of 2012-20, the pre-finger-surgery Wilson, he came up short.
Way short.
Wilson had DK Metcalf alone for touchdowns twice in Seattle’s latest frustrating loss in a season full of them, 20-10 late at the Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium. The first time, his arm got hit.
The second time, Wilson just underthrew Metcalf when he was 5 yards behind Rams All-Pro cornerback Jalen Ramsey in the fourth quarter. An accurate, characteristic throw there by Wilson and the Seahawks would have re-tied the game at 17 with 8 minutes remaining.
“I was a little short to DK on that one,” Wilson said following the Seahawks’ ninth defeat in 14 games that ensured the team’s first losing season since 2011, before Seattle drafted Wilson to become their starter.
“I wish I could have had that one back.”
With 3 1/2 minutes left, the Seahawks had fourth and 6 at midfield. Running back DeeJay Dallas got hit before Wilson’s pass to him arrived, but officials ruled Rams linebacker Ernest Jones’ arm-chop onto Dallas’ arms legal and the pass incomplete. The irate Dallas kicked the ball up the field, drawing a 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct.
“Knucklehead play,” coach Pete Carroll said of Dallas’ kick, not the non-call for pass interference.
It sent the Rams to the game-clinching field goal.
“It’s a huge, key situation there. And unfortunately we don’t get the call there,” Wilson said.
“There’s some plays out there we didn’t make.”
On the tying touchdown that wasn’t, Metcalf beat his shadow Ramsey. Decisively. Metcalf ran a double move: a stop route near the line to gain on third and 6, then a go route straight down the left sideline. Ramsey was beaten as soundly as Metcalf has beaten him in their three seasons as NFC West rivals.
But Wilson’s throw made Metcalf slow down and almost stop. That allowed the frantic Ramsey to race back into the play and knock the ball away for his second third-down pass defensed against Metcalf Tuesday.
“I was trying to get it out of my hand,” Wilson said. “He was kind of making a double move there, and I was trying to get it out of my hand before I got hit. Just trying to put some air under it, let him go get it. Sometimes those double moves are always tricky, because you don’t know when they are going to come out of it.
“I wish we could have had that one back. That was the one I wish we could have back. ...
“That was one I could have had back, personally.”
Wilson rarely has had to say that in his career — particularly in the clutch. He has 35 game-winning drives in the fourth quarter. That’s the most in NFL history.
His opponent, the Rams’ Matthew Stafford, tied him at 35 fourth-quarter comebacks with his 29-yard touchdown pass to Cooper Kupp that broke a 10-10 tie with 11 minutes remaining.
Wilson finished 17 for 31 passing for 156 yards and a final-seconds interception into the end zone, throwing a no-chance ball to Metcalf in garbage time.
Renowned for his accurate deep passing, Wilson completed just one of nine throws of more than 10 yards down the field.
This is the first season Wilson will finish with a losing record since his sophomore year at North Carolina State. That was 2009.
No Lockett, almost all Metcalf
With Tyler Lockett out for the game on the NFL reserve/COVID-19 list after testing positive for the coronavirus Thursday, it was nearly Wilson-to-Metcalf or bust for the Seahawks Tuesday.
Wilson targeted Metcalf seven times when Ramsey was the nearest defender, per NFL NextGen Stats. Metcalf caught only two of those targets, for 21 yards. Ramsey shadowed Metcalf on 62% of pass plays, (18 of 29 coverage snaps). And Ramsey mostly stayed off the hulking, speedy receiver. He pressed Metcalf at the line of scrimmage only one time.
Metcalf still got open. That one time Ramsey pressed him, Metcalf got around him quickly and easily and was running free. But Wilson had changed that play to a run. That didn’t exactly please Metcalf, either.
He was visibly upset on the field and sideline, particularly during the first half in L.A.
The 2020 Pro Bowl wide receiver who turned 24 this month was running down the field waving his arms while open in the second quarter. Wilson was trying to throw deep to him. But the pass-rushing Von Miller hit Wilson’s arm as the QB threw. The hit caused the pass to flail shorter instead, to tight end Gerald Everett. It became an accidental, 34-yard completion that got Seattle into the red zone, instead of touchdown pass to Metcalf in the end zone.
Wilson then got sacked on first down. On third down, the Seahawks’ frustrating first half on offense ended with Wilson throwing late and about 5 yards out of bounds over the goal line in Metcalf’s general direction. That was on third and 17.
As Jason Myers was kicking the tying field goal, Wilson tried to talk to Metcalf. The receiver stomped away up the sideline, gesturing sharply with his arms.
Metcalf finished with six catches on 12 targets for 52 yards. The catches and targets were team highs. One of Wilson’s passes went off his hands, hard and short in the right flat in the third quarter.
“They are trying their ass off to play right,” Carroll said of Metcalf with Wilson.
“The calls are there. We are trying to get the ball there. We’ve just got to throw it and catch it and make the plays, and we’ve got to get the job done.
“We’ve got to throw it better, and we’ve got to make sure that we make our plays.”
‘Nothing wrong’
Wilson knows Metcalf better than any Seahawk. They workout annually at Wilson’s offseason homes in San Diego and Mexico. Wilson taught Metcalf to swim during one of those trips to Mexico, two offseasons ago.
After this maddening loss, Wilson was asked about Metcalf’s frustration against the Rams.
“We didn’t have anything between us, or anything like that,” Wilson said. “There was a moment when he was pressed, and we ran the ball on that play. He did a really good job of shaking Ramsey.
“He just said, ‘Hey, I’m on it. I’m going to be ready to go.’ That was just...that was kind of his passion. Wasn’t anything wrong, anything like that. Me and him are super-connected, you know.
“There’s nothing wrong or anything like that. ...There’s nothing there.”
So here Wilson is, at 5-9, his worst NFL record. Two seasons after this one remain on his record $140 million contract. The only man to quarterback the Seahawks to a Super Bowl title still hasn’t advanced past the second round of the playoffs since the last time Seattle was in the Super Bowl seven years ago.
Mathematically, the Seahawks are technically, sort-of, still alive in the watered-down NFC for the final playoff spot, two games behind with no immediate tiebreakers in their favor, with three games to play.
But the 33-year-old Wilson is realistic and seasoned enough to know Tuesday was the end of the meaningful part of his first-of-its-kind, roughed-up season.
“It’s definitely disappointing,” he said. “This season’s been tough, just in general. Everything going on. Just life. There’s a lot of real situations out there going on, COVID and... I think for us, the only thing we can do is get ready for tomorrow. Give everything we have.
‘That’s what our job is to do. That’s what our job is to do, is to wake up and give everything I have, every day. That’s all I know how to do.
“It’s definitely disappointing. I feel like this season we had some chances to win some games early on, unfortunately. I felt in seasons past, we’ve won those close games. ...
“Tennessee, for example, we could have had that game. A few games got away from us.
“What I do know is I’m grateful for each guy, giving everything, every day. I don’t expect anything will change with that. ...
“All I know is, we’ve got three more (games) left. And we’re going to give everything that we have.”
This story was originally published December 21, 2021 at 10:16 PM.
