By Gregg Bell
The News Tribune
Bobby Wagner was yelling.
His fellow All-Pro, Jamal Adams, was pointing angrily and shaking his head.
That was while New York’s Alfred Morris was walking in all alone, no Seahawks defender within 5 yards of him, on a 6-yard touchdown pass. Then Chris Carson lost a pass to the Giants for an interception and field goal. The 4-7 Giants had scored 17 unanswered points to take a 17-5 lead in the fourth quarter on a Sunday that was the ugliest the NFC West-leading Seahawks had produced all year.
If they’d been watching on television the Seahawks would have done what you were doing: yelling — or throwing things — at it.
It was so bad for Seattle that in the fourth quarter the defense burned a needed time out while defending a field goal. Russell Wilson threw an accidental pass, incomplete. It fell out of his hand forward as he was scrambling yet again.
Then: Wilson threw 28 yards off a scramble to Chris Carson for a touchdown. On an ensuing third and 5, the Seahawks’ defense forced an incomplete pass from 34-year-old Giants fill-in Colt McCoy and a punt.
With 1:48 and two time outs left, starting at his own 20-yard line, Wilson completed a 15-yard pass to DK Metcalf. On third and 10 though, the Giants’ looping pass-rush stunt beat the left side of Seattle’s offensive line for a sack of Wilson, the fifth on the day. On fourth and 18, Wilson scrambled and threw a desperate pass intended for Metcalf but into a sea of jerseys and hands incomplete.
That’s how the Seahawks squandered their division lead in a 17-12 loss to the sub-.500 GIants at empty — and quieter than ever — Lumen Field.
“That’s not our standard. That’s not Seahawks football,” Adams spat out afterward.
“I don’t know what it was. I do know what it was: We weren’t doing our jobs.
“We didn’t do our job. …
“I’m pissed off.”
He wasn’t alone.
Another baffling and soft play choice on fourth down and short changed the game in the second half for Seattle (8-4).
So much for the soft stretch in the Seahawks’ schedule.
With the Rams winning at Arizona, the Seahawks and Los Angeles are both 8-4 atop the NFC West. The Rams own the tie-breaker for now for beating Seattle last month. They meet again in three weeks, Dec. 27, in Seattle.
The Seahawks have some issues to fix before then.
Wilson finished 27 of 43 passing for 263 yards, the touchdown to Carson and the interception through Carson’s hands. The one-time front-runner for the NFL MVP award often held onto the ball too long while he got sacked. He had a pedestrian passer rating of 78. He also lost a fumble on a bungled snap from center Ethan Pocic on a third and short, one of Seattle’s two turnovers.
“Throwing the ball was a struggle. We took some monster losses in the sacks,” coach Pete Carroll said of New York’s five sacks.
“He felt like he was taking long looks down the field.”
McCoy, starting for injured Daniel Jones, completed 13 for 22 for 105 yards in a conservative game plan for the NFC East-leading Giants (5-7).
The Seahawks, once the league’s top offense, didn’t score a touchdown until deep into the fourth quarter. Seattle gained 327 yards, well below its season average of 395, to New York’s 290.
Next up: the winless New York Jets (0-12) who lost late at home Sunday to Las Vegas.
As Sunday showed, there are no gimmies for Seattle.
“This is a tough loss,” Adams said. “We need to figure it out.
“I guarantee we will figure it out.”
What’s with fourth down?
Seattle’s offense was just too cute for fourth and short.
Again.
For the third time in two games play caller Brian Schottenheimer did not simply had the ball to healthy-again Chris Carson, who had gained 2,381 yards the previous two seasons, to get the needed 1 yard.
Late in the third quarter with the Seahawks trailing 8-5 thanks to three long runs and a startling touchdown by the Giants moments earlier, Schottenheimer called a bootleg pass on fourth and 1 at midfield. Wilson immediately felt heavy pressure by the Giants’ huge defensive front. The pass and play, a desperate flip to the covered Carson, went awry for the turnover on downs that preceded Morris’ TD and a 14-5 hole for Seattle.
Twice in Seattle’s previous game, a win at Philadelphia, the Seahawks didn’t give the ball to Carson and failed — including on a cutesy fly-sweep run by receiver David Moore near the goal line that lost yards.
It’s not that hard. Give the ball to a back that gained 2,400 yards the previous two seasons, the one who the Seahawks have been so glad to get back the last two games after his month out with a sprained foot. To gain 1 yard.
Ryan Neal. Again.
One of the best Seattle finds since coffee continued to perk up the Seahawks.
Ryan Neal was again destined for a third season on the practice squad and wanted to quit a couple months ago. A sympathetic fiancee encouraged him to stick with pro football.
Then Adams strained his groin in the third game this season. Neal, up from the practice squad, replaced Adams late in that September game against Dallas. In his first game he intercepted Dak Prescott in the end zone on the game’s next-to-last play to ensure Seattle’s 38-31 victory. The next week, in his first NFL start, he intercepted the first pass thrown at him, on the first third down at Miami. That set up Chris Carson’s early touchdown in another one-score win for the Seahawks.
Sunday, with Adams weeks back from injury, Neal was again the sixth defensive back for third down and long-yardage situations. In the first quarter, on the Giants’ only long and effective drive of the half, Adams tipped McCoy’s pass on third down up into the arms of teammate Quandre Diggs, just as coaches teach in daily practice drills. Diggs interception in the red zone kept Seattle ahead 3-0 when at least a tying Giants field goal seemed imminent.
Then late in the half, Neal through New York’s line on Seattle’s punt-return team and blocked Riley Dixon’s punt from his own end zone. It would have been a touchdown for the Seahawks had rookie running back DeeJay Dallas not been overeager pursuing the loose ball. He rammed into it, lost control of it and pushed it across the back line of the end zone for a safety instead.
Seattle’s 5-0 lead into the third quarter was the direct result of those two plays by Neal.
Yes, he deserves a new contract for 2021.
Neal left the game in the second half with a hip injury. The severity of it wasn’t immediately known.
