Leonard Williams stars on old field, 1st-place Seahawks take Jets gifts for wild 26-21 win

They left these Meadowlands for home with the most powerful force their rookie coach has worked almost a full year to acquire.

Belief.

How else could the Seahawks pulled this one off?

Leonard Williams created three touchdowns. For both teams. His own, and his former one that drafted him.

The Seahawks failed three times on fourth and 1, yet got first downs on two of them.

They failed on five tries to score from the 1-yard line.

They allowed a kickoff return for a touchdown by a practice-squad call-up. Their punter got hurt. They fumbled three kickoff returns.

And...they won.

Handed two first downs on fourth down by penalties on the woebegone Jets, Seattle took the lead for the first time Sunday on an 8-yard run by previously stuffed Zach Charbonnet with 5 1/2 minutes left.

Then Williams, who earlier returned an interception 92 yards for a touchdown — from nose tackle — sacked Aaron Rodgers. Twice. Coach Mike Macdonald called a timely, last-play blitz by Coby Bryant. That forced Rodgers to throw incomplete on fourth down from deep in Seattle territory in the final seconds.

And the Seahawks rallied from down 21-7 to escape the New Jersey Meadowlands with not only the 26-21 victory but a firmer hold on the NFC West lead on a wild Sunday outside New York City.

“Crazy game,” the 37-year-old Macdonald said after his team’s third consecutive win.

“But our guys are resilient. We didn’t bat an eye...Stayed the course.

“There were so crazy sequence of events that took place.”

“Yeah,” Pro Bowl safety Julian Love said, “that was probably one of the crazier games that I’ve been a part of, for sure.”

He laughed.

“The game had everything.”

After three consecutive wins, after going from last place to first by a game in the NFC West with five remaining, these Seahawks (7-5) now believe.

“I feel like that’s got something to do with it,” lead running back Kenneth Walker (16 carries, 49 yards) told The News Tribune inside another loud Seahawks locker room postgame at MetLife Stadium, where Seattle is now 7-0 all-time including its Super Bowl 48 win.

“Being down early in the game like that, we could have easily given up. But everybody finally decided to fight and keep playing, and we came up with the win.

“That’s got something to do with team chemistry. ...We know the guy next to us has our back. If we didn’t have that team chemistry it’d be easily to quit or give up, or blame the next guy.

“Instead, everybody rallied together and made plays.”

Seahawks wide receiver DK Metcalf (four catches on nine targets for 66 yards) said the comeback win “just showed our resilience.”

“This is a tight-knit group, on both sides of the ball,” said Metcalf, who injured his leg and missed two plays in the second half but finished.

“That’s the one positive thing we can take away from this game.”

Maybe the only one.

That, and Williams’ continued dominance.

Geno Smith completed 20 of 31 passes for 206 yards and a touchdown while getting harassed all day. He took a massive sack to ruin a fourth and goal from the 1.

“Coach Macdonald talked to us about really just locking in and banding together the rest of the season,” Smith said. “I thought today was an example of that.

“Things were kind of going haywire. Guys pulled together. There was great leadership on the sidelines.

“And then Leo made the play that really turned the game.”

Coupled with Arizona (6-6) losing at Minnesota Sunday, the Seahawks took a full game lead over the Cardinals atop the division. Seattle plays at Arizona next Sunday.

“It’s great where we are in the division,” Love said after his key forced fumble helped the Seahawks defense hold the Jets scoreless from the midway point of the second quarter through the game’s end.

“But we have stuff to do.”

Fourth-down wildness

Because punter Michael Dickson was out with back spasms, Macdonald had the Seahawks offense lined up to go for it on fourth and 6 from the Seahawks’ own 33-yard line with 9 1/2 minutes left down 21-19.

Then the Jets did what a 3-8 team does.

First, New York had 12 men on the field for a penalty. On the resulting fourth and 1, Smith rolled out to pass. He looked to his two receivers out of the route, as offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb had a maximum protection called. The second option was Metcalf. As Smith threw to him, Metcalf got tripped by Jets cornerback Qwan’tez Stiggers. The pass-interference penalty gave the Seahawks a 20-yard gain to the New York 42-yard line.

