Rashaad Penny romps. Russell Wilson, DK Metcalf (finally) smile, Seahawks rout Lions 51-29
Russell Wilson and DK Metcalf smiled together on the sideline.
Wilson hugged Rashaad Penny at the bench like he was a teddy bear.
Penny ran like the first-round pick he was four years ago — and kept romping into the Seahawks’ plans for 2022.
Tyler Lockett and fellow receivers got a huge kick out of Metcalf returning a long Detroit field goal that was 2 yards short out of the end zone 45 yards, Canadian League style, to end the first half. Lockett, Freddie Swain and others were laughing with Metcalf on ways off the field into halftime.
It was 31-7 Seattle by then.
This was an absolute blast for the Seahawks on the second day of the new year.
Seattle 51, Detroit 29 , the Seahawks’ most points scored in a game in 10 seasons.
It was as if 2021 never happened.
“We executed in every way,” Wilson said after his sterling day — 20 for 29 passing, 236 yards four touchdowns, three scoring throws to Metcalf for the third-year wide receiver’s career high.
“That’s the game we want to play, a complete game. ...Everybody touched the ball. We were able to facilitate to different guys. ...Rashaad Penny ran the ball, I mean, it was lights out. Offensive line was tremendous.
“We played a great football game today. That’s what we needed.”
When it was over, Wilson walked over the railing of stands in the southeast corner of Lumen Field, around the tunnel from the field to the Seahawks’ locker room. Fans were chanting his name. Kids were standing in the day-long, 39-degree rain, clamoring for his autograph.
He obliged them, as he has for his 10 seasons leading this team that had been, until this season, mostly wondrous.
Where’s this been from the eliminated Seahawks (6-10) all season, their first losing one since 2011?
They hadn’t played the Lions (2-13-1).
The game ended with — get this — the recently pitiful Seahawks actually taking pity on another team. They had Wilson take consecutive kneel-downs from the 1-yard line to expire the rest of the game clock instead of scoring yet again on the Lions.
“Really excited about the way we came out,” coach Pete Carroll said over bass music so loud amid the 2014-style celebrating in the neighboring locker room it was difficult to hear the coach speak. “We made a really big deal about these last two games, this one in particular...
“I told these guys in the locker room the way that they approached it, focus-wise, the juice that they brought pregame, in the locker room, it was really fun.”
Carroll challenged the players to treat Sunday like a playoff game, to get to “the Super Bowl” next week in Arizona — in the same stadium his Seahawks played Super Bowl 49 at the end of the 2014 season and lost on Wilson’s last-play interception to New England.
He had the team practice in helmets on Thursday, for the first time in more than a month. Practices this time of year are typically with players in ball caps or beanies, with no chance or hint of intensity or contact.
Penny ran himself into the Seahawks’ plans for next season. He plowed, cut and sprinted for 170 yards on 25 carries with two touchdowns in the next-to-last game of his contract. The so-often-injured Penny set his career high with 144 yards on 16 carries with two touchdowns with 2 minutes still left in the first half. It was the most first-half yards for a Seahawks running back in 28 years.
His second touchdown run of the opening half, 6 yards, put Seattle ahead 17-0 in the opening minute of the second quarter.
Seattle was on its way to its most points since Dec. 9, 2012, a 58-0 rout of Arizona.
“Again, I’m thankful. I’m just blessed. I’m thankful to be standing up here again,” Penny said during another of his postgame press conferences for a third breakout game in four weeks. “I am really trying to focus (only) a little on injuries. That’s something you really don’t want to focus on. As a human, playing a sport, putting on a show for people, it can ruin the thought process of athletes.
“I’m thankful. And I’m happy to be here.”
Penny had 74 yards and a touchdown in the first quarter Sunday. His 15-yard touchdown with two, sharp cuts in the open field then 23-yard run on Seattle’s next offensive series to Jason Myers’ 51-yard field goal were how the Seahawks led 10-0 after one period.
After that initial touchdown, Penny went to every Seahawks offensive linemen on the bench, including left guard Phil Haynes starting for the first time because Damien Lewis is on the reserve/COVID-19 list. Penny hugged and slapped hands with each of his blockers. Penny even hugged rookie Stone Forsythe. The backup tackle was not even playing.
“I don’t think those guys out there get much credit, the O-line,” Penny said.
“I wouldn’t want to be with anybody else, this team, this offense. It means a lot having them guys. And my job is easy. There’s a big hole there. All I’ve got to do is hit it.”
But as veteran left tackle Duane Brown said, all of Penny’s runs weren’t well blocked. He often made defenders miss at the line of scrimmage.
