A lot went wrong for the Seattle Seahawks in their disappointing home loss to the New York Giants, but they still had a shot to win the game late.
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Trailing by three in the final minutes, Seattle drove down the field and attempted a game-tying field goal, but it was blocked and returned for a touchdown that sealed Seattle’s fate in a 29-20 defeat.
Three costly mistakes made by the Seahawks stood out in particular to Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk as plays where the team beat itself and it changed the game. They discussed what those were Monday morning.
“They were bad yesterday. Mike Macdonald said it, Geno Smith said it, everyone who watched them said it. There is no doubt that they played a bad game yesterday,” Mike Salk said. “… But, man, there’s three, four plays, Brock, that if you handle them differently (could have changed the game), and they’re not like the other team beat you for a touchdown, they’re mental decisions, they’re concentration issues.”
DK’s fumble
The first costly play came early in the third quarter. With the game tied at 10, the Seattle defense forced a punt on the opening drive of the half. After picking up 40 yards on their first two plays, the Seahawks looked to receiver DK Metcalf and he fumbled after catching a 10-yard pass. New York recovered, ending Seattle’s scoring threat just outside of the red zone. Four plays later, Giants quarterback Daniel Jones connected with Darius Slayton for a 30-yard TD pass to go up 17-10.
“You come out of halftime (after) you kind of slog through the first half where they dominated time of possession, they ran the ball, you hardly had any (offensive) plays whatsoever, and then you get a stop because they dropped the ball on third down, and you’re moving right down the field,” Brock Huard said. “… You could see (Giants coach Brian) Daboll’s reaction, too, after Wan’Dale (Robinson) dropped that ball … you could see Daboll like, ‘This is why we’re the Giants. This is why we’re 1-3. We’re not making those plays.’ And here come the Seahawks right down the field – great balance, great adjustments, total juice, total momentum – and then DK just gives it all away.”
Geno’s early slide
Seattle had a chance to cut into its 17-13 deficit or take the lead early in the fourth quarter. Quarterback Geno Smith escaped pressure in the pocket on third down, scrambled and ended up sliding one yard shy of the line to gain to force a fourth down. The Seahawks went for it on the next play in their own territory, Smith was sacked and the Giants took over already in field-goal range at the Seattle 27-yard line. New York took advantage and went up 20-13 on a short field goal soon after.
“You get a first down there that drive continues. … Instead, you get desperate on fourth down, you exacerbate the problem, you hand the Giants three more points,” Salk said. “I mean, your defense actually did its job there, but those three points end up being incredibly important late in the game. There are times to protect your body, and quarterbacks need to be good about that. But there are other times where you got to move the chains, and I don’t think I need to tell you which time that was.”
“That was just a lack of awareness of thinking that he maybe had the first down,” Huard said. “You could see he looked over to the sideline and was like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ That was just kind of a bad decision. … That was a mental error, unfortunately, to not dive forward.”
JSN’s drop
After putting together their first offensive touchdown drive of the game to pull within three points, the Seahawks forced a three-and-out and took over with a chance to tie or get the win with under two minutes remaining. A long run by Smith moved them down to the Giants’ 40-yard line, but they couldn’t get another first down and had to settle for long Jason Myers field-goal attempt that was blocked and returned for a touchdown that sealed the game.
However, the Seahawks missed a golden opportunity beforehand when second-year wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba was open and dropped what would have been a drive-extending first down.
“That can’t happen,” Huard said. “That ball is on the money. It’s gonna move the chains. Who knows, maybe they’re gonna block that same field goal again, but you’re gonna give yourself a chance to score.”
Tune in to Brock and Salk weekdays from 6-10 a.m.
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