In typical Seahawks fashion, they sure didn’t make things easy on themselves.
But once again, Seattle came up with a last-minute defensive stand to escape with a nailbiting victory.
The Seahawks built a 17-point lead and then fended off a fourth-quarter comeback by the Washington Football Team, using back-to-back sacks in the closing moments to hold on for a 20-15 road win Sunday at FedEx Field.
Seattle seemed well on its way to a comfortable victory after running back Carlos Hyde broke a 50-yard touchdown run early in the second half to extend the Seahawks’ lead to 20-3. That felt like an insurmountable margin, given the struggles of Washington’s anemic offense and how Seattle’s defense was playing.
But just when the game appeared out of reach, the Seahawks’ offense went cold and Washington’s offense suddenly heated up. Backup quarterback Dwayne Haskins led Washington on back-to-back touchdown drives, cutting the deficit to 20-15 midway through the fourth quarter. And then after another three-and-out from the Seahawks, Washington got the ball back with a chance at a game-winning touchdown.
Haskins led Washington all the way to the Seattle 23-yard line, but L.J. Collier and Carlos Dunlap came up with back-to-back sacks to stall the drive and help the Seahawks survive yet another white-knuckle finish. It was the fourth time this season that Seattle won a game with a defensive stop in the final minute.
The victory clinched the Seahawks’ eighth playoff berth in the last nine seasons. And with the Rams’ stunning loss to the Jets later in the day, Seattle regained sole possession of first place atop the NFC West. The Seahawks can clinch the NFC West title for the first time since 2016 with a victory over the Rams in their showdown this coming Sunday in Seattle.
Here are some key storylines and takeaways following the Seahawks’ latest dramatic win:
PASS RUSH COMES THROUGH TO SAVE THE DAY
After holding Washington to just three points through the first three quarters, the Seahawks suddenly were struggling to stop backup quarterback Dwayne Haskins and the Washington offense.
Haskins & Co. had sprung to life, marching downfield for back-to-back fourth-quarter touchdowns. And in the closing minutes, Washington got the ball back with a shot at a go-ahead touchdown drive.
Prior to that final Washington possession, the Seahawks’ pass rush had been relatively quiet. Seattle had struggled to generate pressure on Haskins, managing only one sack in the game’s first 56 minutes.
But when the Seahawks needed it most, their pass rush rose to the occasion and helped save the day. Seattle came up with three sacks on Washington’s final drive, including back-to-back takedowns from L.J. Collier and Carlos Dunlap that helped seal the victory.
The first of those three late-game sacks came from rookie Alton Robinson, who burst off the edge to force a strip-sack fumble that resulted in an 11-yard loss. However, Washington ultimately recovered from the ensuing long-yardage situation, with help from a controversial unnecessary roughness penalty on Seahawks linebacker K.J. Wright.
But the next two sacks proved too much for Washington to overcome.
After Washington drove to the Seattle 23-yard line with less than 1:30 remaining, Collier came off the edge on second-and-10 and shoved Haskins to the ground for a 5-yard loss. And on the next play, Dunlap bullrushed right tackle Morgan Moses to the ground before soaring through the air to take down Haskins for a spectacular 9-yard sack. The back-to-back sacks forced an ensuing fourth-and-24 desperation heave from Haskins, which the Seahawks knocked down to escape with the win.
Dunlap’s third-down sack marked the second time this season that he’s had what essentially amounted to a game-sealing sack. The other instance came in Seattle’s Week 11 win over Arizona, when Dunlap brought down Kyler Murray on a fourth-down sack in the final minute.
Since being acquired from Cincinnati in a midseason trade, Dunlap has five sacks in six games with the Seahawks. The Pro Bowl edge rusher was held out of last week’s game against the Jets because of a sprained foot he suffered in Week 12 against Philadelphia. He played just 26 snaps in his return to action Sunday, but came up with one of the game’s biggest plays.
Seattle finished the game with four sacks, continuing a dramatic turnaround for its once-lifeless pass rush. After totaling just nine sacks in their first six games, the Seahawks have 31 sacks over their last eight games. Their 31 sacks since Week 8 are five more than any other team in the league over that span. For the season, Seattle is now tied for sixth in the league with 40 sacks.
REED HAS BEEN A REVELATION IN THE SECONDARY
The Seahawks’ acquisition of cornerback D.J. Reed in August went largely under the radar, especially compared to their more splashy offseason additions of safety Jamal Adams and cornerback Quinton Dunbar.
Reed, who suffered a torn pectoral earlier in the summer, still had months of recovery ahead when he was waived by the 49ers with an injury designation and then subsequently claimed by Seattle. Given his injury situation, the diminutive third-year cornerback out of Kansas State didn’t figure to be a major part of the Seahawks’ secondary this season.
But since coming off the non-football injury list in Week 8, Reed has been a godsend for a Seattle defensive backfield that’s dealt with a slew of injuries.
Reed filled in for an injured Ugo Amadi at nickelback in his first two games and intercepted San Francisco quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo in his Seahawks debut. Reed then moved to outside cornerback, where he has started four of the last five games because of injuries to Shaquill Griffin, Quinton Dunbar and Tre Flowers.
Reed had an exceptional performance Sunday against Washington, highlighted by a third-quarter interception where he broke from his zone coverage area and jumped in front of receiver Cam Sims for the takeaway. The 5-foot-9 Reed also had three pass breakups, including a spectacular diving deflection on a sideline route in the first quarter.
