Film Breakdown: Analyzing Seahawks QB Russell Wilson's 3 Interceptions vs. Cardinals

Last Sunday’s trip to Arizona would have been the Seahawks’ most dominant offensive display if not for three Russell Wilson interceptions. Seattle’s attack moved down the field with ease throughout regular playing time, experiencing little difficulty with the middle field closed-heavy pass coverage. This Sunday Night Football matchup could have been the latest crowning moment for the Brian Schottenheimer-coordinated "Let Russ Cook" campaign.

Instead, Wilson was picked off three times and the Seahawks offense made too many mistakes on top of these quarterback errors to win the ball game. Asides from the quarterback, miscommunication and individual cock-ups took place also.

There was Damien Lewis blocking the wrong way on the 3rd and 2 run to ice the game - Seattle had the look they wanted to ice the game with ease.

There was David Moore’s holding penalty on the perimeter throw to DK Metcalf, bringing back a walk-off touchdown.

There was DeeJay Dallas’ pass protection mistake that our own Corbin Smith covered in his latest video.

Wilson was pressing throughout the game and was uncharacteristically sloppy with the ball. Maybe this is a sign of having to carry a porous, mistake-prone defense? After the defeat, the quarterback took full responsibility.

“I thought that we played a great game except for those three plays, honestly,” Wilson assessed in his post-game presser. “And those were my fault.”

Looking at the interceptions is reassuring for the future of this offense.

Interception No. 1

This interception will be talked about because of the incredible DK Metcalf tackle on Budda Baker. Let’s first look at what went on prior to the pick.

Pre-snap, Seattle’s up-tempo approach had Arizona not properly aligned, with their defense showing a man look. Wilson may have thought Baker was playing the middle of the field, or he may have predicted there was too much trash for Baker to navigate around.

As soon as Wilson saw the five-man rush, he immediately went to Chris Carson out of the backfield in the flat. The Seahawks were running lots of crossing routes that created natural rubs and a bunch of traffic for the man coverage of the Cardinals.

“We were trying to hustle to the line,” Wilson revealed post-game. “And I was trying to zip it in there to Chris, and then, kinda , the defensive end just stayed back a little bit.”

This saw Wilson float the ball to Carson slightly. Meanwhile, Baker was in man coverage over Carson and was able to work around the bodies.

“He just made a good play,” described Wilson. “I mean, he read it and made a good play.”

What happened next was incredible. Metcalf never gave up.

“Your first reaction is ‘uh oh.’ You know, you see the turnover happen. But, because where the box was situated, I was kinda looking right at it. And, it’s amazing, I felt it. You felt DK’s speed closing. And, you know, he gets those big strides going, you see it on deep balls sometime, his head goes down and his arms start pumping. It was almost like it slowed down for me, if I’m being honest. So the effort was amazing, it’s one of the coolest plays I’ve ever seen, being honest, it shows you the type of character of not just him but our team, our unit.”

“I think it speaks to the makeup and belief of our football team.”

-Brian Schottenheimer on Thursday

“It was one of the best football plays that I’ve ever seen, it was just remarkable. You saw him realize what was happening, and the opportunity, and he just used all that marvelous skill that he had and the will to go run the guy down. And it was such an incredible play because of what happened afterwards. The defense followed and rallied. They got out of there in four downs and took the ball off them. The offense went 96 yards and a drive.”

“I’ve just never seen something like that.”

-Pete Carroll post-game

“That was an amazing play. Honestly, that was probably one of the best plays we’ve had this year. When you see how Budda caught the ball and how he was 15 yards in front of everybody, almost. Just the fact that he never gave up, took off, he caught him, he stopped him, and not only that, but they didn’t even score. Not even a field goal. And we drove down and we scored after that. That was a big time play. And that was a big time play by a big time player. That was one of the best plays that you can see him make without him touching the ball.”

-Tyler Lockett post-game.

“That was a great play. That’s probably one of the best plays I’ve seen in my career, like. To see DK have that tenacity and like, be a receiver and just chase that man down. It set the whole team up. Like we constantly have big plays, week-in and week-out, there’s been some point in the game. And this week it was DK with it. Chasing him down and making that tackle and putting the defense in a great situation to go down there, hold them not allow any points. If it wasn’t for DK...”

