Late, 60-yard field goal and Seahawks come up short against Vikings, playoff hopes sink

Sixty yards. From the middle of the Seahawks logo.

That’s how far Jason Myers had to kick the ball between the uprights to boost the Seahawks’ chances to win the NFC West.

Coach Mike Macdonald would say later Myers was at “the top range of where we felt he could make it.” The kicker plus special-teams coach Jay Harbaugh report that limit on field goals into each end of the stadium to the head coach before every game.

Punting wasn’t an option.

“We’re trying to go win. We are trying to win the game. We’re not trying to be defensive. That’s how we call it. We wanted to call an aggressive game. We thought that was the best decision at that time.”

And it was fourth and 15. The odds of extending the drive with a first down there, against one of the NFL’s best defenses, were lower than the Seahawks’ playoff chances now.

Forced into that try by a key sack of Geno Smith two plays earlier, Myers was short with his 60-yard field goal that would have tied the game with Minnesota Sunday at Lumen Field.

Will the Seahawks come up short making the playoffs because of it?

Smith tried frantically to rally Seattle with 55 seconds and no time outs at its own 17, then after a false-start penalty on tackle Abe Lucas, the 12-yard line. Smith’s final, desperate pass down the right sideline intended for DK Metcalf got intercepted by safety Theo Jackson.

Smith angrily threw his helmet. That’s how the Seahawks lost for the sixth time in nine home games this season, and second weekend in a row. The Vikings won their eighth consecutive game, 27-24, at silenced Lumen Field.

Seattle’s playoff picture just got ugly.

The Seahawks (8-7) entered Sunday in control of their playoff fate. They were tied with the Los Angeles Rams in win-loss record for the NFC West lead, with the Rams ahead on tiebreakers. L.A. won at the New York Jets Sunday.

Now the Rams (9-6) lead Seattle entering the final two regular-season games. The Seahawks play at Chicago (4-11) Thursday, the day after Christmas. The Rams host eliminated-from-playoff-contention Arizona (7-8) Saturday.

Seattle and Los Angeles play each other in the regular-season finale in Inglewood, California, the first weekend of January. The Rams hold the top tiebreakers.

“Destiny is not in our hands right now, which is tough,” Macdonald said.

“But, we still have a ton of football to play for. A break here or there and we’re right back in it, and rollin’.

“We’ll dust ourselves off. Chin up. Chest out. And onward we go.”

Down 27-24 late, the Seahawks drove past midfield on a 15-yard catch and run by Kenny McIntosh. Then Smith got sacked for a key, 7-yard loss by Andrew Van Ginkel.

Seattle’s maligned, often besieged offensive line allowed only two sacks. But the second one was at the worst possible point in the game.

“We’ve just got to execute at the end of the game,” left guard Laken Tomlinson said.

That sack then a short gain on third and long, a 2-yard dump-off pass from Smith to Zach Charbonnet, pushed Myers into a field-goal try of 60 yards. That’s long in any condition, particularly into the open, downtown end of the stadium on a chilly, wet Seattle day.

It was either that, punt or go for it on fourth and 15.

Macdonald chose to try the field goal.

Myers’ kick was short by about 3 yards, and wide right.

The Seahawks are now 2-5 against teams with winning records. The lone victories are at Atlanta in October and in week one, against Bo Nix and Denver in the rookie quarterback’s first career start.

How can this change? How can the middling Seahawks finish games and beat a good team?

“Do right longer. That’s all,” cornerback Tariq Woolen said after he got benched to begin Sunday’s game. “That’s how teams win: Do right longer.

“That’s something we’re working on.”

Seahawks offense comes back

Smith and the Seahawks offense had their best rhythm in weeks, months, maybe all year, on the drive to their go-ahead score with 4 1/2 minutes left.

“We were rollin’,” Tomlinson said.

Smith was 5 for 5 passing to four different receivers on the march. That included 17 yards to Tyler Lockett, who had be invisible as a distant third receiver the previous three games. On third and goal from the 4, Smith threw high to AJ Barner in the back of the end zone. The rookie tight end made a remarkable catch at the top of his leap and held onto the ball upon landing.

