Tyler Lockett, Seattle Seahawks.
In a game where the Seattle Seahawks‘ defense seemed to forget how to tackle, they lost to New Orleans 39-32
The game started well enough for Seattle, with a touchdown and field goal on their first two offensive possessions. In the middle, the Seahawks’ defense forced a 3-and-out on New Orleans’s second offensive drive.
The Saints tied the game on their third offensive drive going 69 yards in 10 plays for a touchdown. Taysom Hill, who was a thorn in Seattle’s side all day, capped off the drive with an 8-yard rushing TD.
Special teams was a turning point when Seattle Seahawks punter Michael Dickson lost 8 yards on 4th and 9, deep in his own territory. With a significantly shortened field, it only took the Saints two plays to go 13 yards, capped off with another rushing TD by Hill.
Seattle ended the first half with a field goal and a touchdown. The latter came after a forced fumble. Unfortunately, they missed the extra point. At halftime, the Seahawks led 19-17.
On the first play of the second half, D.K. Metcalf caught an 8-yard pass and fumbled. New Orleans took advantage of the short field, scoring on a 16-yard pass from Andy Dalton to Chris Olave.
The next three drives resulted in punts, two for the Seahawks and one for the Saints. After the second Seahawks punt, Tariq Woolen picked off Dalton. Seattle failed to capitalize on their good field position, gaining 1 yard, and had to punt.
New Orleans rebounded with a 4-play, 79-yard touchdown drive. Taysom Hill did in the Seahawks again, throwing a 22-yard touchdown pass to Adam Trautman to give the Saints a 31-19 lead with 36 seconds left in the 3rd quarter.
Midway through the fourth quarter, running back Kenneth Walker scored on a 69-yard run to put the Seahawks ahead 32-31. Seattle’s defense couldn’t hold.
After the Seahawks punted, it only took three plays for New Orleans to score, which came on a 60-yard touchdown run from, guess who, Taysom Hill to put the Saints ahead for good.
There are many candidates for the Dud of the Week, especially when a game ends this ugly.
The Seattle Seahawks defense looked bad again. They gave up 39 points to the Saints, who were missing their starting quarterback, and by the end of the game, all three of their starting wide receivers.
The 2nd Dishonorable mention goes to kicker Jason Myers. Usually locked in from almost any distance, he made two field goals, including a long of 56-yards. But Myers missed an extra point, which forced the Seahawks to go for two and fail.
If he had made the XP, the Seahawks would have been up by 3 instead of 2.
Tackling, as in, does the Seattle Seahawks defense know how to do it? There were times on Sunday when it seemed like they were intentionally throwing the game by missing their tackles.
Although they made 82 tackles, they probably missed as many, especially early in the game.
Taysom Hill looked nearly invincible as he accounted for 4 TDs on the day, 3 rushing and 1 passing. He racked up 112 yards on 9 carries, most of which came on a 60-yard TD run where he was virtually untouched.
Alvin Kamara gained 103 yards rushing on 23 carries for the day.
The biggest dud this week is D.K. Metcalf. He was targeted 8 times but only had 5 receptions.
On the Seahawks’ second drive of the game, Metcalf had an offensive pass interference call. Seattle had to settle for a field goal.
Later in the game, D.K. dropped two more passes, including one in the endzone forcing the Seahawks to kick another three-pointer.
He made a catch on the Seahawks’ first offensive play of the second half but fumbled the ball away. Metcalf did haul in a 32-yard TD catch, but the play was nullified due to a holding call on offensive lineman Charles Cross. So it didn’t count.
Even though there were plenty of duds in this week’s game, there were some studs as well.
The 2nd honorable mention this week is Kenneth Walker III. The rookie had his welcome party to the NFL with an excellent game in relief of Rashaad Penny after Penny got injured.
Walker had 8 carries for 88 yards and 1 TD. His 69-yard touchdown run gave the Seattle Seahawks a shot in the arm and a lead at the time. Unfortunately, he was only able to gain 8 more yards on Seattle’s final offensive drive of the game.
Geno Smith surprised everyone again. He did everything within his power to help his team win this game but came up short.
Three incompletions to Metcalf (including one he should have caught for a touchdown), 2 incompletions to Noah Fant, and a couple of sacks that possibly could have been avoided were the only mistakes he made all day. Smith finished with 268 passing yards and 3 TDs, and another 13 yards on the ground.
The Seattle Seahawks Stud of the Week is Tyler Lockett. He turned his season around with 5 catches for 104 yards, and 2 touchdowns.
Lockett looked like his old, surehanded self. He didn’t return any punts this week, but he also didn’t have any fumbles.
His 40-yard touchdown catch in the third quarter kept the Seattle Seahawks in the game. It’s good to know that Lockett can still be counted on for an exceptionally strong performance.
Who were your Seattle Seahawks Duds and Studs this week? Let us know in the comments section below.