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Brady HendersonESPN
SEATTLE – Russell Wilson’s 2020 season began with a record touch and talked about his first MVP award of his career. It ended abruptly with a bang and a question: What happened to the Seattle Seahawks defender and high-scoring offensive that couldn’t be stopped in the first two months?
The fights for Wilson and Co culminated Saturday, as the Seahawks lost 30-20 in the wild-card round to the Los Angeles Rams at an empty Lumen Field, shooting what was the third-longest home win streak. in the history of the NFL postseason. The Seahawks had not lost a playoff game at home since the 2004 season and had won all six games under Pete Carroll before Saturday.
“I hate that feeling,” Wilson said post-game, still unspeakable within two hours of the final whistle.
Wilson threw for 174 yards, two touchdowns and an interception that was returned for a Rams score. His completion rate of 40.7% at 11 of 27 was the second lowest in his career, while his QBR total of 17.6 was his weakest in 16 games. from the career playoffs, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.
It didn’t help that he was fired or forced into half of his players, even with All-Pro defensive end Aaron Donald on the sidelines for much of the second half. The Rams’ 50% pressure rate was the highest Wilson has faced this season and the second highest in the playoffs. He was fired five times.
“They did a pretty good job up front, obviously. They took me a few times,” Wilson said. “I don’t think we played our best game. We didn’t have as many things as we needed to.”
Carroll didn’t blame Wilson for his pick-six in the second quarter, which came with an attempt to pass the screen to DK Metcalf, which Darious Williams read perfectly.
“I thought it was very hard,” Carroll said of Wilson’s afternoon. “I make a fantastic interception for a touchdown, which is a great piece of the kid. He made a shot and got it, and it was a great piece in this game because he kept the seven points all the time. “It’s no mistake on Russ’s part. It’s just a great piece of them. But it was hard. When you’re in such a hurry, being fired five times against that group is just hard.”
Wilson was also fired five times when the Seahawks defeated the Rams 20-9 in Week 16 to win the NFC West.
“It’s not a surprise,” Carroll said. “That’s how they played against other people. We needed to keep this game the way we played it last time, where we kept it down, where they scored nine points and we found a way to score 20.”
Wilson threw 16 touchdown passes for the NFL record in the first four games, while establishing himself as the leader of the season for the MVP. In the first nine weeks, the Seahawks’ offense led the league by 34 points per game, while Wilson led the league with 28 touchdown passes. But in 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 for 13th).
His average yards per attempt went from 8.56 meters (fourth) to 6.4 (28th). He also averaged 6.4 meters per try on Saturday.
Carroll regretted that the Seahawks did not adapt better to the way their opponents defended their deep step in the action game, traditionally a large part of Seattle’s offensive success.
“That doesn’t mean we throw the ball over their heads all the time and just look for bombs,” Carroll said. “But we create a lot of space in the game and it seems that during the season, after half, we hit so early, we were so efficient that people found a way to stay back and just try to bleed and it makes us throw the ball underneath and we were probably really going more than we should and we didn’t take advantage of the gear change there a bit as efficiently as that. “
Wilson’s 40 touchdown passes and 13 interceptions in the regular season were both career highs.
The veteran pointed to injuries along the offensive line as a reason for the Seahawks’ struggles after their hot start. They had five favorite players from Duane Brown, Mike Iupati, Ethan Pocic, Damien Lewis and Brandon Shell for the first four games, but only once in the second half.
However, that starting five was back together on Saturday and it wasn’t a game for the Rams defensive front … with or without Donald. The Rams generated six pressures 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 the offense, with five on their offensive line. One started falsely in the fourth quarter, when Seattle broke the delay late – despite overtime, while Lewis was being examined for a field injury – and was in a hurry to get a fourth and 1 play-off on time. . The Seahawks then gave a point.
Carroll said they were discussing plays and got in the middle of it, contributing to the delay. He said he didn’t mind going after the penalty because it was originally a consideration.
Wilson threw both touchdown passes to Metcalf against a standard four-person pass, but was only 8 of 18 for 130 yards in those games. His 44.4% completion rate compared to standard pressure was the lowest in a game in the 15th week of the 2017 season against the Rams (44.0%), according to ESPN Stats & Information research.
The Seahawks finished just 2-of-14 on the third down, starting 0 -8-before their first conversion, with less than four minutes left in the third quarter. They ran 136 meters on 25 attempts.
“I wish I had found a way to run the ball more, slow them down and keep them from rushing,” Carroll said. “… When Donald came out, we wanted to try to throw the ball without him in the passing rush and we couldn’t get enough out 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 an excellent football team. Don’t get me wrong,” Wilson said. “You guys can write anything you want, but the reality is that we have an excellent football team and I think we have boys, but we didn’t play great today. That’s the most important thing.”
It marked the second time in three seasons that the Seahawks have been rejected in the wild-card round and the fifth time in the last five playoff games when they arrived shortly after the NFC game.
“We will heal, but it is unfortunate because these years are hard to go by,” Carroll said. “It’s hard to get 12 wins. It’s hard to stand with a home playoff game. I’ve won a lot of home playoff games and it’s hard to give one. I’ve won every one of them. Play-off games with a base of bad fans, wild, crazy, and not today, I needed you. I wish we could have you. That’s not an excuse, it’s just unfortunate. “