Bobby Wagner, Leonard Williams, Seahawks see defense with NFL’s flags as nearly impossible
Bobby Wagner paused at the question. Then he shook his head.
He’s a six-time All-Pro linebacker. He’s played in the NFL 12 years. Yet even with that experience he cannot understand how one can legally play defense in this league and still excel.
The News Tribune asked Wagner inside the Seahawks’ nearly silent locker room at Dallas’ AT&T Stadium late Thursday night following Seattle’s over-officiated, 41-35 loss to the Cowboys: Are defensive players basically handcuffed in the NFL the way receivers and offenses get favored in officials’ judgments and penalty calls?
“Man,” Wagner said. “I don’t really know how to answer that question without getting fined.”
He smiled. The league often fines players, coaches or any team employee who publicly criticizes its officiating.
“The refs have a job to do,” the veteran captain said, diplomatically, “and they call what they see. And, you know, we do our best.
“Do I feel like they make — do I feel like the league makes the game hard for the defenders? I do. For both sides. I’m pretty sure Dallas defenders feel the exact same way.
“But, we’re professionals. And it’s on us to adjust to what they are calling.”
In the Seahawks’ fourth loss in five games, they called everything. Including penalties that didn’t happen.
Wagner got called for pass interference in the second half Thursday night for contacting a tight end AFTER Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott’s throw had passed his receiver. The ball well wide of him and was obviously incomplete.
Then the official threw the flag, from the sideline into the middle of field, about 30 yards away from the play.
Seahawks’ season-long problem
The Seahawks, the NFL’s most penalized team with 91 in 12 games, had 10 against Dallas giving away 130 yards.
The Cowboys had nine penalties that gave Seattle 127 yards and five first downs.
Referee Clete Blakeman was announcing so many fouls, he appeared on national television more than the game’s quarterbacks who had the ball on every play.
The officials were simply just too involved in the otherwise thrilling game.
Six of Seattle’s penalties on defense gifted the Cowboys’ drive-extending first downs. Four such penalties to first downs came on one Dallas drive, including Wagner’s phantom pass interference. In that same Cowboys possession Seahawks cornerback Tre Brown got an illegal-contact penalty for reaching and touching a Dallas receiver coming out of his double move on an incomplete pass to the end zone.
The drive-extending fouls resulted in the Cowboys’ touchdown run by Tony Pollard. That cut Seattle’s lead to 28-27 in the third quarter.
By the fourth quarter, Dallas receivers were simply turning to Seahawks defenders and running at them to initiate contact once a pass from Prescott was in flight. That’s what CeeDee Lamb did on his go route down the left sideline against Riq Woolen. Lamb fell down over himself trying to run into Woolen. The Seahawks cornerback got the 35-yard pass-interference penalty.
That flag got the Cowboys from their own 31-yard line to the Seahawks 34. Dallas then kicked a field got and cut Seattle’s lead to 35-30. And the Cowboys were on their way to their 14-point fourth quarter that won the game.
“With the refs against us at the same time, that didn’t really help the game,” Brown told Ian Furness of Fox13 Seattle television in the locker room following Seattle’s loss.
“It’s very hard. DB is one of if not the hardest position to play. What more can we do, you know what I mean? Seems like you can’t even be yourself out there without having to worry about a flag.
Seahawks defensive tackle Leonard Williams was asked after the game: How difficult is it to be a defensive player in the NFL today with how the game is officiated:
“That’s a great question,” the veteran Seattle acquired from the New York Giants last month in a trade said. “I’ve already gotten fined and tried to fight a fine earlier this year against the Niners.
“They definitely protect guys that score. They really tailor the game to the fans. Sometimes people want to see the offense a lot of times. They protect the quarterback, the receivers and things like that. We have to be extra careful on defense.
At the same time, we don’t make the rules. We just have to live by them.”
To be clear, all season the Seahawks’ defensive backs have been “handsy,” the term their coach Pete Carroll used Friday. Woolen in particular has often grabbed receivers, and now officials seem to be anticipating it.
