Devon Witherspoon brilliant, a Coby Bryant ode to Marshawn Lynch, Seahawks beat Cardinals
Devon Witherspoon is taking teammate Jarran Reed’s demand personally. And decisively.
Act, practice and play more like the Seahawks’ old “Legion of Boom,” Super Bowl heyday.
The Pro Bowl cornerback did that — and way more — Sunday.
He put Seattle into the NFC West lead, seven days after it was in last place.
Witherspoon broke up a quick Arizona Cardinals pass on fourth and 1 in the third quarter of a 7-3 game. But it didn’t count. His Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald didn’t like the look of the play and called a rushed time out from the sideline a tick before the snap.
On the re-do, Witherspoon made perhaps the most impressive play of his impressive two NFL seasons.
The (maybe) 6-foot, 185-pound Witherpoon saw Kyler Murray take off running outside and spun out of a block and traffic inside at the line on the 4th and 1 retry. He did what few NFL defenders can: Beat the speedy Murray to the edge. Witherspoon denied the Cardinals quarterback running for the first down. The Pro Bowl cornerback also forced Murray into a rushed, bad pass over all Cardinals.
Coby Bryant intercepted it. The Seahawks safety who won a starting job last month impressing Macdonald with his effort in practices returned the pick 69 yards to the south end zone of Lumen Field, where fans were going nuts. Bryant celebrated his game-breaking touchdown with a leap and a crotch-grab ode to Marshawn Lynch in the end zone. Witherspoon took out two Cardinals, including Murray with a roll on the ground, on Bryant’s return — then got an unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty for taunting Arizona’s players, LOB style.
The Seahawks led 13-3.
“Spoon is resilient as hell,” Seattle Pro Bowl safety Julian Love said. “He pulled him up.”
Leonard Williams’ dominant day — 2 1/2 sacks, four hits on Murray and three tackles for loss and one pass defensed — also led Macdonald’s resurgent defense, and the surging, now-division-leading Seahawks throttled Murray and the Cardinals 16-6 at roaring, wet Lumen Field.
“I had crashed down because I thought it was going to be a ‘duo’ play (a run inside),” Witherspoon said. “But when I saw him pull it (the ball away from the running back) he had to spin out, because he had me out-leveraged.”
That is, to the outside.
“That was crazy. I had just made that play (on the pass breakup). Then, the time out. But then, the pick six.
“So I’m not really mad about it.
“It’s a tough play. He’s just real quick,” Witherspoon said of Murray. “He’s fast. He can out-run if you stutter your feet.”
Bryant said: “I want to give him a huge shout out.”
Macdonald hugged assistants as the game ended. He then turned to the roaring crowd in the west stands behind him and yelled, raising his arms asking for more noise.
“The fans were freakin’ awesome. The 12s were rockin’,” Macdonald said. “The place was, like, bouncin’. It was an awesome atmosphere.
“Just the way we want it.”
His defense gave him all he asked for.
It overcame two sacks Geno Smith took that pushed the offense out of field goal range, plus Smith’s NFL-leading 12th interception he threw into the end zone on the first play of the fourth quarter to cost Seattle more points.
The first home win in more than two months for Seattle (6-5) vaults the team into the division lead for the first time since the first of October. The Seahawks lead the Cardinals (6-5) by head-to-head tie-breaker. A rematch is in two weeks in Arizona, after Seattle plays next weekend at the New York Jets (3-8).
San Francisco (5-6) lost at Green Bay. The Los Angeles Rams (5-6) lost to Philadelphia (9-2) Sunday night.
“Big win,” Smith said of the victory that ended Seattle’s four-game home losing streak.
He completed 22 of 31 passes for 254 yards with a touchdown, the interception and five sacks.
The last time the Seahawks lost five in a row at home was the first five games in the Kingdome during the 1992 season. That team finished 2-14.
“This is a young team, new culture in here, new systems on both sides of the ball, we have to have that consistency, you know?” general manager John Schneider said on the Seahawks radio network’s pregame show Sunday.
They are getting there.
“Three games in a row now we played pretty decent on defense,” Macdonald said, after his unit held the Rams’ offense to 13 points in regulation of an overtime loss, then the 49ers to 17 on their home field last week.
“There is an expectation and standard here throughout the course of our Seahawks history that we’re trying to live up to and build on. So that’s the idea.”
Macdonald was throwing his arms up and slamming them down on the sideline as Cardinals tight end Trey McBride (10 catches, 113 yards) went uncovered in the left flat for 18-yard catch and run in the third quarter. That got Arizona to the Seahawks 48. Macdonald was more mad over that play than any other Sunday.