That led to another fourth and 1. Charbonnet ran right into a wall of Jets. One of them, linebacker Jamien Sherwood, inexplicably pulled Charbonnet, already stopped short of the line to gain, to ground by the top back of his shoulder pads. The definition of a horsecollar tackle by NFL rules resulted in another gift first down for Seattle.

Charbonnet converted that into the go-ahead touchdown with an 8-yard run behind left guard Laken Tomlinson.

Wildly, the Seahawks had their first lead of the day, 26-21 with 6 minutes remaining.

Short-yardage fails

Grubb had the Seahawks come out from halftime targeting the Jets’ 2nd-ranked pass defense deep down field with DK Metcalf. Grubb sent Metcalf on a go route past All-Pro cornerback Sauce Gardner for 28 yards then past former Seahawk D.J. Reed. Those got Seattle into first and goal, trailing 21-16.

The Seahawks then had five chances from inside the 1-yard line. Two were extra - one off a pass-interference penalty grabbing Metcalf in the end zone, and then a Jets offsides penalty.

All five of those five plays from the 1 failed. Four were pass-play calls by Grubb. On the final one, fourth and goal, center Olu Oluwatimi was the first of multiple Seahawks offensive linemen to miss blocks. The Jets swarmed and sacked Smith for a 14-yard loss. Smith dejectedly trudged to the sideline, and Seattle’s hopes to stay in the division lead dimmed.

“Yeah, we’ve got to get better at that, Smith said. “If I was to be critical of anything, I think that’s the main thing. We’ve got to be better in the short-yardage area. And that’s all of us. It’s on all of us.

“Those are the situations where you can really punch it in and dominate a game. If you can dominate short yardage and you can get all those, you’re going to be a really good team.”

Macdonald said he, Grubb and the coaching staff will now dissect every aspect of short-yardage offense, from preparation to game-plan to play-calling and players executing.

But then Love changed the momentum and the game. He hit Breece Hall low and on the ball at the end of the Jets running back’s 11-yard run. Seahawks rookie linebacker Tyrice Knight grabbed the fumble.

Love said he was merely trying to bring down Hall, as the last man in the back of the defense in the open field — but that he got squared up well on the running back to make such an impacting hit.

Seattle turned that into a 43-yard field goal by Jason Myers. The Seahawks trailed 21-19 with 13:11 left.

“The culture of our defense is settling in,” cornerback Riq Woolen said.

A zany first half

That was after perhaps the most inexplicable first half in Seahawks’ history.

“Yeah,” Smith, the 34-year-old 12-year veteran said, “I mean, that first half was definitely a little crazy.”

It had:

• A face-mask penalty on Williams that led to not one but two Jets touchdowns late in the first quarter

• Three kickoff returns fumbled and lost by the Seahawks

• A 99-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by a Jets practice-squad call-up

• A blocked point-after-touchdown by each team

• A 92-yard interception return for a touchdown by Seattle’s 6-foot-5, 310-pound defensive end

• A mammoth suck on the oxygen mask by that 310-pound end after his trek and score

“Think that was, like, the first time ever that happened in the NFL, the whole series of events in the first half,” Macdonald said.

The wild game could have, maybe should have, been 28-7 Jets in the second quarter, partly because of Williams.

Instead, the Seahawks trailed only 21-16 into the third quarter.

Macdonald gathered his team in the locker room during the halftime break and told them: “Hey, it might have been the craziest first half of all time. And we’re down, you know, like five points...So stick to the plan.

“And let’s go!”

Then, especially Williams, went.

Leonard Williams’ adventures

The game started quietly enough. In a scoreless tie, Williams sacked Rodgers back to midfield on a Jets third down. That took New York out of field-goal range midway through the first quarter. But Williams grabbed the quarterback’s face mask as he sacked Rodgers. That 15-yard penalty gave the Jets a first down at the Seattle 28 instead of a punt.

Rodgers turned that gift into an 8-yard touchdown pass to Davante Adams. He beat Seahawks cornerback Josh Jobe easily one one on to the left sideline of the end zone on a fade route for the game’s first score.

