Studs and duds from the Seattle Seahawks Week 10 last-second win over the Commanders
The Seattle Seahawks needed all 3,600 seconds to get the win over the Washington Commanders. There was no shortage of studs in Seattle's lineup on this day. It was so satisfying to watch this team bounce back after last week's dismal performance.
The Seahawks desperately needed a win after last week's blowout against the Ravens. It isn't so much that they would have fallen to 5-4, a game behind the 49ers. That wouldn't exactly be a great scenario, it's true. But they needed to show themselves even more than the 12s that they could rebound from a performance that bad. For the third time this season, Seattle followed a loss with a win to get back on track.
This game was a complete reversal of last week's, in which virtually every player had a hand in the loss. Seattle had several players stand out in this win, and doubtless wouldn't have pulled the game out at the last second without every single contribution. Oh, there were studs in this game, and a couple of duds as well. It's nice to face paring down the list of studs because there are so many to choose from.
The Seattle Seahawks relied on their core stars in the fourth quarter
As John Boyle wrote in his recap of the game for seahawks.com, the Seahawks trio of Geno Smith, Tyler Lockett, and DK Metcalf carried this team in the fourth quarter. Lockett accounted for 52 yards and the score on the Hawks 75-yard drive that put them ahead with 3:47 left in the game. After the Commanders tied it up, it was the DK Metcalf show, as he accounted for 44 of Seattle's 50-yard game-winning drive. And of course, it was Geno Smith at the controls. Discounting his spike with three seconds left to set up the winning field goal, Smith was 9-10 for 100 yards and the touchdown to Lockett.
It was a pleasure to see the Geno Smith of 2022 return to the field. Literally hours before the game I published an article detailing exactly how poorly he's played this year. In reality, Smith's performance since week 12 of 2022 has been far below that previous standard. Far too many people have been clamoring for Drew Lock to replace Smith, without any evidence he'd be better. It isn't that Smith has been bad overall. But he's been awful for stretches within games, and you're not likely to make it to the playoffs with performances like that.
I'm not suggesting that I predicted Smith would break out with a game like this, not at all. But I am thrilled to see it, not just for the sake of the team, but for the man as well. He truly seems to be the ultimate team player. It's worth noting that despite his overall stats this season, this win was the third this year in which Smith led a fourth-quarter or overtime win. He also set a career-high with 369 yards in the win. Far more importantly, he had zero turnovers. Now if the coaching staff would just tell Geno it's the fourth quarter at the start of every game, we'd really see some fireworks.