The Seahawks took a 24-20 lead with 4:21 remaining.

But the Vikings answered. Seattle thought its defense had a third and long when rookie Byron Murphy sacked Sam Darnold. But the first-round pick grabbed the quarterback’s face mask doing it. That 15-yard penalty gave Minnesota a first down at the Seahawks 39-yard line.

“Bull-(crap) call,” Murphy said.

He said he “brushed” the quarterback’s face mask with his hand, and didn’t grab it.

On the next play Woolen had Minnesota All-Pro wide receiver Justin Jefferson run past him outside down the left sideline. Safety Julian Love was over late in his coverage, too late to prevent Jefferson’s 39-yard touchdown pass from Sam Darnold. The Vikings re-took the lead, 27-24, with 3 1/2 minutes to go.

Macdonald said his Seahawks played that well.

“They had a seven cut (deep outside),” the head coach said. “We just couldn’t get there.”

Fake punt spoiled

The Seahawks trailed 20-17 in the first minute of the fourth quarter when they lined up to have Michael Dickson punt. Except he didn’t punt. Long snapper Chris Stoll’s snap wasn’t long. It was to up back Julian Love. The Pro Bowl safety ran up the middle into a mass of bodies to gain the first down on fourth and 1.

The three plays by Seattle’s offense after the successful fake were awful: a pass in the left flat to running back Kenneth Walker that lost 6 yards, a throw by Smith to nobody, and the Vikings sacking Smith on third down. The Seahawks punted for real after that. Opportunity lost.

But then Love made another big play. He and Woolen broke up a Vikings pass on third down, preventing a catch for a first down by tight end T.J. Hockenson. The Vikings punted with the score still 20-17 Minnesota.

Smith then led Seattle on the 11-play drive to the go-ahead touchdown.

He finished with 31 completions in 43 pass attempts for 314 yards. He threw three touchdown passes and two interceptions. The Vikings sacked him twice, both by Van Ginkel, including the huge one before the failed, long field goal.

Smith said Thursday he would not be fully healthy Sunday, and that he hasn’t been for most of this season, following the knee injury he got last Sunday when Seattle lost at home to Green Bay.

“Yeah, a lot of guys are less than 100%. I’ve been that way pretty much the majority of the season,” Smith, 34, said. “That’s just the way the NFL goes.

“But, no excuses. Got to go out there and perform.”

Then he threw his 14th interception of the season. That gifted Minnesota three points, the margin of its victory.

The Seahawks could not afford that mistake against a 13-2 team. And it cost them. So did 11 penalties for 77 yards. Five of those penalties were four false starts, three by offensive linemen Lucas, Sataoa Laumea and Charles Cross plus one by tight end AJ Barner, plus an illegal shift on wide receiver Jake Bobo. The shift foul wiped out one of the only long runs by lead back Kenneth Walker offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb even called, let alone that worked.

“Against a team like this, with the unforced errors, has to get cleaned up. Starts with me,” Macdonald said.

“We have to clean up the procedural stuff.”

The best — and worst — of Geno Smith

The Seahawks got back into the game with perhaps Smith’s most impressive drive of the season that ended the first half.

New punt returner Jaelon Darden, in his third Seahawks game, had to run back 15 yards to field a booming punt of 63 yards by Minnesota’s Ryan Wright. He inexplicably caught the ball at the 1-yard line instead of taking a touchback. With a drive start at the 12 instead of the 20, Smith went to work.

With two time outs remaining, 88 yards to a touchdown and 85 seconds left in the half, Smith completed 5 of 5 passes. Two were to DK Metcalf. One was a daring dart over the helmet of Vikings cornerback and former University of Washington star Byron Murphy onto Jaxon Smith-Njigba for 25 yards. That got Seattle to the Minnesota 23.

A Stephon Gilmore penalty for holding DK Metcalf preceded Smith’s 18-yard touchdown pass to Smith-Njigba perfectly onto his hands. Smith-Njigba’s sixth touchdown catch this season got Seattle to within 17-14. And the Seahawks were receiving the second-half kickoff.