-Damontre Moore post-game

“One of the most remarkable plays I’ve ever seen. Just the play, the effort by DK. I tried to make the effort but DK had the angle and he just kept going man. And it was just an unbelievable play by him, just the effort, I really respect him for that. You know, and that’s what it takes. You know, just as a winning effort. Like I’ve told you guys: he’s one of the best players in the league, he’s one of the most special guys I know.”

-Russell Wilson post-game

The Seahawks’ defense managed to force a turnover on downs and then the offense put together a 97-yard touchdown drive. Metcalf’s incredible hustle was an inspiration to the rest of the team.

Interception No. 2

Wilson’s second turnover was really unfortunate.

“Miscommunication, you know,” said Wilson afterwards. “We do such a good job in those scramble situations you know. I thought he was spinning out to go deep, and as soon as I threw it he stopped on a dime. That’s just timing and Patrick [Peterson] made a good play.”

It’s exactly as Wilson evaluated. At the moment he thought Metcalf was going deep and released the football, Metcalf broke back towards his passer on the one-on-one.

The Seahawks have enjoyed big plays via this approach and this was a freaky incident of it not working out. On 3rd and 5 and in field goal range, it hurt.

Interception #3

This was truly bad from Wilson, who rarely makes such poor choices with the football.

“I really didn’t like the last one in particular, Russ really tried to push something in that wasn’t really available. He made a tough decision there,” coach Pete Carroll stated in his Monday recap.

It is important to consider the contextual factors of this play from Wilson though. He was rattled. Seattle faced this pressure package five times from Arizona and struggled with it each time. It was a linebacker-heavy approach that brought a ton of speedy, versatile bodies down to the line of scrimmage and preyed on passing downs. The Seahawks experienced difficulty in the Dolphins victory with a similar type of look also.

“No, you know, Vance has always been aggressive,” explained offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer on Thursday. “He’s always gonna throw things at you. He did it consistently. We didn’t handle it perfectly, across the board, there was adjustments that I look back, I think I should have gotten to quicker. But, again, we kinda figure it out.”

“I give Vance credit. He came after us but, you do that, it’s pretty dangerous. Again, I’ll take that we have to be better in those situations, starting with just the way that we get things blocked up and the adjustments happened a little bit late, so that falls on me.”

Wilson’s interception was his fifth time facing the pressure package. The time before, DeeJay Dallas had let a linebacker clean through the A-Gap and Wilson got lit up - Dallas saw no further action and it emphasized how much Seattle missed the capable, experienced pass protection of Chris Carson or Travis Homer, who were both out injured.

Schottenheimer revealed that Wilson never saw the Cardinals back out of their pressure into a Cover 3 simulated pressure.

“They were showing one of those - somebody asked the question earlier - they were showing the all-out-blitz, and they bailed out, and he [Wilson] just never felt him, he just kinda never saw him, great play by him. And so it was a good disguise on their part.”

Wilson thought he was getting blitzed by Isaiah Simmons and Simmons instead dropped into coverage.

“Yeah, we thought we had an angle at Tyler - Tyler had such an amazing game,” Wilson admitted following the loss.

The signal caller expected his receiver to break off his route short on a “hot” adjustment to the blitz, but that never happened with the Cardinals only rushing four. Wilson was confused by the simulated pressure and figured he was getting more rushers.

“Thought I had a window, the guy made a good play. That was unfortunate,” Wilson finished. “Like I said, we can’t have those mistakes, that’s on me.”

Keep Calm and Carry On (Cooking)

The nice thing, if that’s possible, about these interceptions was the Seahawks offense was still potent. This wasn’t total disaster.

“I thought we played a really solid game except for those three plays, to be honest with you,” reiterated Wilson post-game. “I think we did so many great things, we battled, we fought, we did everything we could, and unfortunately it didn’t go our way.”

Looking back at the interceptions, it’s important not to read too much into them. Carroll emphasized this on Monday, saying, “They were just unusual situations that happened, they weren’t normal type situations, and I don’t think this is the kinda stuff that is gonna keep coming.”

While Seattle does need to adjust and execute to these sugared pressure looks better - as Schottenheimer critiqued - their bigger offensive issues have come against middle field open coverage teams. There’s not many of them in the NFL. The Cardinals game was a fluke that should not stop Wilson from cooking all the way through this 2020 season.