Seahawks escape with 13-12 win over Cowboys, get back to .500 heading into bye

ARLINGTON, Texas – It was closer than it needed to be.

Probably closer than it should have been.

But in a season in which the Seahawks have struggled to close games, they’ll take closing out the first half of their schedule by slamming the door shut on the Cowboys in a 13-12 victory at AT&T Stadium.

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Steven Hauschka kicked a 24-yard field goal with 70 seconds left and then the Seahawks’ defense held on in spite of a roughing the passer penalty, never letting the Cowboys get past their own 35 on their final possession.

For the second straight week, Seattle’s defense didn’t allow an opponent to reach the end zone. But Dallas’ Dan Bailey did kick four field goals and for much of the fourth quarter this looked like a game in which the Seahawks might be left kicking themselves.

Too little offense. Too many throws wasted downfield. Too little protection on Hauschka’s initial fourth-quarter field-goal attempt that would have given Seattle a lead, but was blocked instead. And one mistake too many as Russell Wilson had a third-quarter pass tipped by Cowboys defensive end Greg Hardy, who then caught the ball and returned it to Seattle’s 15 and put Dallas in position for the go-ahead field goal.

And as afternoon turned to evening, the Seahawks reached the official midpoint of their season with a startling reality: They had as little offense as a two-win Dallas team that had lost four straight games and was starting a quarterback in Matt Cassel who wasn’t even on the Cowboys’ roster when the season began.

Seattle marched the ball down the field, converting three crucial third downs in a 17-play drive that consumed 5:35. Hauschka’s 24-yard field goal with 1:06 left put Seattle ahead 13-12.

Marshawn Lynch finished with 71 yards rushing, Wilson completed 19 of 30 passes for 210 yards and Seattle won for the third time this season when it had a negative turnover differential.

The Seahawks were missing left tackle Russell Okung, who was inactive because of a sprained ankle. But pass protection wasn’t the problem that so many expected. In fact, Wilson wasn’t sacked in any of the first three quarters.

The problem was that Seattle did not do much of anything offensively. Luke Willson’s second-quarter touchdown catch was Seattle’s only completion of more than 20 yards in the game.

Dallas wasn’t much better. Then again, you wouldn’t expect Dallas to be even with wide receiver Dez Bryant back. He caught one pass after missing the past five games with a foot injury. Cassel started his second game for Dallas, and the Cowboys sputtered through much of it.

Three times they had the ball inside the Seattle 20. Three times Seattle forced the Cowboys to settle for field-goal attempts. Add in Bailey’s 52-yard field goal in the third quarter and that was the sum total of Dallas’ offense.

Seattle got the ball first and scored on its opening possession for the third time in four games.

No secret about Seattle’s approach. The Seahawks handed the ball to Marshawn Lynch four times on the first six plays. In fact, Lynch got the ball on half of the 12 plays during the drive, which ended with the Seahawks settling for a 26-yard field goal.

That continued a trend of red-zone difficulties for the Seahawks. In the previous four games, the Seahawks have scored two touchdowns after getting the ball inside of the opponent’s 20-yard line.

In that same time, Seattle scored six touchdowns on plays of more than 20 yards, essentially skipping the entire red-zone portion of the equation. That proved to be the key to Seattle’s second-quarter touchdown as Willson scored on a 22-yard catch with 5:29 left in the half.

This season, Seattle’s offense has scored more touchdowns from outside the opponent’s 20-yard line (seven) than from inside the opponent’s 20-yard line (five).

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