Chancellor’s goal-line save showed Seahawks’ emphasis on finishing

The play that Kam Chancellor made just short of the goal line and the mantra that several other Seahawks teammates recited afterward were indicative of how much Seattle's defense preaches the importance of finishing.

BY BRADY HENDERSON

Oct 9, 2015, 7:44 AM Updated: 9:13 am

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Kam Chanceller's goal-line forced fumble was similar to a play Earl Thomas made late last season. (AP)

(AP)

RENTON – “Give us an inch of grass and we’ll defend it,” cornerback Richard Sherman said Monday night while discussing safety Kam Chancellor’s game-saving forced fumble. “There was an inch left and he defended it.”

More like a foot, but at any rate, the play Chancellor made just short of the goal line and the mantra that Sherman and several other Seahawks teammates recited afterward were indicative of how much Seattle’s defense preaches the importance of finishing.

“It was a perfect play to end a game in a dramatic fashion when you think all is lost and you never, ever, ever assume that it’s over,” coach Pete Carroll told “Brock and Salk” on Tuesday. “We’ve always talked that way. We have a thought here, you’ll hear our guys say that if you have a blade of grass, we’ll defend it. That means all the way down to the last little moment.”

This wasn’t the first time a Seahawks safety forced a fourth-quarter fumble at the goal line to cause a touchback. Earl Thomas made a similar play to help seal a Seahawks win over St. Louis in last year’s regular-season finale. It was more of a chop as opposed to a punch that Thomas used to jar the ball out of the hands of Rams running back Benny Cunningham. But the result was the same, the Seahawks preventing a touchdown thanks to their focus on finishing.

“We have shown the play that Earl made against the Rams, we probably showed that 50 times to our team to show them why you always finish everything,” Carroll said, “and you always believe that something good can still happen.”

There was a play three weeks earlier, in Seattle’s Week-14 over Philadelphia, that Thomas regretted not finishing. He appeared to let up when he could have at least hit Zach Ertz as the tight end dived across the goal line for a touchdown.

“We talked about it and he was like, ‘Yeah, gotta finish that play.’ Then the Rams came up and he finished the play,” Chancellor said of Thomas. “He made a crazy play, the chop. It’s just one of them things that me and Earl, we talked about. I just remembered from his experience and us talking.”

On the play against Philadelphia, Chancellor said Thomas may not have even been able to affect the outcome.

“He wasn’t really that close to him,” Chancellor said, “but just how we play, we know each other and how we play – we finish all the way through.”