Geno Smith hurt, re-enters, rallies Seahawks. But Jason Myers misses last kick. Rams win
Geno Smith bowed his head, waiting.
Down the sideline to his right, Seattle teammate Frank Clark raised both his arms, anticipating a victory.
After his 15 consecutive made field goals, including 8 for 8 the last two games and 3 for 3 earlier Sunday, the Seahawks just knew Jason Myers was going to make this one.
From 55 yards, for a win after Smith played the final series injured to rally Seattle into position, Myers kick soared long enough.
Then it drifted wide right.
Smith walked onto the field at roofed-but-open-sided SoFi Stadium, with his injured elbow wrapped and his — and his team’s psyche stunned.
Rams 17, Seahawks 16.
Asked if he thought the kid was good when it left his foot, because he had made 15 in a row before that missed field goal to end it, Myers said: “It’s tough, because, you know, it’s indoors — but it’s not.
“It’s pretty windy down there. So I knew I kind of had to drive it a little bit. So, yeah, it was a tough kick.”
Myers shrugged. The kicker who won Seattle’s game with five field goals including one on the final play the previous week to send the Seahawks over Washington 29-26 couldn’t win this one.
The Seahawks lost it Sunday way before that, though.
“It’s still hurting,” Smith said on his way to the team bus for the Seahawks’ flight home.
He meant his elbow. He could have meant his heart.
This lose could prove to be that crushing. Next up for the Seahawks (6-4): first-place San Francisco (7-3) in four days, then Dallas, the 49ers again on the road, and Philadelphia.
Smith said he didn’t know if he will be able to play in that game.
“I’m really disappointed,” coach Pete Carroll said of his 10th loss in 15 games against Sean McVay since the whiz-kid coach took over the Rams in 2017, “because it feels like we did that to ourselves.”
The Seahawks’ season- — decade- — long issue with penalties doomed them Sunday. They had 12. Many extended the Rams’ drives to their two touchdowns. The first TD for Los Angeles came after Seattle gave the Rams 69 yards in penalties, on one drive.
Seattle leads the NFL with 76 penalties this season.
“We made it really hard on ourselves so many times in this game...the penalties that happened we just out of line for us,” Carroll said.
“Today it really blew up on us.”
It was 13-7 Seahawks Sunday — just as it was the last time they played the Rams. This time, the Rams didn’t score 23 unanswered points to blow out Seattle.
But just about everything else went wrong after that for the Seahawks this time against L.A.
Aaron Donald crunched Smith immediately after he threw a pass early in the fourth quarter of a 16-7 game. Smith left with an elbow injury. He stayed on the sidelines watching backup Drew Lock, while wearing an ice pack on his right, throwing elbow for pain that shot up his arm into his triceps.
Seattle already had Jamal Adams inactive injured, lead back Kenneth Walker out in the first half due to injury. Plus, DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett were on the sideline for much of the first half after their injuries and missed practices recently.
After the Rams cut the lead to 16-14 following a third-and-goal pass interference on Seattle rookie Devon Witherspoon, Lock tried to connect with Lockett on a one-on-one route with Los Angeles’ Derion Kendrick down the left sideline, on a third and 11. Kendrick intercepted the pass.
The Rams converted that into a long drive aided by a penalty on Seattle’s Riq Woolen. It ended with Lucas Havrisik kicking a 22-yard field goal to give Los Angeles its first lead, 17-16 with 1:31 left in what became the Seahawks’ bitter, one-point loss in a game they controlled much of all day.
Smith finished 22 for 34 passing for 233 yards, a touchdown pass and two sacks.
Lock was 2 for 6 passing for just 3 yards and the interception that set up the Rams’ winning drive.
Smith re-entered the game after L.A.’s go-ahead field goal, after missing two series. He had the ball at his own 25-yard line with no time outs and a black wrap on his right arm. He completed a 14-yard pass to Lockett. He threw wide incomplete of Metcalf with 69 seconds left.
On third and 8 with 42 seconds left from the Seattle 40, he connected with Metcalf for 19 yards across the middle to Rams 39. Zach Charbonnet ran to the 37. Smith spiked the ball to stop the clock with 8 seconds left.
Then Myers came on. And he finally missed.
That’s how the Seahawks slipped to 6-4 and a game behind San Francisco entering their showdown with the 49ers in Seattle in four days, Thanksgiving night.
Los Angeles scored the go-ahead touchdown after the Seahawks thought they had a stop on third and 15 in Rams territory. Stafford threw incomplete wide of his receiver on the right sideline. On the left sideline, about 40 yards away from the play, Woolen was penalized for hands to the face of Rams receiver Austin Trammell. That 5-yard penalty on Seattle’s 2022 Pro Bowl cornerback was an automatic first down.
