O’Neil: Seahawks’ offense, defense reverse roles late in loss to Washington
Nov 5, 2017, 4:57 PM
(AP)
For three quarters, it was Seattle’s offense that looked determined to cost the Seahawks a game.
In the final 2 minutes, it was the Seahawks’ defense that gave it away, giving up back-to-back completions of 30 yards or more and setting up Rob Kelley’s 1-yard touchdown run with 53 seconds left.
Washington 17, Seattle 14, and the score makes it way more normal than the game actually was.
Recap: Seahawks lose | Final stats
The Seahawks missed three field goals in the first half, and though they recorded a safety they failed to score a point on offense until the fourth quarter. Then, just when Seattle’s offense got straightened out, the defense starting rolling over. After holding Washington to 128 yards over the first three quarters, the Seahawks allowed 116 yards to Washington in the fourth.
Oh yeah, the Seahawks were also flagged for 16 penalties, which was only the second-most of any game in franchise history.
And after all that, the Seahawks seemed like they were in position to win after scoring a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns, first on a 10-yard touchdown pass to tight end Luke Willson and then on a 30-yard throw to a wide open Doug Baldwin with 1:38 left in the game.
The throw to Baldwin capped a five-play, 71-yard drive that was so easy it made you wonder what had been so very hard for the first four quarters.
Then Washington went 70 yards in just four plays, needing only 39 seconds as Washington quarterback Kirk Cousins completed a 31-yard pass to Brian Quick and followed that up with a 38-yarder to Josh Doctson, who made a diving reception behind Seattle rookie Shaquill Griffin.
Seattle got the ball to the Washington 38 with about 20 seconds remaining only to have Russell Wilson sacked for an 8-yard loss. The Seahawks ran a final play from the Washington 46, but Wilson’s throw into the end zone was incomplete.
The Seahawks weren’t just half bad on Sunday. They were unambiguously awful on offense for the first three quarters, failing to score a single point.
The only reason the Seahawks weren’t getting shut out was because Bobby Wagner sacked Washington quarterback Kirk Cousins in the end zone in the first quarter, resulting in a safety.
Seahawks kicker Blair Walsh missed three field goals in the first half, first from 44 yards out in the first quarter and then 39 and 49 yards in the second quarter. All missed left, which was fitting considering that not much was going right for Seattle.
Eddie Lacy started at running back, but left the game in the second quarter with a strained groin muscle.
After playing perhaps the best game of his career last week against Houston, quarterback Russell Wilson played one of his worst. He was 14-for-31 passing in the first three quarters for 146 yards. He was also intercepted twice.
He passed for 151 yards in the fourth quarter, though, and it seemed like for the second time in eight days he had summoned enough fourth-quarter magic for the Seahawks to escape with a victory as they did after his touchdown pass to Jimmy Graham with 21 seconds left in last week’s win over Houston.
Except this week, Wilson left Washington with too much time.