Seahawks suffer 29-20 home loss to Giants

Was it a trap?

Fresh off a Monday Night Football loss to Detroit and a date with the rival San Francisco 49ers looming, the Seattle Seahawks fell 29-20 to the previously struggling Giants on Sunday at Lumen Field.

“Talk about not doing things in all three phases to win a football game,” said Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald, whose team lost its second straight after a 3-0 start. “We gave ourselves a chance to win it there in the fourth, and we came up short. The message is we don’t have time to sit around and put our heads down. We’ve got to keep our heads up, take it on the chin and move forward. We’ve got a game (Thursday) and we need to be ready to go.”

The Seahawks struggled in all phases of the game at times, and offensive play calling may have been one of them. Quarterback Geno Smith attempted 40 passes, and was sacked an additional seven times. Meanwhile, Kenneth Walker III carried the ball just five times in the game, giving the Seahawks seven total carries from running back position.

Smith led all Seattle rushers, scrambling four times for 72 yards. He completed 28 of 40 passes for 284 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions.

Walker III chose his words carefully after the game, shaking his head a couple of times and saying, “I don’t know.”

“I feel like we didn’t execute offense,” said Walker, who led Seahawks in receptions with seven. “We just didn’t make the plays we needed to make to win the game.”

When asked if he expected to carry the ball more, he said, “You always expect to carry the ball more.”

“We definitely need to get the run game going,” Macdonald said. “The way the game started, we felt like we needed to get Geno going early. I’m not sure how many plays we had in the first half, but it wasn’t many.”

“We need to get the run game going and we need to get Ken the ball more.”

Smith said the bottom line is the team just didn’t play well.

“They played harder. They fought harder. They wanted it more,” Smith said. “And they executed better.”

Despite all that, the Seahawks lined up for a game-tying, 47-yard field goal attempt with 55 seconds remaining.

It was blocked. Instead of potential overtime, it was basically over.

There was some question about the legality of a play that led to the Giants blocking the kick. With the Giants leading 23-20, Giants linemen Rakeem Nunez-Roches pushed down on Seahawks long snapper Chris Stoll’s back just after he snapped the ball.

Seahawks linemen Laken Tomlinson also went low, and was pushed lower by New York’s Dexter Lawrence II. That allowed Isaiah Simmons to leap over Tomlinson and Stoll and block Myers’ try. Bryce Ford-Wheaton picked up the blocked ball and ran 60 yards for a Giants touchdown for the final score.

Officials stated after the game that it was a clean play.

In a statement obtained by ESPN’s Brady Henderson, who is assigned as the Seahawks pool reporter for officiating questions, NFL Officiating Rules Analyst Walt Anderson confirmed through an NFL spokesperson that the Giants’ blocked field goal was legal.

“On Isaiah Simmons (No. 19) jumping over the line, Anderson confirmed via the spokesperson that Gene Steratore’s explanation on the broadcast was correct, saying there was no foul because Simmons was on the line of scrimmage and did not use anyone as leverage.”

“On the matter of Rakeem Nunez-Roches (93) pushing down on long-snapper Chris Stoll (41), Anderson said via the spokesperson that ‘pushing down alone is not a foul and there was no forcible contact to the head and neck.’”

Neither aspect of the play is reviewable even though it’s a scoring play, per Anderson via the spokesperson.

“I have feelings about it, but it went how it went, and I’m just going to put it at that,” Tomlinson said. “It’s up to the refs.”

Macdonald refused to place blame on officiating.

“There’s a guy in the A gap, we need to block him,” Macdonald said. “It’s pretty much that simple.”

There was more to the loss than that play however. While Seattle couldn’t — or didn’t — run the ball, New York running backs toted the ball 34 times for 175 yards, led by rookie fifth-round pick Tyrone Tracy’s 18 carries for 129 yards.

New York quarterback Daniel Jones, who’s had a rocky career, played rock solid for most of the afternoon, completing 23 of 34 passes for 257 yards and two TDs.

“I don’t think in any phase that we played good enough to win,” said Seahawks safety Julian Love, a former Giant. “Obviously we had a shock there at the end.”

“We’ve got to address some issues we’ve been facing.”

Despite all those issues, Seattle found itself in a situation where an successful field goal could have propelled them to eventual victory.

Jerome Baker returned from inury and led the Seahawks with 14 total tackles (eight solo, six assists). But the team as a whole missed far too many tackles and found themselves out of the correct gaps.

The Giants demonstrated some physicality early, but Seattle took a shocking lead toward the end of the first quarter.

New York used 16 plays and nearly 10 minutes of clock time to drive from their own 40-yard-line to the Seahawks 1. On fourth-and-1, Baker hit Giants running back Eric Gray, who fumbled just prior to crossing the goal line. Seahawks safety Rayshawn Jenkins scooped it up two yards deep in the end zone and ran it all the back for a team-record 102-yard fumble return for a touchdown.

That defense was Seattle’s best offense for most of the game. The Giants regularly broke through the Seahawks’ offensive line to disrupt Smith. Third down proved to be a major issue as Seattle converted just three of 11 attempts (27.3%) while New York succeeded 43.8 percent of the time (seven of 17).

Seattle finished with 333 yards while the Giants compiled 420.

It’ll be an angry bunch when the 49ers (2-3) come to Lumen Field for Thursday Night Football. Both teams lost to underwhelming opponents. San Francisco fell 24-23 to the Arizona Cardinals despite leading 23-10 at halftime.

“It’s hard to do a huge autopsy on this now, because in about an hour we’ve got to go to work on the Niners,” Macdonald said. “We do need to look at it and see where we need to improve.”

The full box score can be found here.

Reports is courtesy of SeattleSportNow.com.