“It wasn’t always pretty for him,” Brown said. “He made guys miss.”
That’s a trait the Seahawks need next season, particularly with lead rusher Chris Carson’s return from season-ending neck surgery no sure thing.
It was Penny’s third game of at least 135 yards rushing the last four weeks, against the Texans, Bears and Lions. He had zero such games in four seasons before this.
Last week, after Penny had 135 yards against Chicago in a 25-24 home loss, Carroll was asked if Penny had played his way back into Seattle’s plans for next season. Last spring, the Seahawks declined to pick up the fifth-year option on Penny’s contract for 2022.
“We need him,” Carroll said.
Wearing a half glove over his throwing hand for the first time, with a full-length covering over his surgically repaired middle finger, Wilson threw a touchdown pass to Metcalf, a perfect plop of 13 yards down the hash marks against an all-out, “cover-zero” blitz with no safety in the middle of the field.
Wilson threw another TD pass later in the first half to Lockett. That was a deft flip to the receiver cutting across the formation from the 1-yard line.
All the running — Seattle finished with 265 yards rushing and 497 total yards — gave Seattle’s offensive line better chances for better pass protection. Wilson flourished with that, converting third downs he and the offense had failed to convert in most of the first 15 games.
Seattle, bottom of the NFL this season in third-down conversions, was good on 7 of 12 of them Sunday.
Where’s this been from the Seahawks all year?
They haven’t played the Lions all year.
Metcalf acknowledges frustration
The second half began with Detroit backup quarterback Tim Boyle, playing for injured Jared Goff, dropping the shotgun snap on the first scrimmage play of the third quarter. Boyle picked up the ball he dropped, then rushed a throw into the tight coverage of Seahawks cornerback D.J. Reed over the middle. Reed, playing after contracting COVID-19 and missing a game, tipped Boyle’s pass to himself for the interception.
Wilson then threw a jump ball to the 6-foot-4 Metcalf over Detroit’s over-matched defensive back for a 13-yard touchdown. That made it 38-7.
Seattle had its season-high in points, with most of the second half still to play.
Metcalf took the ball from the play to that party scene on Seattle’s sideline and handed it to an equipment man to keep. It was the 11th touchdown reception of the season for Metcalf, bettering his career high from last season.
To think: this was the same man who was stomping mad less than two weeks earlier, when he and Wilson couldn’t connect well enough to beat the Los Angeles Rams. That Dec. 21 loss essentially ended the meaningful part of the Seahawks’ season.
“Around week seven, eight, nine, it was frustrating,” Metcalf said, of late October into November this season, when Wilson was out from finger surgery.
“You can’t be selfish. You can’t want the ball every play, because you know, you’ve got 10 other guys out there fighting their ass off every play.
“A lot of growth for me this year.”
Wagner injured
Perennial All-Pro linebacker Bobby Wagner was face down on the turf after the Seahawks’ first defensive play.
Carroll and defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. came onto the field with the team’s medical staff to attend to their captain and his injured knee.
After a minute or so down, Wagner walked off the field to the bench. A doctor looked at his right knee. Then, during the timeout for his injury, Wagner sprinted off the bench directly into the middle of the field and the defense’s huddle.
Referee Tony Corrente directed Wagner back off the field, because he had to miss one play for the injury time out. Wagner stayed out the rest of Seattle’s first defensive series.
The team said he was questionable to return. He never did. Cody Barton played the entire game for Wagner, minus that first play.
Carroll said after the game Wagner was due an MRI exam Sunday night, and the team would know more about the extent of the injury after that.
Barton and Brown said they were praying for Wagner.
More injuries
Carlos Dunlap left midway through the game with an injured ankle. The 32-year-old defensive end had five sacks in his previous two games before none with one tackle for loss Sunday.
Cornerback John Reid started because Sidney Jones and Bless Austin are on the ream’s reserve/COVID-19 list. Then in the third quarter Reid left the game to get evaluated for a possible concussion. That gave Michael Jackson his first game chance at cornerback. The third-year veteran joined the roster Saturday as a COVID replacement from the practice squad.
In the third quarter, referee Corrente fell to the ground between plays while standing alone in his usual spot near the offensive huddle. Training staffs from both teams helped the veteran official to his feet. A Seahawks doctor escorted Corrente to the team’s locker room to get checked out. He missed a handful of plays then returned to officiate the rest of the game.
Carroll said Corrente got hit in the back of the head by the helmet of a Lions player on the snap before the referee went down.
This story was originally published January 2, 2022 at 4:39 PM.
