Riq Woolen responds with ‘career hit’ after Pete Carroll goes John Wooden with Seahawks CB
From being benched to regaining his job to delivering a game-ending, “career hit,” Riq Woolen just had himself a week.
Tackling had been one of the issues coaches cited before they took the 2022 Pro Bowl cornerback out of his starting spot on the right side. Mike Jackson started for Woolen in Seattle’s home win over Philadelphia Dec. 18.
Then coach Pete Carroll continued the competition for the job during practices last week. Woolen won it back for the Seahawks’ game at Tennessee last weekend.
He nearly had an interception that he likely would have returned for a touchdown against the Titans. Then with 11 seconds remaining in the game Seattle had to win to stay in NFC playoff contention, Woolen delivered a blow that likely has reestablished him as Seattle’s starting right cornerback for the rest of this season, and into next.
On the previous play inside the final minute of the game, Seahawks teammate Dre’Mont Jones had sacked Ryan Tannehill. The clock continued to tick down as the Titans’ receivers had to run back from 45-plus yards down the field to the line of scrimmage, to get set for the next snap. Woolen was jogging from his own 20-yard line back up toward midfield.
Woolen was still moving toward the line in something of a running start as Tannehill got the next snap. Tannehill threw a short, quick pass to receiver Colton Dowell, who had run an out-breaking route to the sideline near midfield. The Titans’ plan was to get out of bounds with Dowell’s reception to stop the clock.
Woolen ran up on Dowell. He spun and drilled all his weight and momentum into Dowell’s upper body. The Titans receiver twisted and blew backwards, like a tiny tree in a big storm, and careened across the sideline boundary while losing yardage.
Because Woolen knocked Dowell so hard backwards, the sideline official ruled Dowell’s forward progress stopped in bounds. Woolen and teammate Julian Love both mimicked the official winding the clock by windmilling their arms as the official windmilled his.
That’s how the rest of the game clock expired before Tennessee could get off another snap. Seattle won 20-17 to improve to 8-7 and seize the final playoff spot in the NFC with two regular-season games remaining.
The first of those is Sunday against Pittsburgh (8-7) at Lumen Field (1:05 p.m., channel 13).
As his teammates celebrated the win in the middle of the field in Nashville, Woolen went to the ground. The official NFL statistics recap of the play noted “SEA-T. Woolen was injured during the play.”
“Riq had a career hit right there,” Carroll said, chuckling, on his weekly radio show with KIRO AM Tuesday.
“He hit the guy so hard that he thought he was hurt, himself.”
Carroll laughed.
“He got up and was winding the clock, and then he realized ‘I must have hit that guy REALLY hard. I’ve got to go back down,’” the coach said.
“By the time I got out there, I’m helping him up. He’s still laying on the turf. But he had a big smile on his face. So, it was really fun.
“I love that play. Because when you see the guy wind the clock you, then you know that they don’t have a chance.
“It’s kind of like a walk-off shot.”
Like a video-game punch
Wednesday, before he practiced in preparation to play the Steelers, Woolen said still moving into position at the snap of that final play helped him.
“It did, for sure. It gave me some extra momentum,” he said.
“It’s probably one of the biggest hits I’ve had in my career. ...I just made a play that presented itself,” he said.
His very-20-something explanation for going down and appearing injured?
“It was just, my energy got drained, that’s all,” he said.
“You know in those fighting (video) games when your hardest punch in a fight game uses your energy? That’s how it was. I gave him one of my hardest punches, and I just lost energy.”
Woolen said it was like the Nintendo Super Smash Bros. and EA Fight Night the 24-year-old cornerback played “when I was younger.”
Riq Woolen, meet John Wooden
Woolen got his one-game benching after Carroll called out him and safety Jamal Adams for not playing the 49ers’ favorite plays as coached, in Seattle’s loss at San Francisco Dec. 10.
Adams hasn’t played in Seattle’s two games since. He is grinding through knee pain from his surgery to repair a quadriceps tendon he tore in September 2022. He practiced Wednesday for the first time in weeks, as a limited participant.
Carroll said benching a player can be the ultimate motivator. He invoked the words of UCLA basketball coaching icon John Wooden to make that point this week.
Carroll bases much of his coaching and leadership philosophy on Wooden’s teachings and the legend’s Pyramid of Success.
“Coach Wooden used to say, you know: ‘The bench is the coach’s best friend,’” Carroll said on KIRO-AM radio Tuesday.
“That competitive part of it, sometimes when you can have the availability of it, there ain’t nothing like it. Guys want to play. You get guys fighting for spots, they just get better..
“Coach knew what he was talkin’ about.”
Last weekend at Tennessee, Woolen allowed two completions for just 16 yards in four targets of him. He knocked down a pass.
For the season, Woolen has allowed 38 completions in 68 attempts with two interceptions. That’s a completion rate allowed of 56.7 and passer rating against of 73.4.
Last season when he made the Pro Bowl as a rookie wonder and fifth-round draft choice, the former University of Texas-San Antonio wide receiver co-lead the NFL with six interceptions while allowing 34 completions in 66 targets for a 51.55 completion rate allowed and a passer rating against of 48.7.
Woolen, Tre Brown and Mike Jackson allowed just 43 yards passing by Tennessee.
The problem for Seattle was, again, defending the run. The Titans rushed for 162 yards. The Steelers will likely test the Seahawks to see if they have fixed any of that issue by this weekend.
Carroll has said multiple times this season Woolen’s issue has been less about pass coverage and more about tackling. Woolen’s rate of missed tackles has doubled from his rookie year to this season, from 7.4% (five missed with 63 tackles) to 14.3% (eight missed with 48 stops). That’s per Pro Football Reference.
Woolen said he didn’t feel last week winning back his starting job was any more of a challenge than life as usual in the NFL.
“I just went out there and played my role,” he said.
“And, shoot, I got more playing time and just went out there and played to the best of my abilities and helped my team out.”
This story was originally published December 28, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
