Seahawks Fall on Wrong Side of Shootout, Come Up Short in 39-32 Loss to Saints
One week after outgunning the Lions in a thriller in Detroit, Geno Smith and the Seahawks couldn't quite pull of the same magic in New Orleans, dropping a tightly-contested 39-32 match to the Saints to drop to 2-3 on the season.
Throwing for 268 yards and three touchdowns in defeat, Smith once again was masterful at the wheel for Seattle, but he took a 14-yard sack on third down on the final possession of the game and the defense couldn't get a stop to give him the ball back at the end of regulation. Pacing a defense that allowed 440 total yards, rookie cornerback Tariq Woolen intercepted Andy Dalton and also recovered a fumble, giving him four turnovers over the past three games.
Here are five quick takeaways from a demoralizing defeat at the Caesars Superdome:
1. Even with supporting cast letting him down at times, Smith kept wheeling and dealing under center.
Coming off his second career Player of the Week honor after a sensational performance against the Lions, Smith came out firing on all cylinders in New Orleans. Right off the bat, on just his second pass attempt, he stepped up in the pocket to evade pressure and lofted a strike to DK Metcalf, who did the rest racing 50 yards for a score to give the Seahawks an early 7-0 lead. Later in the half, with the clock closing in on triple zeroes, he dropped a dime to Tyler Lockett for a 35-yard touchdown with three defenders in coverage to retake a 19-17 lead at the break. After two quarters, the veteran signal caller was averaging more than 20 yards per completion and nearly 13 yards per attempt.
In the third quarter, Smith didn't receive much help, as Metcalf lost a controversial fumble on Seattle's opening drive of the third quarter. Later in the quarter, tight end Will Dissly dropped a first down throw, which contributed to a three-and-out and another stalled possession. But with the Seahawks trailing 31-19, he struck again to Lockett, somehow dropping a 40-yard touchdown into the bucket with two defenders draped all over the receiver to cut the deficit to six points. While he took a critical third down sack on the team's final possession, he once again turned in a dynamic performance running Shane Waldron's offense and gave Seattle every chance to win on the road.
2. With Rashaad Penny hurt, Ken Walker III picks the perfect time for his Seattle coming out party.
Picking up where he left off last week, Penny ripped off a 32-yard run in the first half and had 48 yards on his first seven carries going into the second half. Unfortunately, the oft-injured running back exited on a cart after suffering what looked to be a significant left ankle injury and did not return, forcing Walker III to step into the role of bell cow back. Capitalizing on his first opportunity to be a featured ball carrier, the reigning Doak Walker Award winner cut back against the grain and rocketed through a huge crease on 2nd and 1, accelerating past Tyrann Mathieu and Chris Harris Jr. for a 69-yard touchdown to push the Seahawks back in front 32-31. The scintillating run wound up being all for naught after Taysom Hill responded with his own 60-yard touchdown a few plays later, but with Penny likely out for an extended amount of time, the rookie looks ready for an expanded role moving forward.
3. Ball security and poor third down performance ultimately doomed the Seahawks in a tight game.
At the end of the day, one more stop on defense would have helped the Seahawks chances of coming out of New Orleans victorious. But as well as Smith and his teammates played, a few missed opportunities stand out on offense that could have made the difference down the stretch. Facing 3rd and 8 from the Saints 13-yard line with under two minutes to play in the second quarter, Smith stood poised in the pocket and fired a missile to the back of the end zone to Metcalf on an in-breaking route, only for the pass to bounce off the normally reliable receiver's hands. Unable to secure a second touchdown catch, Seattle had to settle for a short Jason Myers field goal rather than tie the game at 17 apiece. Dissly's first down drop in the third quarter also loomed large, as it set the team up with a 3rd and long situation rather than having less than four yards to gain to convert and the team eventually punted.
As illustrated by the Metcalf drop, the Seahawks reverted back to 2021 form on third down, managing to convert on only one out of nine attempts on Sunday. Smith took a pair of long sacks on two of those missed chances, but he also lost a 32-yard touchdown to Metcalf in the third quarter when left tackle Charles Cross was flagged for holding to go with the aforementioned drop. With the penalty moving them out of field goal range and setting up a 3rd and 18, they punted two plays later on a drive that could have ended with six points. Accounting for those two plays alone, the visitors left as many as 11 points off the scoreboard.
4. Away from turnovers, Seattle’s defense continues to inexplicably be plagued by shoddy run defense and explosives.
At this point, writing about the Seahawks woes on the defensive side of the football has become a broken record. Early on, they were able to get a few stops, forcing a pair of punts on the Saints first four drives and helping set up Smith's first scoring toss to Lockett with Ryan Neal forcing a fumble on Alvin Kamara late in the first half. They also got put in an impossible spot after Michael Dickson fumbled while appearing to try to execute a Rugby style punt in the second quarter, setting up Hill's second rushing touchdown of the half with New Orleans starting inside Seattle's 20-yard line. But after the half, with the exception of a Tariq Woolen interception, the same issues that have hindered coach Pete Carroll's squad all season long reared their ugly head.
Having no answers for Hill, the dual-threat gadget quarterback rushed for 112 yards and three touchdowns on only nine carries against a beleaguered Seahawks defense, including slipping through a Quandre Diggs tackle on 3rd and 1 and racing 60 yards to help the Saints regain the lead midway through the fourth quarter. On top of Hill's success as a wild cat specialist, Kamara continued his career-long dominance against Seattle, rushing for 103 yards and adding a 54-yard catch on a screen that set up a 22-yard touchdown pass for Hill. To put in perspective how bad Carroll's defense has been stopping the run, this was the first time in franchise history that the Seahawks allowed two different players to eclipse 100 yards. Regardless of how well the offense continues to play, wins will be hard to come by with the defense continuing to be charitable giving up chunk run plays and struggling to execute fits.
5. From punting to kicking, special teams play was abysmal across the board.
In a one-score game, special teams often prove to be the great equalizer and Sunday's defeat was no different for the Seahawks. As Carroll noted after the game, Dickson wasn't attempting to run the ball on a fake punt deep in their own territory in the second quarter and was supposed to punt after rolling out to his right. However, he thought there was room to run in front of him and wrongly decided to take off, getting blasted by Curtis Granderson and fumbling. The ill-advised decision led to Hill's second touchdown running untouched off the left tackle on a quarterback counter lead, pushing the Saints in front 17-10. Later in the half, kicker Jason Myers missed his first extra point of the season after Lockett's touchdown catch, preventing the Seahawks from going into the half with a three-point advantage.
While there weren't any other game-changing mistakes on special teams for the Seahawks in the second half, the mistakes by Dickson and Myers resulted in a net margin difference of eight points. Losing by seven on the scoreboard, if those mishaps didn't happen, the visitors likely win this game. On top of it, they had two penalties on special teams in the second half, including an illegal block below the waist infraction against cornerback Isaiah Dunn. This won't be a fun one to review for coach Larry Izzo with all of the breakdowns in the third phase of the game being decisive ones in a close loss.
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