Seahawks frustrated with offense, officiating in loss to Saints

NEW ORLEANS — A tired defense finally faded and a Seahawks offense that only came to life late couldn’t get the final 10 yards it needed.

That added up to an especially frustrating loss for the Seahawks here Sunday, 25-20 to the Saints.

The game ended with Jermaine Kearse catching a pass in the back of the end zone out of bounds. The play had started from the 10-yard line with two seconds left.

Seattle falls to 4-2-1 in what was its second straight road game — Seattle tied last week against Arizona.

After Seattle led most of the game, the Saints took the lead on a 2-yard pass from Drew Brees to Brandin Cooks with 12:24 remaining. But a pass on a two-point play failed, leaving the Saints ahead just 22-17.

Typifying a day of frustration with the officiating, the Seahawks argued for pass interference as Willie Snead cleared out Jeremy Lane with a pick to open up the room for Cooks. But the officials didn’t call it.

At that point, the Saints had a 324-224 edge in yards and 31:31 to 16:05 in time of possession.

Seattle then moved 72 yards in 13 plays, its most sustained march of the game. But the Seahawks were stopped at the 3-yard line and forced to settle for a 21-yard field goal by Steven Hauschka with 6:38 left to cut the lead to 22-20.

The Saints then drove for a field goal that forced Seattle to need a touchdown at the end.

Seattle vehemently protested a holding call on Richard Sherman on a third down that kept the drive alive, and then what they felt was missed pass interference on a later third down when Snead appeared to clear out Lane again to allow Cooks to break open.

Later in the drive, Seahawks coach Pete Carroll was livid when the Saints were not ruled to have gone out of bounds on a play when Kelcie McCray slammed Tim Hightower at the 10. That forced the Seahawks to use their final timeout.

That eventually led to a 41-yard Wil Lutz field goal that gave the Saints a 25-20 lead with 1:57 to go.

Seattle got to the New Orleans 18-yard-line on a 27-yard slant pass to Doug Baldwin.

After a spike, Seattle had 16 seconds left. A pass to C.J. Prosise took it to the 10, with Wilson then spiking the ball setting up the final incompletion to Kearse.

Seattle had 161 yards at halftime, but the trick play double pass by Tanner McEvoy to Prosise accounted for 43, and a last-ditch drive before the half ran out accounted for 45 more.

Otherwise, Seattle had three drives in the first half that ended in two punts and an interception, with the running game again nonexistent — Seattle had just three yards rushing on a shockingly low three rushing attempts in the first half, all by Christine Michael.

Wilson was 11 of 13 for 126 yards in the first half, but one of the incompletions was the interception that the Saints turned into a touchdown and turned the game around.

Seattle ran only 19 plays in the first half, six on the last-ditch drive when it made sense to throw every down.

Still, that meant the Seahawks had just three runs on 13 plays to that point.

The Seahawks doubled the amount of runs on the first six plays of the third quarter, appearing determined to make a point about the running game. Michael had 34 yards on the first four carries to get Seattle into Saints’ territory before the drive stalled, with the Seahawks settling for a field goal that made it 17-13.

Seattle would have to settle for another field goal in the fourth quarter on a day when the offense seemed to move only in urgent situations and did so against a defense that came in allowing the most points per game in the NFL.

How much the defense wore down appeared evident late as Hightower ended up breaking the 100-yard mark despite not carrying the ball until late in the first quarter.

The defense appeared content to win the game by itself early with Cliff Avril’s force of Mark Ingram fumble leading to Earl Thomas’ 34-yard fumble recovery for a TD in the first quarter.

The defense later held the Saints to field goals twice on drives of 83 and 74 that got inside the 5-yard-line.

Avril continued to play out of his mind, forcing the fumble and also creating an early sack that Frank Clark got the credit for, and also batting down a pass, all in the first half.

Brock Coyle was a surprise starter at strongside linebacker where the team continues to play without regular Mike Morgan and Kevin Pierre-Louis due to injuries. Cassius Marsh started there last week but the Seahawk need him as a pass rusher even more with Michael Bennett out.

The defense came up with another pivotal goal-line stand in the third quarter after the Saints drove to the 1.

The Saints got the first down after McCray and Sherman teamed up to stop New Orleans tight end Coby Fleener just before he reached the end zone.

A Hightower run was stopped for no gain on first down. On second down Wagner covered Hightower well enough out of the backfield that Brees essentially threw the ball away.

On third down, Athyba Rubin burst through the line unblocked to tackle Hightower for a two-yard-loss. That forced the Saints to settle for a field goal and Seattle kept a 17-16 lead.

But the Saints finally broke through for a touchdown in the fourth quarter that proved to be the difference.