Seahawks: Jon Ryan says Richard Sherman forced missed FG
By Keith Myers
The Seattle Seahawks, not luck, forced Blair Walsh to miss that last-second FG last week. At least that’s what one player believes.
The Seattle Seahawks only won in Minnesota last week because of luck. Or did they? According to Seattle punter Jon Ryan, the tape suggests otherwise.
As you likely remember, Minnesota’s Blair Walsh missed a field goal with just seconds remaining on the clock. Seattle went on to win 10-9.
According to Ryan, the play that created the win happened earlier in the game, when Walsh made his third FG. Richard Sherman came in off the right side and missed blocking it by mere inches.
This caused the Vikings to speed up their process for the potential game winner. They didn’t want Sherman getting a chance to block such an important kick.
Interesting nugget from Seattle punter/holder Jon Ryan on Minnesota's missed FG Sunday ....
— Bob Condotta (@bcondotta) January 13, 2016
.. Ryan says snap to kick time is 1.3 seconds but Vikings were 1.17 on that kick. He thinks they quickened it due to Sherman's rush earlier.
— Bob Condotta (@bcondotta) January 13, 2016
Everything about kicking a FG is about repeatable perfect technique and timing. By speeding up the process, they introduced error into the process that isn’t typically there.
Walsh’s steps were rushed. His plant foot landed slightly closer to the ball than it should have. That caused him pull his foot across his body in order to make contact. The ball went where his foot hit it: wide right.
People want to say that the Seahawks won entirely because of luck. Luck had nothing to do with Sherman almost blocking that kick. It also didn’t have anything to do with Walsh’s mistake caused by trying to be too fast.
The cliche’ is that football is a game of inches. In this case, the Seahawks won because of 13 hundredths of a second.