Smith-Njigba finished with eight catches on 12 targets for 95 yards. The first-round draft choice in 2023 from Ohio State became the 10th Seahawk with 1,000 yards receiving in a season.

That was Smith’s second 5-for-5 drive of the second quarter, sandwiched around his 14th interception in 15 games this season. The other 5-for-5 passing drive ended with a touchdown pass to Metcalf of 25 yards early in the period. That tied the game at 7.

Tre Brown vs. Justin Jefferson

That was the score midway through the second quarter. On a Minnesota third down deep in Seattle territory, outside linebacker Derick Hall sacked Darnold. It would have resulted in a field-goal try. But cornerback Tre Brown inexcusably lined up offside on the play.

Brown said he checked with the line official for an indication whether he was OK aligned or offside. The official didn’t give Brown any indication, of anything.

“They usually give you (something). Tell you to scoot back, or whatever,” Brown said.

The 5-yard penalty gave the Vikings the chance to line Jefferson up one-on-one outside right. He ran past Brown into the end zone. Brown never turned back to find Darnold’s pass. He was counting on being able to strip the arriving ball once he saw Jefferson’s hands go to the pass.

Jefferson expertly showed what they call “late hands.” They fooled Brown. The ball went just over him onto Jefferson’s hands for a 14-7 Vikings lead.

“I mean, that was a helluva a catch. Late hands. It’s hard to see the ball right there,” Brown said.

“I wish I could have that play back.

“He’s one of the highest-paid (receivers). I respect him. But I feel like I could have made that play.”

On the next scrimmage play after that touchdown, Smith was about to get sacked. He threw an interception wide of tight end Noah Fant to linebacker Dallas Turner for a Vikings interception at the Seattle 31-yard line.

Minnesota turned that into three gift points with a field goal. Just like that, the Seahawks trailed 17-7.

Using Kenneth Walker

Seahawks offensive coordinator Grubb saw film of the Vikings and their rushing defense that entered Sunday second in the NFL, and he decided not to run Walker.

In the lead back’s return from missing two games with a calf injury, Walker ran three times in Seattle’s first four plays of the game. Then Grubb called just one official running play for Walker in 25 plays from the first quarter until midway through the third quarter. A second run in that span, early in the third quarter, didn’t count because of a penalty on wide receiver Jake Bobo for an illegal shift at the snap.

Instead, Grubb sent Walker out on pass patterns, and had Smith get Walker the ball in the open field on throws. He had a game-high seven targets, seven catches and 34 yards receiving by the time Seattle’s opening drive of the second half resulted in Jason Myers’ 43-yard field goal.

The plan was mostly working. The game was tied at 17.

Kenneth Walker injured again

Walker left the game with an ankle injury midway through the fourth quarter. His status for Seattle’s game Thursday on the short turnaround at Chicago is in doubt.

“Going to get imaging right now,” Macdonald said Sunday evening. “Not sure of the extent of it.”

Tariq Woolen benched, briefly

After one of the worst games of his three-year career, Tariq Woolen began Sunday’s game on the Seahawks’ sideline.

Brown started for Woolen at left cornerback. When Seattle went nickel, coach Mike Macdonald used cornerback Josh Jobe as the fifth defensive back early. Safety Rayshawn Jenkins was the sixth, dime defensive back.

For one possession, anyway.

Woolen’s benching lasted just 12 plays, one defensive series. That was Minnesota’s 12-play drive to a touchdown early. He was the left cornerback for the second defensive series.

Devon Witherspoon was brilliant on that. He twice took away 2022 All-Pro wide receiver Justin Jefferson, resulting in two incomplete passes by Darnold and a Minnesota punt.

Eventually, Vikings coach and play caller Kevin O’Connell schemed Jefferson onto Brown and third cornerback Josh Jobe. And that was a bad deal for the Seahawks. Jefferson had eight catches on 10 targets for 93 yards and the touchdown before the third quarter was over.