For the second straight week, the Seattle Seahawks not only scored to take the lead in the last minute but came up with a huge defensive stop to seal the win. Oh, we got plenty of studs this week, 12s. Here's a health tip: get your heart checked out before next week's game.
Not a bad week for the Seahawks, huh? I think the team took their head coach's words literally after last Monday's stunning win over the Eagles. I would quote Pete Carroll verbatim, but he got just a little excited. More or less, he asked his team, "Can you win the (blankety-blank) game in the fourth quarter?" Just six days after they upset the Eagles to stay in the hunt for the playoffs, the Hawks again answered with a resounding "Yes!"
The Seattle Times' Adam Jude asked in his post-game column, "Was this the most Seattle Seahawks game ever?" The answer is yes, absolutely it was. Seeing that the Week 15 win over the Eagles was the previous title holder, no one would blame you if you expect next week's game against the Steelers to set a new record.
Um, maybe the Hawks go ahead with 18 seconds left and intercept a Hail Mary in the end zone for the home finale. After that, I don't know what they could do against the Cardinals. Well, I do have an idea, but I'll save that for next week. For now, let's focus on all the studs we witnessed take the field for Seattle on this day.
The Seattle Seahawks had a heroic quarterback launch a last-minute drive again
Last week, it was Drew Lock's chance to sputter for three quarters, and then help engineer the game-winning drive. Geno Smith returned to action after a two-week absence and seemed to take that as the Seahawks' blueprint. The Hawks had two drives in the first quarter and managed to pick up 14 yards. Not on one play, mind you, but in total on the two drives. Not that we can entirely assign the blame to Smith. Seattle picked up just three yards rushing on four carries in the quarter, so nothing was going right.
Smith started to warm up a bit in the second quarter, going 7-11 for 52 yards, but that's hardly the stuff of legend. After the half, Smith got the Seahawks moving, but once again the drive stalled as Seattle had to settle for Jason Myers' second field goal of the game. After the Hawks' defense forced the Titans to punt, Smith started really clicking. Starting at his own four-yard-line left in the third quarter, Smith completed five of five passes for 66 yards. He capped the drive with a beautiful strike to DK Metcalf in the back of the end zone to give the Seahawks the lead for the first time.
Tennessee retook the lead with a grinding 15-play, 75-yard touchdown march. Their problem was that Seattle had 3:21 left on the clock. For the Hawks, that's worth about six games of drive time. Geno Smith again hit 7 of 11 passes, this time for 57 yards. The big difference is that in the fourth quarter, as opposed to the second, Smith came through with a rocket to Colby Parkinson to put Seattle ahead for good with 57 seconds on the clock. Yes, it looked like Smith had a bit of rust in the early going, but he threw strike after strike with the game on the line. By the way, that marked the first time in 24 years that the NFL had seen two different quarterbacks pull off last-minute game-winners for the same team. Not too shabby, gentlemen.