Russell Wilson, Pete Carroll don’t recognize Seahawks’, Jason Myers’ failings in clutch
This Seahawks season is so lost, Russell Wilson doesn’t recognize it.
“I think that’s the biggest and the toughest part about this season. I think about all the great seasons, all the great moments we’ve had. A lot of times it’s — this season in particular it feels like we have the lead or whatever it may be, and we can finish better.
“We have to be able to finish better in my opinion on offense. We can execute better. We can do little things better. ...
“This year has been tough to be where we are right now knowing that everybody has put so much energy and so much time into it and to know that we haven’t been able to be where we want to be. It’s definitely disappointing.”
The Seahawks are 0-5 in games decided by a field goal or less.
That will turn a defending division champion to 5-10 faster than you can say “Efren Herrera.”
Seattle is one of five NFC teams eliminated from the playoffs with two regular-season games to play. The Seahawks have meaningless games against Detroit (2-12-1) Sunday and at Arizona (10-5) Jan. 9.
Seattle is finishing its first losing season since 2011, the last season before the team drafted Wilson.
The Seahawks were 5-1 in games decided by three points or fewer in the 2019 and ‘20 seasons. That was when they were making the playoffs and, last season, winning the NFC West.
That puts a focus on the team’s field-goal kicker. Jason Myers.
The focus was on Myers following the Seahawks’ latest close loss, 25-24 to the Chicago Bears at snowy Lumen Field Sunday.
“Honestly, this game, we should have definitely had this one,” Wilson said.
Remember when Myers had a Seahawks-record streak of consecutive made field goals?
The Seahawks don’t, either.
Not after Myers’ latest miss Sunday, from 39 yards in the fourth quarter.
The team’s Blitz bird mascot was holding his oversized, character head with both claws under the goal post as Myers’ kick suddenly careened wide left of the upright late in the kick.
Yes, it was on a snowy field with winds that sometimes got to 20 mph during the game. But that snow had stopped and winds had calmed later in the afternoon when Myers tried his potentially game-clinching kick. The streamers atop the uprights in the south, closed end zone at Lumen Field were still against the posts when he missed.
A make would have given Seattle a two-score lead with 8 minutes left and likely would have beaten the Bears.
No margin for misses
In a season where Seattle’s talent deficit in some games and performance deficit in most has resulted in seven games decided by one score, Myers’ misses have contributed plenty to the Seahawks being 5-10 and headed to their first losing season since 2011.
Amid porous defense early, Wilson being out a month in the middle and the offense malfunctioning since the quarterback’s return last month, Myers’ misses have directly led to three Seahawks losses.
Had he not missed an extra point while Seattle was taking a 30-16 lead on Tennessee with 13 minutes left, that game in September may not have gotten to overtime and the Seahawks may not have lost.
In Minnesota the following week Myers missed a 44-yard field goal in perfect conditions: indoors. That ended his franchise-record streak of 37 consecutive makes. It also kept the Seahawks from extending their 17-14 lead into halftime. The Vikings scored 23 unanswered points while Seattle blew a 10-point lead and lost.
Myers went on to miss three field goals in his next four games.
In week five at home against the Rams, Wilson drove the Seahawks in rush from their own 28 to the Los Angeles 17 with a minute left in the first half. Myers then shanked a 32-yard field goal, shorter than an extra point. He was 18 for 18 from 30-39 yards the previous two seasons. Seattle failed to extend its lead to 10-3 that October night. The Rams scored in the third quarter to take the lead. L.A. eventually won 26-17 the night Wilson injured the middle finger on his throwing hand.
Wilson missed the next three games following surgery, the first three missed starts of his career. In that span, Myers did fill-in quarterback Geno Smith no favors when he missed two field goals in a home game Seattle lost 13-10 to New Orleans.
Myers missed two extra points two weeks ago at Houston, but it did not matter. Rashaad Penny was so good with 137 yards rushing, and the Texans were so bad as Seattle won 33-13.
Then Sunday, Myers missed from 39 yards, after Wilson took a 13-yard sack on third down that Carroll said the QB just cannot take. Myers’ latest miss kept Chicago down just 24-17 with 7:23 left. The Bears won with a touchdown and 2-point conversion, 25-24.
‘I dont know, man’
For the season, Myers has made 13 of 19 field goals. His success rate is 68.4%, the lowest of his seven seasons in the NFL for Jacksonville (2015-17), the New York Jets (2018) and Seahawks (2019-21). He’s a career 84.4% kicker.
Last year, he was the best in the NFL on field goals, 24 for 24.
“Yeah, I don’t know, man. I don’t know why that’s happened a couple of times this season that Jay hasn’t hit his stuff,” Carroll said. “He is a fantastic athlete and a great competitor and a great worker and all of that. It’s too bad.
“We should have made -- that should have been from the 25-yard line, whatever that was, that field goal. He still should make those. He makes them in his freaking sleep.
“He is really, really good, so it’s unfortunate.”
Like 10 of the Seahawks other 15 games this lost season.
Carroll was particularly miffed over Myers’ miss from 39 in the fourth quarter Sunday, and the play right before the kick. Wilson taking the sack on third and 4 from the 8 turned a 26-yard chip shot into a 39-yard kick Myers should still make, but not as automatically.
“Eight-yard line,” Carroll said, for emphasis. “So it was as short as you can get on the field goal. That’s as makeable as can be, and then we’ve got to hit the field goal, too.
“That’s part of the thinking and mentality that we practice that stuff all the time, and we just didn’t do that. There was a clear situation where we gave them an opportunity to get some momentum from us.
“In that situation that third down in field-goal range to go up by 10, we’ve got to get rid of the football. We can’t take a sack there, and we need to look at what happened on that play.
“Again, that’s what I’m talking about. I’ve got to get that done. I’ve got to get them to execute that way. I’ve got to get Russ to pull that off. I’ve got to get the coaches to make sure we reminded him well enough so that didn’t happen.
“You sail out it out of the end zone right there, kick the field goal.”
Kick it, yes.
Making it hasn’t been as much of a sure thing for the Seahawks.
Not much right now is.
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