The Seattle Seahawks thrilling comeback win against the New England Patriots on Wednesday night wasn’t the club’s first opening day in which they entered the fourth quarter behind and came out with a victory. The last time that happened was in 2019, though that one barely qualifies.
Seattle did begin the fourth quarter in 2019 trailing Cincinnati 17-14, but the Bengals' lead only survived one play into the final stanza. Russell Wilson hit Tyler Lockett with a 44-yard TD pass on the first play of the fourth quarter to give the Hawks a lead they would not relinquish.
The most exciting opening day comeback in recent times came in 2016 when both Miami and the Seahawks scored late touchdowns to turn what had been a snoozefest into a thriller. This time, Russell hit Doug Baldwin with a short TD pass to cap a drive that had featured two fourth down conversions. The winning score came with just 31 seconds left.
Seattle Seahawks' opening day win over the Patriots is a reminder of another opening day comeback
But the game against New England most closely resembles a different opener. See if this sounds familiar.
Seattle moves the ball in fits and starts but can’t sustain anything. Through three quarters, all they have to show is a couple of field goals. The defense is playing mostly lights-out, keeping them in the game.
Then, one big fourth-quarter play – a 43-yard touchdown pass – turns it all around. Seattle has the momentum late.
Still, the opponent does not go away. Late in the game, it looks as if they are about to score a go-ahead touchdown when, seemingly out of nowhere, an improbable turnover shuts them down and allows Seattle to run out the clock.
It was 2013. The opponent was Carolina and the final score was 12-7, Seahawks.
OK, it’s not a perfect parallel. Seattle had only three points entering the final quarter on Wednesday instead of six. The touchdown pass in 2013 – from Russell Wilson to Jermaine Kearse – was 43 yards, and the one from Drew Lock to Jaxon Smith-Njigba this year was 45.
Kearse’s pattern was a straight go route on which he beat double coverage. JSN ran a short stop route in a soft zone and then raced past virtually the entire Patriots’ defense.
And the turnover, a DeAngelo Williams fumble caused by Earl Thomas and recovered by Tony McDaniel, came with a little over five minutes left and not in the final seconds, as happened on Wednesday. Still, the turnover ended both games. Seattle’s opponents never got the ball back in either case.
Let me take a moment here to note a couple of things about that interception. It was an awful play by Drake Maye. No question about it. But let’s not overlook how good a play it was by the Seahawks defense.
It actually began on the previous play when Derick Hall sacked Maye, putting extra pressure on him to not take another sack and possibly drop out of field goal range. Then, on the play itself, Byron Murphy provided internal pressure that forced Maye out of the pocket. The ageless Demarcus Lawrence deftly stepped over a Morgan Moses attempt to cut him and got a hand in Maye’s face as he threw.
Julian Love had the tight end blanketed in the flat. Rodney Thomas, who had tipped Maye’s first interception, had the deep middle covered, which allowed Josh Jobe to stick outside with Mack Hollins, who had been causing such trouble late in the game.
As for the pick itself, just a spectacularly athletic play by Jobe, the corner John Schneider and Mike Macdonald chose to prioritize this offseason over Riq Woolen.
I’m going into detail here because this is so much like the way the LOB used to play. They were all great individual talents, and together they were even more than the sum of those parts. There were no weak links. Injuries barely seemed to matter because the entire unit functioned so well.
Seattle’s defense stepped up on Wednesday when the game was on the line, the same way Earl Thomas and his mates did back in 2013. That is the mark of an elite team. And if you are looking for an omen, that 2013 squad rode that exciting opening day comeback win all the way to the first championship in franchise history.
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