The Seahawks’ reputations precede them.
And to be clear, the officiating was all over both teams Thursday night. Seahawks and Cowboys defensive players alike looked around following passes hitting the ground as if they were expecting more flags to rain on their heads.
They often did. The 20 called fouls made it only the 12th game in NFL history with 250 or more yards in penalties.
Immediately after the game, Carroll barely hid his contempt for how the game was called — and where it has long been headed in a league that strives to entertain fans, bettors and fantasy players with offense.
Carroll said he had a talk with the officials on the field during Thursday’s game about how they were making it nearly impossible for defensive players to cover receivers and defend passes.
“I just don’t see the way this is going. It’s not going in the right direction,” Carroll said. “We’re all waiting to see ‘Is it a call?’ I mean, that’s what we’re waiting for, to see, ‘Did the official make a call here? Oh, he didn’t call it. Oh, he didn’t call it.’”
Carroll inferred the issue is with the NFL headquarters in New York and the officiating department dictating how game officials interpret plays.
“There’s latitude that we need to give these guys,” Carroll said of game officials. “They know the game. They know how to make these calls. But they can’t call everything when there’s a little “this’s and a that.” Particularly when it doesn’t affect the play.
“I’m not saying I’ve got all the answers, either. I’m not saying that. I’m not saying that at all. I’m just saying that I think the game needs to be adjusted because there’s too much emphasis on those situations.”
Carroll said it’s something he is going to address with the league’s executives in the offseason. The NFL will listen. The Seahawks’ 72-year-old coach is the league’s oldest head man, and he has clout among peers and in league headquarters.
The field goal delay
Carroll, kicker Jason Myers and the Seahawks were also fuming over a penalty Blakeman’s crew called for delay of game as Seattle was in formation to kick a 37-yard field goal that would have tied the game at 10 in the first half.
The officials switched out the offensive footballs for the so-called “K balls,” the ones used for punts and kicks. When they did it, they also moved the ball spotted from the center of the field to the right hash mark.
That is supposed to, by rule, result in a resetting of the 40-second play clock. That’s what Myers was asking for on the field when he was raising his palms to the roof of the stadium and pumping his arm, the officials’ signal for a re-set play clock.
They didn’t reset. Myers assumed officials had, and went ahead preparing for the kick when it expired.
Carroll was yelling from the sidelines at Blakeman and his crew to reset the play clock. By the time he then yelling down the sideline for a time out instead, the clock expired.
Seattle got a 5-yard penalty. Myers missed the ensuing try from 42 yards. He pushed the kick a few feet wide right of the upright, as if it would have been good from 37 yards.
The Seahawks sure could have used those three points at the end of the game. They would have been about 10 yards from a try at a tying field goal on their final drive that failed instead of needing a touchdown in a 41-35 game.
Blakeman told a pool reporter through the NFL: “Through this process, there was no real delay to either the scrimmage ball going out or the kicking ball coming in. It was just a normal process. ...
“We felt like there wasn’t any undue delay in any way. It was a normal procedure.”
Not to Carroll. He was still fuming about it Friday morning.
“The ball got re-spotted, so you are supposed to jack the clock back up again when that happens,” Carroll said. “So that’s what we were grousing about. ...
“The officials knew what happened. They knew what happened there.”
Injury updates
Carroll said the team didn’t know Friday how severe or what kind of ankle injury linebacker Jordyn Brooks has. He left the game at Dallas in the first half. Devin Bush played for him the rest of the game.
The coach said running back Zach Charbonnet banged his knee into the Dallas turf while getting tackled in the backfield on one of Seattle’s three failed fourth-down plays in the fourth quarter. He should be better in a few days.
The Seahawks play next at San Francisco Dec. 10. It’s unknown if they will have lead running back Kenneth Walker back for that game. He’s missed the last two games with an oblique injury.
This story was originally published December 1, 2023 at 1:40 PM.
