3 Up, 3 Down: Winners, Losers From Seahawks' 13-10 Loss to Saints
The Seahawks have lost again, suffering their fifth defeat in their last six games and third of three home games. Dreadful play by both teams, poor officiating and steady rainfall culminated to a sloppy 13-10 Saints win in a forgettable Monday night affair.
Here were the best and worst performances of the night for Seattle.
3 Up
WR DK Metcalf
Metcalf only caught two passes in this game, but he managed to get the best of New Orleans cornerback Marshon Lattimore all night long. The third-year receiver kicked things off with a bang, shaking Lattimore down the sideline and sprinting to the end zone for an 84-yard touchdown on Geno Smith's first pass of the game. But his terrorization of Lattimore goes beyond the stat sheet; on two separate occasions, Metcalf successfully baited the former first-round pick into a pair of unnecessary roughness penalties on plays away from the ball. That amounted to 30 extra yards, including a highly important 15 when Seattle's offense was at its own one-yard line. After a week marred by his fourth-quarter blunder in Pittsburgh and subsequent Twitter spat with Hall of Fame tight end Shannon Sharpe, Metcalf responded with a great night on all fronts.
LB Jordyn Brooks
Brooks has had a disappointingly quiet second year in the NFL thus far, but that wasn't the case on Monday night. Though he wound up posting just four tackles on the night, the few plays he made were significant. With the Saints threatening near the Seahawks' goal line late in the first half, Brooks outstretched his arm to deflect a would-be touchdown in the back of the end zone to receiver Marquez Callaway. Later in the game, he recovered safety Ugo Amadi's forced fumble on tight end Adam Trautman. He also had a key stop on Alvin Kamara, exploding through the hole to keep the four-time Pro Bowl running back from converting a 3rd and 1. Really strong night for Brooks.
S Quandre Diggs
His performance will fall under-the-radar for now, but Diggs had himself a nice night. He was flying all over the field, making a pair of really impressive tackles on Kamara that looked as if he was shot out of a cannon. Through seven games, Diggs has been Seattle's most consistent defensive player and is continuing to make his value well-known in a contract year.
3 Down
The Seahawks' offensive line
Smith was sacked five times on the night, though some of those are almost certainly going to be credited to him. That, however, does not excuse a rough night across the board for the offensive line. Despite a strong commitment to the run game, Seahawks running backs rushed for just 58 yards on 23 carries. The line had no answers for Saints linebacker Demario Davis both as a pass rusher and run defender, giving up four tackles for loss, three quarterback hits and 2.0 sacks to him alone. Many will focus on Smith as the main culprit for Seattle's offensive woes, but that fails to paint the whole picture.
DT Al Woods
Woods lands on here for an inexcusable mistake made at a critical point in this game. After forcing New Orleans quarterback Jameis Winston to a throw a third down incompletion, kicker Brian Johnson stepped onto the field for a 42-yard field goal attempt towards the wind with three minutes and eight seconds left on the game clock. Before the kick could be attempted, however, Woods was drawn across the line of scrimmage and called for encroachment. That gave the Saints a fresh set of downs and allowed them to run another minute and nine seconds off before kicking the 33-yard, game-winning field goal.
S Marquise Blair
A few plays before Woods' folly, Blair helped the Saints extend the very same drive with an avoidable penalty. On a 3rd and 9 from New Orleans' 44-yard line, linebacker Bobby Wagner had Winston wrapped up for what would have been a drive-ending sack. But instead, Blair aggressively attempted to finish the play off by diving in head-first and into the facemask of Winston for an easy roughing the passer penalty. Fans won't like the call, but it was the right one. To make matters worse, Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll confirmed post-game that Blair suffered a "significant" patellar injury just five plays after his mistake. On the play, he could be seen holding his right knee—the same one that forced him to miss the majority of 2020.
