Had the Seahawks not rallied in the final 28 seconds Thursday night to beat the Arizona Cardinals 23-20 on Jason Myers’ 52-yard field goal, the discussion Friday might have centered on the fourth-quarter collapse that almost cost them the game.
After giving up only two field goals through three quarters and no drive longer than 40 yards, the Seahawks let the Cardinals move 73 yards in eight plays and 57 yards in 12 plays to score two touchdowns in the span of 5:22 and tie the game.
Arizona gained 115 yards on 20 plays in the fourth quarter, 5.8 yards per attempt, after getting just 138 yards on 44 plays – 3.13 yards per play – through the first three quarters.
The almost-meltdown meant that the Seahawks have allowed 34 points in the fourth quarter, 8.5 per game, which ranks 22nd in the NFL.
That’s one more point than the Seahawks have allowed in the first three quarters combined – 33.
Had Myers made a 53-yard field goal with 3 minutes, 16 seconds left that could have put the Seahawks up 23-13, or had an apparent Zach Charbonnet touchdown run not been erased earlier in the quarter thanks to a holding call (on receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba that many of the Seahawks questioned), the game might have ended as a comfortable win.
While the Seahawks can celebrate a win in dramatic fashion, coach Mike Macdonald was left with some questions Friday about why the Seahawks again allowed a few late drives, as they had done in a season-opening loss to the San Francisco 49ers, who scored 10 fourth-quarter points in a 17-13 win.
Macdonald said one factor Thursday is that Arizona went with more of an up-tempo offense in the fourth quarter – 10 of their 20 plays were no-huddle.
Arizona quarterback Kyler Murray has often been at his best operating no-huddle and he set up the first TD with a 29-yard scramble, the Cardinals’ only play of the night that was longer than 18 yards.
“Their philosophy, when they’re down multiple scores, they go into no-huddle mode earlier than most teams,” Macdonald said. “We have to play that better; we have to call it better. I have to execute better. Again, that’s the feeling I had coming out of the game. I know it’s not for a lack of trying. Our guys are battling, they’re playing hard.”
There was also one key penalty, a defensive pass interference on Riq Woolen a few plays after Murray’s run that allowed the Cardinals to move from the Seattle 24 to the 9 and set up the TD that cut the lead to 20-13 with 5:50 remaining.
“I understand there’s some penalties involved, there’s a lot of yardage with a couple of those penalties, which we’ll look at and see how we can improve on that front,” Macdonald said.
Arizona simply made a couple of good plays, Macdonald said, noting specifically a catch by Michael Wilson near the sidelines despite tight coverage from Josh Jobe for a 5-yard gain on fourth-and-4 that kept alive Arizona’s second TD drive. Arizona converted third downs of 5 and 9 yards on the drive on Murray passes.
“I have to call it better and I have to put our guys in better positions in those situations,’’ Macdonald said. “How we get organized on a play-to-play basis, we’re going to look at in terms of our process. Our guys’ mental space is the right thing, we just have to keep executing, keep stacking good plays over one another.
“We had opportunities to do it. The guy made a great play on the fourth down where I think our execution of that play was about as good as you get. Sometimes that’s going to happen and you have to be able to rebound and ultimately come up with those plays. But you’re right, we have to be able to close the games out in the fourth quarter.”
Snap counts show different roles for Woolen, Knight
The official snap counts confirmed how the Seahawks switched things up at one cornerback spot and weakside linebacker.
Devon Witherspoon and Jobe played all of the game’s 67 official snaps while Woolen played 62.
When the Seahawks had just two cornerbacks on the field they used Witherspoon and Jobe – indicating they are the two starters – while Woolen entered the game when they had three cornerbacks on the field, which remains the team’s primary defensive alignment.
“It’s the same thing that we’ve been saying here for a few weeks,” Macdonald said. “Drake’s playing really good football and he’s playing winning football. When you do that, you’re going to play for us. It’s really that simple. It’s great, we have multiple spots where we have guys that can play and go help us win games, which is great for our team.”
Notes
• Macdonald said he had no update on injuries suffered in the game. The Seahawks are taking the weekend off and won’t return to the practice field until Monday afternoon. The only obvious injury was a thigh issue that sidelined DeMarcus Lawrence the last three quarters. The Amazon Prime telecast indicated it’s not serious.
“Yeah, there’s a couple things, and if I told you now, I’d probably change it on Monday, so I’ll wait to tell you,” Macdonald said.
• Safety Nick Emmanwori missed his third straight game with a high ankle sprain suffered against the 49ers. He was listed as doubtful for the game after being listed as a limited participant in practice on Monday (when they did not practice) and Tuesday (when the Seahawks held a walk-through) and a full participant on Wednesday.
Asked if it was lack of practice time or health that led to Emmanwori sitting out, Macdonald said: “It would’ve been both. Let’s say he said he was ready to play on Wednesday; we wouldn’t have played him unless he took a turn earlier in the week. We probably would’ve looked at it. It was a health thing.”