Seahawks lose game of big plays to the superior Chargers
The Seahawks came out on the wrong side of the big play ledger against the Chargers. Seattle needs to find that big play mojo, fast.
Well that’s not the way this game was supposed to go. At least not in my mind. For the few of you who took an ounce of extra faith in the Seahawks chances from my predictions, I apologize. To the two or three random Chargers fans who wound up here, your team played better than I thought they would. While both teams made some big plays, Los Angeles simply made more. Okay, a lot more.
For the purposes of this article, a big play is any over 20 yards or more. Don’t worry, I’ll mention the biggest play that didn’t happen too, as much as it pains all of us to recall it. The Seahawks managed just one play over 20 yards in the first half, a sweet 42 yard bomb from Russell Wilson to Doug Baldwin. Ah, the good old days. Sadly, the drive stalled, and Sebastian Janikowski missed from 51 yards. Compared to the Chargers (now former) kicker, Seabass was stellar.
Meanwhile, the Chargers worked the Seattle defense over in the first half. Keenan Allen took an end around for 28 yards on the Chargers first play. Allen struck again in the second quarter, this time on a 54 yard bomb from Philip Rivers. On the very next play, Melvin Gordon broke away on a 34 yard touchdown run. Rivers would hit Allen again for 23 yards with less than two minutes to go in the half. With just over a minute left, Mike Williams was on the receiving end of a Rivers pass and took it in for 30 yards and the score.
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The Seahawks drove down close enough for a 44 yard field goal by Seabass. The score at halftime was Los Angeles 19, Seattle 10. Manageable, but still worrisome. While the Seahawks had one big play in the half, the Chargers had rung up the Seattle defense five times. The score could have been a bit worse if not for the Chargers (now former) kicker. Then again, if Janikowski had made his kick, it would have been a one score game.
Seahawks picked it up in the second half – eww, I said pick
The second half saw some improvement by the Seahawks defense. The Chargers had three big yardage plays, two of them runs by Melvin Gordon. Three is less than five, as we all learned before the days of math concepts in Common Core. The biggest gain was just 22 yards, another improvement. Best of all, those big plays all led to exactly zero points for the Chargers, as the Seahawks defense made timely plays to kill drives again and again.
Unfortunately, Seattle didn’t improve much on their side of the ledger. Wilson and his crew were unable to come up with a single big play in the second half. Well, unless you count Wilson’s 42 yard touchdown to Desmond King. The problem is, King plays for the other guys. Yep, for just the third time in his career, Russell Wilson threw a pick six. I have to think David Moore ran the wrong route, or Wilson went temporarily blind.
That gave the Chargers nine plays of 20 or more yards in the game, and the Seahawks just one. Do you need more explosive plays to win a game? No, not at all. If not for the fingertips of Jahleel Addae, the Seahawks were in position to tie the game, even with the pick six. See, I told you I’d mention that play. Yes, if Moore had made that catch, we could all have very different feelings about this game. Maybe. We were still a two point conversion from a tie, after all. No way is this loss on Moore. A lot of Seahawks had chances to come through.
The defense came up strong in the second half, and kept Philip Rivers and his crew off the scoreboard. Los Angeles came to Seattle averaging just under 28 points per game, and managed 19 points on offense. If not for the pick six, the Seahawks are looking at a short and very makeable field goal for Seabass.
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A couple more big plays – and one less for the Chargers defense – would have been all the difference in this ballgame. Next up is a team that make big plays in their sleep. You know, the other team from Los Angeles. The Seahawks need to get their motors revved up, and fast.