Seattle Seahawks Dud and Stud of Game 14 – Washington
1st Dishonorable Mention – Referee Adrian Hill’s crew
The more minor of the gripes has to do with spotting the football. This might not be entirely their fault because camera angles skew perspective. But all game, their spots seemed off.
That’s not the big issue. What an absolutely awful call for unnecessary roughness in the fourth quarter against the Seahawks. Linebacker K.J. Wright drew a flag for his tackle on Washington receiver Terry McLaurin just before the two-minute warning.
To sum up, on third and 11, Haskins threw a low pass about nine-yard to McLaurin. Wright, who was breaking to the ball, hit the receiver shoulder to shoulder as McLaurin went down to catch it. Nevertheless, Wright was called for hitting a defenseless receiver.
Trailing by five points, the penalty gave WFT a first down on Seattle’s 39-yard line with 2:17 remaining. Fortunately, a pair of sacks stopped Washington cold a minute later. The Seahawks were fortunate that the bad call didn’t come back to bite them in the scoreboard.
Dud of the Week – Second half Defense
During the first half, Seattle played a tight, aggressive defense. They held Washington to a total of 123 yards and three points. The scheme worked well. Whatever adjustments Seattle Seahawks Defensive Coordinator Ken Norton Jr. made at the half should be written down on a piece of paper and burned.
There are many out there why only know “death by a thousand cuts” as a Taylor Swift Song. It’s actually an ancient Chinese punishment and torture called Lingchi that lasted almost 1,000 years before it was outlawed in 1905. Without going into graphic detail, Lingchi worked by inflicting a series of small wounds over days and weeks, which caused the subject great pain and agony until they eventually died.
In a nutshell, that was the Seahawks’ second half defense. Coverage was very loose by Seattle’s linebackers and defensive backs. So Washington took what was given and threw underneath. They were able to carve up the defense by taking small pieces of the field and combining them into sustained drives.
.@JdMckissic for 6⃣
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— Washington Commanders (@Commanders) December 20, 2020