RENTON — When the Seattle Seahawks’ offense took the field in Charlotte earlier this season with 4 minutes, 37 seconds remaining on the clock, more than a game hung in the balance.
After losing consecutive games, the Seahawks went to Carolina with a 3-3 record, putting them in danger of having a losing record for the first time since they started the 2012 season with a loss. The trade of Percy Harvin had set off something of a 21st-century media gold rush to the Pacific Northwest, only the treasure wasn’t measured in karats, but rather in what’s-wrong-with-the-Seahawks nuggets.
It’s incredibly unlikely that the Seahawks would have gone in the tank had they lost that Week 8 game to the Panthers, but they also wouldn’t be the NFC’s No. 1 seed had that comeback drive come up short.
1-10-SEA 20 (4:37) R.Wilson pass short left to C.Helfet to SEA 31 for 11 yards (A.Klein).
“It was really a basic play,” tight end Cooper Helfet said of the first play of the drive. “Just a little naked to sell the run, I got out in the flat, Russ gave me a good ball and I helped us get a first down.”
If the most important thing that came out of Seattle’s game-winning drive was the victory itself, a significant secondary benefit was the confidence it gave Seattle’s offense, and its young players in particular.
Just over a week after the Harvin trade, and with starting tight end Zach Miller out with a season-ending injury, Seattle drove 80 yards, getting big catches not from its starting receivers Doug Baldwin and Jermaine Kearse, but from young role players like Helfet, Luke Willson and rookie receivers Paul Richardson and Kevin Norwood.
1-10-SEA 31 (4:31) (Shotgun) R.Wilson pass short right to K.Norwood to SEA 41 for 10 yards (J.Dockery).
As Seattle prepared for its must-win game with the Panthers — the Seahawks would never call it that, but to everyone else paying attention, it sure felt like a must-win — Sports Illustrated had a writer chronicling them during the week, then sent that writer and a photographer to Charlotte to write about the unraveling of the team.
Even big magazines like SI don’t send reporters and photographers to a mid-season, somewhat intriguing NFC battle unless there is a juicy story, something like the meltdown of the defending champs. But on the day that story was due, the Seahawks forced the magazine to change the tone of the story.
1-10-SEA 41 (4:31) (Shotgun) PENALTY on SEA-J.Carpenter, False Start, 5 yards, enforced at SEA 41 — No Play.
Ah, yes, the pre-snap penalty. Even one of the Seahawks’ most significant drives had to have one of those, right? But unlike drives earlier in that game or the season, the Seahawks overcame the one flaw in an otherwise nearly perfect drive, one that never saw the Seahawks even get to third down.
“It just felt like it was meant to be,” Willson said. “We had ran into some issues in that game. I thought we were moving the ball pretty well, but we had a turnover, a couple plays where we shot ourselves in the foot. We kept pushing, and it was one of those things were it was like, ‘hey, we’ve got to get it done now.’ Everyone pulled together and got the job done, so it was a pretty cool job for us as an offense.”
1-15-SEA 36 (3:54) (Shotgun) R.Wilson scrambles left tackle to 50 for 14 yards (M.Addison; J.Norman).
2-1-50 (3:11) (Shotgun) M.Lynch left guard to CAR 48 for 2 yards (T.Boston).
In a season in which the Seahawks rushed for a franchise-high 2,762 yards, even a key fourth-quarter drive would have to feature plenty of running as well as clutch passes. At its best, Seattle’s offense is an efficient blend of Lynch and Wilson runs, as well as explosive pass plays, and this season-changing drive had all of those things.
“That just speaks to the guys we have on this team, that they’re making big-time plays in big-time moments when we need them to,” Baldwin said of the team’s young receivers and tight ends stepping up. “Then with Russ and Marshawn doing their thing to lead us down the field, that moment it was a little more indicative of what we’re capable of doing on offense.”
1-10-CAR 48 (2:31) (Shotgun) R.Wilson pass short left to P.Richardson to CAR 39 for 9 yards (A.Cason).
“You don’t like being down, but you like being put in those tough situations,” said Richardson, Seattle’s second-round pick who has been a big part of the offense down the stretch. “It’s exciting. Then to be able to help the offense get into the end zone, it’s a great sense of accomplishment.
“The last thing we wanted to do was go below .500. (That drive) did a lot for us, we were able to turn our season around shortly after that.”
2-1-CAR 39 (2:03) (No Huddle, Shotgun) M.Lynch up the middle to CAR 35 for 4 yards (T.Davis; C.Johnson).
Two-Minute Warning
1-10-CAR 35 (1:58) (Shotgun) M.Lynch up the middle to CAR 30 for 5 yards (D.Edwards; C.Johnson).
Who knows, maybe the Seahawks win eight of their last nine games to finish the season even if they had lost to Carolina. Maybe that clear-the-air team meeting in November before the Arizona game would have happened sooner had the Seahawks dropped to 3-4.
But as well as the Seahawks finished the season, coming from three games back to win the NFC West and earn home-field advantage, and as much drama as there was swirling around this team following the Harvin trade, it’s hard to envision Seattle having all this success had they lost a third straight game for the first time since midway through the 2011 season.
“You don’t want to go into any game losing three in a row and being under .500, especially with the talent and the players we have here, so I think we were a little more relaxed the next week and were able to play a little more free,” Willson said.
2-5-CAR 30 (1:22) (Shotgun) R.Wilson right end to CAR 23 for 7 yards (C.Johnson).
Wilson, like any great athlete, believes he and his team will come through with the game on the line every time. But the reality is that not even the all-time greats have perfect records. In fact, Wilson and the offense had a chance to come back two weeks earlier against Dallas and fell short. Had this drive, which followed Carolina kicking the go-ahead field goal, fizzled out too, we probably wouldn’t be talking about a home playoff game for Seattle this week.
“You know, you go through the journey of the season and you’re going to have some great plays, you’re going to have some plays that you wish you had back and you wish you hadn’t made and you respect the process of it all,” Wilson said.
“I think our growth as a team and the plays that we’ve had to make when the game’s on the line, when our season’s on the line, we’ve always come up with those. We’ve always continued to find ways and be clutch in those moments, and that’s what you want. That’s what championship style teams do, they make clutch plays when they have to.”
1-10-CAR 23 (:53) (No Huddle, Shotgun) R.Wilson pass deep middle to L.Willson for 23 yards, TOUCHDOWN.
“It was kind of a hurry-up play,” Willson said of his game-winning touchdown. “We didn’t go into a huddle. It was just a typical seam route, Russ threw an incredible ball, and I was able to absorb a few hits and roll in. It was pretty cool.”
That drive and that game is hardly the only reason the Seahawks are in the position they are today. As Baldwin put it, “It just settled the dust a little bit until the dust got kicked back up again.” Even if there would be one more loss and few more bumps in the road, that 80-yard touchdown drive was a pivotal moment in a season that has Seattle two home victories away from a return trip to the Super Bowl.
“It was one of those things where it was kind of the beginning to starting us on the right path,” Willson said. “There were a lot more moments later on that continued that, but we were 3-3 at the time, and there were kind of glimpses of the team we knew had, the potential we had.”
Herald Columnist John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com
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