Seattle Seahawks: Russell Wilson, the Good, the Bad and the Perplexing
Head scratching second
The Second quarter saw improved scoring, but continued inconsistencies and mediocre to poor play by their incredibly gifted but erratic franchise quarterback. For lack of a better term, Russell Wilson was consistently inconsistent. He went from good to bad and hot to cold with incredible regularity. Here are some examples.
In the second quarter, following a beautiful throw to Baldwin, after deciding to forgo delivering the ball earlier in routes, Wilson followed up with a throw to the turf worms. Baldwin made an incredible catch on a bubble screen that resulted in no gain. On his next attempt, Wilson was on target again, hitting Lockett with a dime for 13 yards.
Let’s fast forward to the final drive of the half.
Seattle received the ball with two timeouts and 0:39 to move into scoring range for a chance to tie or even take an improbable lead. Wilson looked good initially, and then the perplexing happened. Seattle moved briskly to their 43 with one timeout and 28 seconds to work with. There are only two unforgivable things in that instance a quarterback can do, turn it over, or take a sack. Wilson did the latter.
As all special talent quarterbacks sometimes do (especially Wilson), he held the ball far longer than he should have and didn’t get rid of it. Wasting seven seconds and costing Seattle its final timeout. This is something you come to expect from young inexperienced players, not from veteran Super Bowl winning quarterbacks. While this play was perplexing, what happened next was truly baffling.
With 21 seconds to go in the half, Wilson ran immediately upon receiving the snap. After gaining a first down, and with a clear path to the sideline, he chose to continue his run upfield. Realizing he couldn’t get out, RW3 attempted to lateral the ball to Vannett on the sideline. The QB ended up throwing the ball forward, which carried with it, a loss of down, a five-yard penalty, and a ten-second runoff. In essence, the play cost Seattle 19 seconds of the 21 they had when they snapped the ball.
The play was more akin to something you would see from a 10-year-old, on a gravel parking lot behind an abandoned warehouse somewhere. Wilson’s ability to create, and improvise is something to behold. That said, there needs to be a balance, and smart decision making about when to use it. Seattle had squandered their opportunity to score. The Seahawks, for the second week in a row, went into the half trailing by four 21-17.