Then four plays later, Witherspoon would not like Murray get outside. He and Bryant made the play of the game.
“The urgency, the wherewithal, just the competitiveness of fighting for every inch is just...,” Macdonald said of Witherspoon.
“I mean, he does it as good as anybody.”
Bryant: Marshawn Lynch, throw me a dime
Witherspoon’s play allowed Bryant to make good on a promise he’d made to his family before Sunday’s game.
“I talk to my Dad and my brother before every game. And I could sense the energy from those two before the game,” the native of Cleveland who played at the University of Cincinnati said.
“I told them once I get a pick six I was doing that, just because we were playing the Cardinals.”
Lynch did his crotch-grabbing, backward Nestea plunge onto his back into the end zone after his long touchdown run in a Seahawks win at Arizona during a nationally televised primetime game in December 2014. He’d done it other times, too, including on his legendary “Beast Quake” run against New Orleans in the playoff game in Seattle four seasons earlier.
Lynch got fined $11,000 and then $20,000 by the NFL 10 and more years ago for doing it.
“I actually looked to my right, and I saw (Witherspoon) block the dude to my right,” Bryant said. “I was like, ‘Oh, this is my chance to do the Marshawn Lynch right now.
“And I know they are going to fine me. So hopefully, Marshawn, you can see this — and you can show me some love.”
Bryant earned the starting safety job last month after safety Rayshawn Jenkins went on injured reserve. Macdonald rewarded Bryant’s effort in practices since training camp. When Jenkins returned from IR and played Sunday, he was a reserve, third safety. Bryant’s still starting.
After what he did Sunday to win the game, that’s not changing.
Bryant kept the ball he intercepted off Murray and scored with. He was carrying it out of the locker room into Sunday evening.
“It was actually my Mom’s birthday. What a coincidence,” Bryant said. “So I’m going to give it to her, as one of her gifts.”
Ryan Grubb’s call wins
This was another Seahawks game in which their offense was anemic at the start.
The Seahawks’ offense continues to be a problem. It began the game totaling minus-1 yard on their first four rushing attempts. Two of Kenneth Walker’s first three carries went for losses. He broke three tackles just to get a loss of 2 yards on a run in the first quarter.
Among a span of four first-down plays, Seattle had rushes by Walker of minus-4 yards and minus-2, with a holding penalty by tight end Pharaoh Brown. It was once again difficult for offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb to use the game plan he schemed all week while in second and third down with more than 10 yards to go.
Seattle’s first 20 plays totaled just 72 yards. The Cardinals sacked Smith three times in his first dozen drops back to pass.
Then, on the next play after a fourth sack of Smith, Grubb had a perfect play call that changed the game with 2 1/2 minutes left in the first half. Grubb called for Smith to throw a tunnel screen pass inside, to Jaxon Smith-Njigba (six catches, 77 yards), versus Arizona’s linebacker blitz. No defender was in the middle of the field when the wide receiver caught the pass at the line of scrimmage behind two of his linemen.
Smith-Njigba ran free for most of the 46-yard gain, all the way to the Cardinals 4.
“The perfect call,” Smith-Njigba said.
Three plays later, on third and goal after two failed runs by second back Zach Charbonnet, Smith-Njigba ran a quick out route across the goal line behind a clear-out route by DK Metcalf. Smith’s pass to Smith-Njigba of 3 yards was an easy pitch and catch for a 7-3 Seahawks lead.
Seattle maintained that lead into the third quarter, because its defense continued its resurgence against the run. Defensive end Leonard Williams repeatedly dominated Cardinals left guard Evan Brown, Seattle’s center last season. And the Seahawks held Arizona lead back James Connor to 9 yards on four rushes in the first half.
The Cardinals entered Sunday averaging 149 yards rushing per game. The Seahawks held them to 49 yards on 14 rushes.
Right guard switch
Anthony Bradford left the field with assistance injured in the first quarter, unable to put weight on his lower right leg. He left the field seated in a motorized cart.
Rookie Christian Haynes replaced Bradford and finished the game at right guard. The third-round draft choice from Connecticut played up to about 40% of snaps alternating with Bradford in games last month.
Macdonald said after the game X-rays taken at the stadium during the game showed Bradford’s ankle is not broken. But the coach says the team’s draft choice last year out of LSU is likely to miss this coming weekend’s game at the Jets.
That would set up Haynes for his first NFL start.
Bradford has started the first 11 games this season.
This story was originally published November 24, 2024 at 4:24 PM.