On plays in which he was the primary defender in coverage, Reed gave up just four catches on 10 targets for 15 yards, according to Pro Football Focus. He did a particularly good job against Terry McLaurin, limiting the standout Washington receiver to just two catches on five targets for seven yards.
Reed posted a superb PFF defensive grade of 90.5 on Sunday. He has a 72.8 defensive grade since debuting for Seattle in Week 8, which ranks 11th among all cornerbacks in the league with at least 275 snaps over that span.
Going forward, Reed’s impact became even more important with this week’s news that Dunbar will need season-ending surgery. But even if Dunbar had returned at some point later this season, there was no guarantee he would’ve reclaimed his starting job, given how well Reed has been playing.
And as Reed has been a revelation at right cornerback in recent weeks, Griffin has returned from injury and anchored the left cornerback spot.
Since returning in Week 12, Griffin has allowed just nine catches on 18 targets for 45 yards. He has a 78.1 PFF defensive grade over the last four weeks, which is tied with Reed for sixth-best among all cornerbacks with at least 150 snaps over that span.
Griffin had two pass breakups Sunday and a diving interception in the red zone off a deflection from safety Quandre Diggs. He posted an 85.5 PFF defensive grade and allowed just two catches on four targets for 10 yards.
For much of the season, the Seahawks’ secondary was plagued by injuries, subpar play and communication issues. But with Reed emerging as a playmaker and Griffin starting to resemble last year’s Pro Bowl form, the cornerback duo has helped provide some stability to Seattle’s defensive backfield.
MIXED RESULTS FOR THE OFFENSE
It’s difficult to evaluate how the Seahawks’ offense performed overall on Sunday, as there was such a sharp contrast between the first 32 minutes and the final 28 minutes.
Seattle scored 20 points on its first five possessions, capped by Carlos Hyde’s 50-yard touchdown run less than two minutes into the second half. It was quite a feat to reach the 20-point mark with nearly an entire half still left to play, given that Washington was allowing just 21.2 points per game and had surrendered more than 20 points just twice in its last eight contests. At that point, the Seahawks had amassed 253 total yards, at a clip of 7.2 yards per play.
But after Hyde’s touchdown, Seattle did almost nothing offensively for the rest of the game. The Seahawks were held scoreless on their final four non-kneeldown possessions, which consisted of an interception and three three-and-outs. Seattle totaled just 49 yards on those four possessions, while averaging just 3.5 yards per play.
One difference was that Washington’s stout run defense did a much better job after the Hyde touchdown run. Prior to Hyde’s long touchdown, the Seahawks’ running backs had combined for 69 yards on 13 carries for an average of 5.3 yards per attempt. But after Hyde’s touchdown, Seattle running backs totaled just five yards on five carries.
Miscues were another factor in the Seahawks’ second-half offensive struggles. Seattle drove inside the Washington 40-yard line early in the fourth quarter, but the drive ended when Russell Wilson was intercepted on a pass that standout defensive end Montez Sweat deflected into the air. And on the Seahawks’ following possession, Hyde dropped a third-down pass that would’ve moved the chains.
But even with Seattle’s offense going quiet for most of the second half, it wasn’t a bad offensive performance overall, considering the quality of opponent.
Led by a dominant pass rush, Washington entered the week ranked fourth in Football Outsiders’ defensive DVOA ratings and hadn’t given up more than 17 points in each of its last four games. The Seahawks managed to score 20 points, which is only slightly below Washington’s season average for points allowed. And Seattle averaged 5.7 yards per play, which is higher than Washington’s season average of 5.0 yards allowed per play.
In an attempt to neutralize Washington’s pass rush, the Seahawks employed a quick-passing attack that focused on underneath routes and allowed Wilson to get the ball out before pressure arrived. Wilson averaged just 5.1 intended air yards per pass attempt, which was his lowest mark since Pro Football Reference began tracking the stat at the beginning of the 2018 season.
The upside of the quick-passing approach was that it helped keep Wilson clean. Despite Seattle playing without starting right tackle Brandon Shell, Washington didn’t record a single sack and managed just three quarterback hits. It was just the second time all season that Washington and its quartet of first-round pass rushers finished a game without a sack. That was certainly an accomplishment against such a fearsome defensive front, which entered the game ranked fourth in the NFL with 3.1 sacks per game.
However, the downside of the quick-passing approach was the lack of explosive plays in the passing game. Wilson had just three completions of 10-plus yards, and no completions longer than 15 yards. He averaged just 4.48 yards per pass attempt, which was the fourth-lowest mark of his career.
It was an encouraging sign that the Seahawks adjusted to their opponent and opted to use a quick-passing attack Sunday, as opposed to two weeks ago when Seattle stubbornly kept trying to take deep shots against a Giants defense that was clearly tailoring its approach to taking away those types of plays. But at the same time, one could argue the Seahawks leaned too far the other way this time, with an ultra-conservative passing approach that featured almost no shots downfield against Washington.
With another dominant pass rush looming in next week’s showdown against the Rams, it will be interesting to see how Seattle attacks the defense.
It would certainly make sense to go with the quick-passing approach again. But can offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer also find ways to mix in an occasional downfield pass, without putting Wilson in too much harm’s way from all-world defensive tackle Aaron Donald & Co.? Yardage could be at a premium against such an elite defense, so a few explosive passing plays could go a long way toward helping the Seahawks earn a division-clinching victory.
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