Analyzing Seahawks’ victory over the Cowboys
IRVING, Texas – This was hardly the mad dash end to the first half of the season that the Seahawks might have desired.
Instead, Seattle needed just about every second to beat a Dallas team playing without quarterback Tony Romo before prevailing with a 13-12 win over the Cowboys.
But Seattle will take it, and a two-game winning streak in which it did not allow a touchdown. The Seahawks head into the bye week with a 4-4 record.
Seattle trailed 12-10 when it got the ball at its own 15 with 6:42 left.
The Seahawks methodically moved down the field to set up a game-winning 24-yard field goal by Steven Hauschka with 1:06 remaining.
Seattle then held on through a bizarre last sequence in which an apparent fumble recovery for a touchdown was reversed and the Seahawks also were forced to stop Dallas twice on fourth down due to a penalty.
After falling behind 12-10, Seattle had a chance to retake the lead but Hauschka’s 47-yard field goal with 8:59 remaining was blocked by Dallas rookie defensive end David Irving.
But the final drive saved the day, and maybe a lot more.
The first half ended on a somber note as Seattle receiver Ricardo Lockette fell limp to the ground after taking a hard hit from Dallas’ Jeff Heath on a punt with 12 seconds left.
Lockette was down for 10 minutes or so as Seattle and Dallas players engaged in some shouting and finger-pointing over the hit by Heath, who was called for a personal foul on the play.
Lockette was carted off, raising his right arm into the air as he left. He was found to have a concussion but had full movement in his extremities.
After the bye week, the Seahawks will have a critical home game against the NFC West-leading Arizona Cardinals on Nov. 15. Arizona rallied to beat Cleveland and improve to 6-2 Sunday and also will have its bye next week.
OFFENSE
Wilson didn’t run much and the Seahawks didn’t have a pass of longer than 22 yards.
But he was at his best on the final drive, picking up 8 yards and a first down to the 20 and then a little later turning in a crucial 10-yard scramble on third-and-7 to the Dallas 7.
After working more under center the last few weeks, the Seahawks came out using a lot of shotgun early. They were in the gun on eight of 12 plays on an opening 72-yard drive that resulted in a Hauschka field goal. Seattle, though, was again kept out of the end zone in the red zone (Seattle came into the game 5 of 15 scoring touchdowns when inside the 20, the worst percentage in the NFL).
The Seahawks then used some varied play-calling to move 65 yards in seven plays late in the second quarter with tight end Luke Willson catching a pass of 19 yards to kick-start the drive and then of 22 to end it with a touchdown.
Wilson was 10 of 16 for 119 yards and a touchdown in the first half for a passer rating of 106.0.
Marshawn Lynch gained 11 yards on his first run but then was held to 23 yards on eight carries the rest of the half as the Seahawks were held to 35 yards on 11 carries for the half.
Seattle had just 52 yards rushing on 14 attempts through three quarters.
Regular starting left tackle Russell Okung was inactive after suffering a sprained ankle in practice on Thursday.
His replacement, Alvin Bailey, was at the center of a fourth-quarter interception when he failed to execute a cut block on Greg Hardy, who then batted a Wilson pass and caught it. Wilson made a touchdown-saving tackle to stop Hardy at the 16 and the Cowboy were forced to settle for a field goal to take a 12-10 lead early in the fourth quarter.
The Seattle offense was stagnant overall in the third quarter with 40 yards on eight plays and the interception.
DEFENSE
The Seahawks had little trouble stopping a Romo-less offense, holding the Cowboys to 220 yards.
K.J. Wright was an early standout with three tackles in the open field on third downs to stop Dallas drives, twice forcing the Cowboys to kick field goals after getting inside the Seattle 20.
Dallas’ second scoring drive was keyed by two scrambles for 36 yards by 33-year-old Cassel.
But that was about his only highlights as Dallas had just 91 yards passing.
As had been expected, Richard Sherman shadowed Dez Bryant all over the field and he was held without a catch on two targets in the first half. He had just two mostly inconsequential catches, for a total of 12 yards, in the second half.
Sherman completely blanked Bryant on a third-down play when Dallas was at the Seattle 24 late in the first half forcing a check-down throw and a Cowboys field goal.
Bennett had an ill-timed penalty on the first play of Dallas’ final drive, a low hit on Cassel. But it hardly mattered the way the Seahawks were having their way with Cassel and the Dallas passing game.
SPECIAL TEAMS
Two big special teams errors helped lead to the the game being in doubt until the final minute.
Hauschka was 17 of 17 on field goals, having made one from 26 yards in the first quarter, before the fourth-quarter block.
There appeared to be some special teams redemption a few minutes later when Tyler Lockett returned a punt from the 13 to the Dallas 49. But a holding penalty on Sherman nullified it and forced the Seahawks to have to go the long way to get the winning field goal.
Seattle again didn’t get much done early in the return game as the Cowboys had success limiting Lockett throughout other than the one return that was called back.
Lockett also had trouble fully controlling one punt which he fair caught.