On the ensuing kickoff, Seahawks rookie Dee Williams lost the ball on his return left on a hit by New York’s Kene Nwangwu. The Jets recovered at the Seattle 27.

Rodgers converted that gift, too. His 4-yard touchdown pass to rookie Isaiah Davis made it 14-0 Jets on two TDs in 95 seconds of game time.

Without Williams face-mask penalty, there would have been no Jets touchdown on that drive, and no kickoff for Seattle to fumble there.

After the Jets’ score, Seattle’s Laviska Shenault fumbled the Jets’ ensuing kickoff, though the Seahawks recovered. Smith led Seattle on a drive to a touchdown that cut the Jets’ lead in half. Smith’s 12-yard touchdown pass to rookie tight end AJ Barner came under a clear-out route then block by Metcalf.

The wide receiver ran Sunday like he wasn’t fully well. He missed practices Wednesday and Thursday. The team listed him with a shoulder injury. Then he hurt his leg in the second half. Metcalf had two big catches to begin the second half.

Jason Myers’ kickoff after the Smith touchdown pass to Barner landed into the arms of Nwangwu at the 1-yard line. Three Seahawks coverage men missed tackles on the practice-squad player called up for the game. Myers, the kicker, was the last Seattle player with a chance to stop Nwangwu. Myers got blocked. The 99-yard return for a touchdown put the Jets back up two touchdowns, 21-7.

On the ensuing kickoff, Shenault dropped the kick. Again. Then he kicked the ball. Then, as he fell untouched to the turf, he lost the ball again. The Jets recovered another fumble, at the Seattle 38.

Rodgers moved New York into the end zone for a potential three-score lead. The Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald showed the deception and multiplicity in his defense that made his former unit in Baltimore the NFL’s best.

Macdonald had Williams line up as a nose tackle, over the Jets center. As Rodgers dropped to throw a pass over the middle to Garrett Wilson, Williams dropped into pass coverage there. The 40-year-old three-time league MVP didn’t expect the nose tackle dropping into coverage.

“That’s pretty much what that drop is meant to be,” Williams said of fooling Rodgers.

Williams tipped Rodgers’ pass to himself at the 8-yard line. Then he sprinted left the roaring Seahawks sideline, all the way to the opposite end zone behind a vanguard of teammates blocking.

“Once I crossed the 50, I was actually looking to pitch it. To somebody,” the 30-year-old Williams said of his first-ever touchdown.

“I mean, I literally just laid down...I was like, exhausted.”

NFL NextGen Stats said Williams ran 17.84 mph on his return. That’s the fastest for a defensive lineman as a ball carrier in more than five years.

“He was runnin’ like hell,” Woolen, one of those vanguards, said.

“He slidin.’

Williams’ 92-yard interception return flipped the game from a Jets runaway, possibly 28-7, to 21-13.

It was the longest interception return for a touchdown by a defensive lineman in NFL history, according to ESPN Research.

“Really?” Williams said. “That’s pretty awesome.

“History.”

A field goal by Myers late in the half brought the Seahawks to within 21-16.

Sataoa Laumea debuts

Rookie Sataoa Laumea had one false start but was solid in his NFL debut and first start, at right guard. He stopped New York’s Javon Kinlaw to allow Smith time for third-down conversion pass to Jaxon Smith-Njigba in the first half, to the Jets 28.

“I think our offensive line for the most part, I thought we ran the ball well in spurts,” Macdonald said. “It seems to be more consistent.

“I think he, probably started off a little slow on a couple of assignments but bounced back and gave us a winning performance.”

Seahawks defensive looks

In addition to dropping defensive end Williams into pass coverage from nose tackle, Macdonald used multiple schemes in the back of the defense.

Seattle began the game using “big nickel,” with safety Rayshawn Jenkins the extra defensive back early. As the game went on the fifth defensive back became cornerback Devon Witherspoon, with Jobe and Woolen the outside cornerbacks.

Rodgers spent much of the day targeting whomever Jobe, the practice-squad player earlier this season, was covering.