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Brady HendersonESPN
SEATTLE – Russell Wilson’s 2020 season began with a record touchdown pace and talk of his first career MVP award. He ended abruptly with a punch and a question: What happened to the quarterback and Seattle Seahawks offense that couldn’t stop for the first two months?
The struggles for Wilson and Co. culminated Saturday when the Seahawks lost 30-20 in the wildcard round to the Los Angeles Rams in an empty Lumen Field, securing the third home win streak in NFL postseason history. The Seahawks hadn’t lost a playoff game at home since the 2004 season and had won all six rounds under Pete Carroll before Saturday.
“I hate that feeling,” Wilson said after the game, still unperturbed two hours after the final whistle.
Wilson threw for 174 yards, two touchdowns and an interception that was returned by a Rams score. His 40.7% finish percentage in the 11-of-27 pass was tied for the second lowest of his career, while his 17.6 Total QBR was the worst in 16 second playoff games ESPN Stats & Information research.
It didn’t help that he was fired or coerced into half of his drains, even with All-Pro Aaron Donald’s defensive attack on the side for much of the second half. The Rams ’50% pressure rate was the highest Wilson has faced this season and the second highest he has faced in the playoffs. He was fired five times.
“Obviously they did a really good job up front. They got me a few times,” Wilson said. “I think for us, we didn’t play our best game. We weren’t in our stuff as much as we should be.”
Carroll didn’t blame Wilson for his pick-six in the second quarter, which proved a screen pass attempt at DK Metcalf that cornerback Darious Williams read perfectly.
“I thought it was very hard,” Carroll said of Wilson’s afternoon. “They make the fantastic interception for a touchdown, which is a great play of the boy. He made a shot and got it, and it was a great play in this game, as he appeared all the time, which is seven points. “That’s no mistake on Russ’s part. That’s just a fantastic play for them. But it was difficult. When you rush like that, they’ll fire you five times, against this group, it’s very difficult.”
Wilson was also fired five times when the Seahawks beat the Rams 20-9 in Week 16 to win the NFC West.
“That’s no surprise,” Carroll said. “That’s how he played against the rest of the people. We needed to keep this game the way we played it last time, where we kept it low, where they got nine points and we found a way to score 20.”
Wilson threw 16 touchdown passes with an NFL record through the first four games, while consolidating as the MVP’s first-season leader. For the first nine weeks, the Seahawks ’offense led the league to scoring 34 points per game, while Wilson led the league with 28 touchdown passes. But over the last eight weeks of the regular season, Seattle’s average points per game dropped to 22.6 (which was 16th), while Wilson threw 12 TD passes (tied at 13th).
His average yards per attempt went from 8.56 yards (fourth) to 6.4 (28th). He also averaged 6.4 yards per attempt on Saturday.
Carroll lamented that the Seahawks didn’t adapt better to the way opponents defended their deep pass in the action game, traditionally a big part of Seattle’s offensive success.
“That doesn’t mean we throw the ball over their heads all the time and we’re just going to look for bombs,” Carroll said. “But there’s a lot of space we create in the game play, and it seemed like over the course of the season, after the halfway point, we’d played very early, that we’d been so effective that people found a way to stay behind and just try to bleed and get the ball thrown underneath, and maybe we were really going for it more than we needed to and we didn’t take advantage of the gear shift there a little bit as effectively as we would M ’ like it. “
Wilson’s 40 touchdown passes and 13 interceptions in the regular season were the highs of the race.
The veteran pointed to injuries along the offensive line as one of the reasons for the Seahawks ’struggles after their hot start. They had the top five favorite starters of Duane Brown, Mike Iupati, Ethan Pocic, Damien Lewis and Brandon Shell during their first four games, but only again during the second half.
However, that initial five came back together on Saturday, and it was no match for the Rams ’defensive front … with or without Donald. The Rams generated six presses and two sacks after Donald left with just over 10 minutes left in the third quarter.
Seven of the nine penalties accepted by the Seahawks were against offense, with five on their offensive line. One started wrong in the fourth quarter when Seattle broke the confusion late – despite having extra time as Lewis was being examined for an injury on the pitch – and rushed to get a quarter and 1 game on time. The Seahawks made ends meet.
Carroll said they were discussing plays and put himself in the middle, contributing to the delay. He said he didn’t mind pointing after the penalty because it was initially a consideration.
Wilson threw his two touchdown passes to Metcalf against a standard four-man pass, but was only 8 of 18 for 130 yards on those plays. His 44.4% completion rate compared to standard pressure was the lowest in a game since week 15 of the 2017 season against the Rams (44.0%), according to ESPN Stats & Research Information.
The Seahawks finished just 2 of 14 in the third downhill, starting 0-for-8 before their first conversion with less than four minutes left in the third quarter. They ran 136 yards in 25 attempts.
“I wish we had found a way to run the ball more, to slow them down and keep them from rushing at us,” Carroll said. “… When Donald came out, we wanted to try to throw the ball without him in the passing race and we couldn’t get enough of it.”
The Seahawks won 12 regular season games for the first time since 2014 and won the NFC West for the first time since 2016.
“We have a great football team. Don’t get me wrong,” Wilson said. “You can write whatever you want, but the reality is we have a great football team and I think we have guys, but we didn’t play very well today. That’s what matters most.”
This meant the second time in three seasons that the Seahawks were bounced back in the wildcard round and the fifth time in their last five trips to the playoffs that they came to miss the game in the NFC title.
“We will heal, but it is unfortunate because these years are hard to come by,” Carroll said. “It’s hard to get 12 wins. It’s hard to stand with a playoff game at home. We’ve won a lot of playoff games at home and it’s hard to give away one. We’ve won all those playoff games with a fleshless fan base, wild and crazy, and not today, we needed you. I wish I could have you. It’s not an excuse, it’s unfortunate. “