Woolen had the same penalty on a third down in a game last month.
Seattle should have led by more than 13-0 late in the second quarter, and by more than 16-7 into the fourth.
They had a 205-19 edge in total yards. They had scoring drives of 14 plays, 15 plays and six plays.
But two of those drives deep into the red zone ended in only field goals, instead of touchdowns for a 21-0 lead.
By the time the Rams finally strung together a scoring drive, on Stafford’s third-down pass to Puka Nacua for the rookie’s first target of the game with 12 seconds left in the first half, Seattle’s led was only 13-7 into the third quarter.
Geno Smith’s fast start
Smith hadn’t looked better on an opening drive in his two seasons as the Seahawks’ starting quarterback than he looked on Sunday’s.
He was 7 for 8 passing — with his only incompletion a brilliantly lofted sideline throw on which rookie Jaxon Smith-Njigba could not get both feet down inside the sideline boundary. Seattle, 5 for 26 on third downs the previous two games against Cleveland and Baltimore, completed all three of its third downs on the first possession against the Rams.
It went 14 plays, 88 yards and almost 8 minutes. It ended with Smith throwing a pass pefectly low to where only Metcalf could grab it in tight coverage on a slant route at the goal line for a touchdown and a 7-0 Seahawks lead.
Metcalf surpassed Hall of Famer Steve Largent and Joey Galloway for the most receiving touchdowns in Seattle history in a player’s first 5 seasons. Metcalf now has 38.
Seattle’s next drive was 15 plays, after Smith connected with Smith-Njigba for 32 yards on third and 10 to begin the march. But after reaching the Rams 26-yard line, receiver Jake Bobo shifted illegally and the next late play call created another penalty, for delay of game. A fourth and 20 became a 54-yard field goal by Myers. Seattle led 10-0.
Smith was 13 for 17 with a Metcalf pass off his chest plate by midway through the second quarter.
Seattle led in total yards 205-19. But because Smith was called for intentional grounding on third and goal from the 11, Seattle got only another field goal, from Myers from 43 yards.
The Seahawks’ 13-0 lead could have — should have — been 21-0 with the way the offense dominated between the 20-yard lines.
Walker left the game in the first half after four rushes for 18 yards, because of an oblique injury. It was rookie Charbonnet’s turn as Seattle’s lead rusher.
He had just three carries, of the 15 total by Seahawks running backs, in that loss to the Rams two months ago. Sunday, Charbonnet had that many by early in the second quarter. He finished with 15 rushes for 47 yards.
Bobby Wagner pep talk
The Seahawks gave the Rams 69 yards on three penalties on L.A.’s second possession. That included a 45-yard pass interference by Julian Love when the safety didn’t need to contact receiver Tutu Atwell because Stafford’s deep pass was well behind him.
But Seattle kept their 7-0 lead when cornerback Tre Brown knocked away Stafford’s pass to Atwell in the back of the end zone on fourth and goal from the 2.
After giving the Rams almost all that drive, coach Pete Carroll called all Seahawks defensive players around Bobby Wagner at the bench. Then the captain and six-time All-Pro middle linebacker gave his teammates a quick, pointed talk.
Three of the Rams’ next four drives after Wagner’s talk went:
- three and out
- three and out
- four and out
- 5 total net yards
The Seahawks’ defense was playing without three-time Pro Bowl safety Jamal Adams for the first time since his season debut Oct. 2 at New York. His residual knee pain from surgery last year to repair a torn quadriceps tendon got worse this past week after he played all 61 snaps in Seattle’s last-play win over Washington the previous weekend.
Tyler Lockett milestones
With his third catch Sunday, on the first drive of the second half that ended in a 62-yard punt by Michael Dickson, Lockett passed Brian Blades for second all-time for Seahawks receptions, 582.
Lockett’s 28 yards at that point Sunday gave him 7,622 for a career, also passing Blades for second in Seattle history for that.
Jason Myers keeps kickin’
Before his miss at the end, Myers had made 20 of 21 field goals since beginning the season 3 for 6.
He made three more Sunday, for 8 out of 8 the last two games and 15 makes in a row overall. Myers extended his Seahawks record with a field goal in 25 consecutive games.
And his 54-yard make in the first half tied him with Steven Hauschka for most Seattle field goals of 50-plus yards (15).
But he missed the one the Seahawks needed most Sunday.
This story was originally published November 19, 2023 at 4:41 PM.
