DANNY ONEIL

O’Neil: Seahawks’ north end zone strikes again in 30-29 win over Rams

Oct 3, 2019, 9:35 PM | Updated: 10:20 pm

Seahawks beat Rams on missed FG...

The Seahawks escaped with a 30-29 win over the Rams after Greg Zuerlein's missed FG. (Getty)

(Getty)

Weird things happen in the north end zone of the Seahawks’ home stadium.

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Snaps get bobbled. Penalties get missed. Interceptions are ruled as touchdowns and field-goal attempts get missed. Repeatedly.

You can add Greg’s leg to the list of odd things to have occurred in the north end zone at CenturyLink Field as the Rams’ kicker missed a 44-yard field-goal attempt on the second-to-last play of a one-point game that was way closer than that.

Seahawks 30, Rams 29, and it really came down to a matter of feet as Greg Zeurlein’s attempt was pushed just to the right – very similarly to the kick Seattle’s Jason Myers missed toward the same end zone at the end of the first half.

So maybe the bad juju evened out. Each team missed a kick in what was an utterly thrilling game with five lead changes, which will offer little consolation to a Rams team that heads back to Los Angeles having lost back-to-back games for just the second time in coach Sean McVey’s three seasons.

If Zeurlein is looking for comfort, he can talk to Jay Feely, who missed three different field goal attempts toward that same end zone in a November 2005 game in which the Seahawks beat the Giants in overtime.

Or check with Tony Romo. He bobbled the snap on what was going to be a game-winning chip shot of a field goal for the Cowboys in a wild-card playoff game that turned out to be the final game of Bill Parcells’ coaching career. The bobbled snap aborted the kick, but Romo picked up the ball and scrambled toward the end zone only to be tackled from behind by Jordan Babineaux, forever cementing his nickname as Big Play Babs.

In 2012, Golden Tate was awarded a touchdown on a play that for all intents and purposes appeared to be an interception, and while that is rightfully blamed on the replacement referees, it’s worth noting that happened in the same end zone where Zeurlein missed his kick on Thursday. So did K.J. Wright’s batting of a ball in Week 3 of 2015 when Kam Chancellor returned from his holdout just in time to knock the ball away from Calvin Johnson just before he reached the end zone. The ball bounced into the end zone where Wright batted it away, and while that should have been a penalty that gave possession to the Lions, it was ruled a touchback and the Seahawks got the victory.

The Rams are only the latest opponent to leave Seattle kicking themselves over what happened in that particular end zone, but given the result of Zeurlein’s final attempt, that’s one more kick the Rams would miss if they were facing north.

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