So of course dummy here is picking the Seahawks. My main concerns are picking Teddy Bridgewater over Russell Wilson in a big game, and that Minnesota hasn't beaten a good team all year except for Green Bay last week. That includes Seattle kicking their butts in the earlier, much warmer meeting this season. We'll see if zero degrees cools off the hot team. Win and cover -4 for Seattle, and I'll stick with the under, which went 2-0 yesterday. Seahawks 21, Vikings 13
Should be Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth announcing for the noon start. Walt Coleman will head an officiating crew that's about half his and half Brad Allen's.
FIRST QUARTER
MINUS SIX degrees at kickoff. Seattle won the toss and elects to break Steven Hauschka's foot. Cordarrelle Patterson tries to get cute with the kickoff fielded inside the 5 and only makes the 12 before Cassius Marsh trips him down. Michael Bennett stops Adrian Peterson early; Richard Sherman finishes the tackle for a 1-yard loss. Mike Wallace actually catches a pass! 10-yard hitch. And idiotically signals first down. 3rd-and-1, dummy. Bennett's offside to give Minnesota a free 5. AP would have had it anyway. 1st-10 at the 26. AP eludes Bennett deep in the backfield and gains 2 off right tackle. Play-action, quick slant to Stefan Diggs goes for another 9. Teddy Bridgewater rolls right away from Marsh's sudden penetration but fires out of bounds. Sherman and DeShawn Shead completely blow up a bubble screen attempt to Adam Thielen. 3rd-10. Seattle double-stunts; Bridgewater goes short to Jarius Wright, who almost gets the first down but is a yard short. Shead and Bruce Irvin with clutch tackles there. Wait, the Vikings are going for it? 4th-1 at their own 46. It looked like a hard-count attempt at first but Bridgewater sneaked it across after his 2nd set of signals. He called out "Let's go Lake," and Seattle really should have known he was going to take that off his center's left hip. I'll bet the other audible is "River". 1st down Vikings. Seattle continues to outquick the Viking tackles, Cliff Avril tripping AP in the backfield this time. 4-man rush again does not get to Bridgewater, who runs an out route from the backfield to gain 9. On 3rd-1, though, the right side of the Viking line blocks ABSOLUTELY NO ONE they're supposed to and get AP buried for a huge loss. Bennett split a double team, then Bobby Wagner got to him after beating a blocker with a swim move, then Kam Chancellor got to him. That's Seattle's entire run defense, and you block none of those guys? OK then. Minnesota just spent seven minutes to drive 40 yards and punt. Seattle calls an inexplicable timeout prior to the punt. Jeff Locke's punt is awful and is lucky to bounce to even the 22.
Christine Michael pounds left for about 3. I see Russell Okung is back in the Seattle lineup, which could be a big boost for them. Trips right, but Russell Wilson is lobbing left all the way, and way overthrowing Fred Jackson's wheel route. 3rd-7. Seattle doesn't want to 3-and-out on offense after a 7:00 Viking drive. But they do, with Jermaine Kearse bobbling away a sideline route. It gets far worse on the punt, as the snap is at Jon Ryan's feet, and a rusher prevents him from getting off a late kick. Ryan channels his inner Johnny Hekker and takes off running, and had room to get the first, but shows the worst running instincts ever and hurdles smack into a crowd instead.
Not only do the Vikings take over at the SEA29, Ryan's down on the Seattle sideline after the play. May have landed on his face at the end of that fine run. AP goes right for 3, with Sherman making another stop. AP gets a monster hole on the left side from Matt Kalil and Brandon Fusco and hits that for 6. That was basically what the Rams would call a "wrap" play. Bridgewater uses Minnesota's 2nd timeout on 3rd-and-inches at the 20. Is Mike Martz over on the Viking sideline somewhere? AP leaps off right tackle and barely gets the 1st down on second effort. Pitch left to AP, but K.J. Wright cuts it off and feeds him back to Ahtyba Rubin for a loss. Rush continues not to get to Bridgewater and he hits McKinnon out of the backfield for 7. Shhh, but Minnesota's passing better than they're running. 3rd-5, another ROCK solid pocket for Bridgewater, and he hits Diggs at the 8. AP runs through Bennett for a couple. Stat of the day from Al Michaels: AP already has more carries in this game than he did in the entire first meeting. Bennett stops him again at the 4 to set up 3rd-and-goal. McKinnon runs a circle route and Bridgewater fires a fastball off his facemask. Michaels and Collinsworth give Wright credit for "breaking up" the pass, but that was mainly a bad throw. Blair Walsh ice chips the Vikings on the board. Vikings 3, Seahawks 0
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| Wikipedia |
SECOND QUARTER
This game's moving quickly, like everybody's in a hurry to get back inside or something. Minnesota packs the box on 2nd-5 and Harrison Smith beats WR Kevin Smith to drop Michael for a loss. Wilson calls timeout, Seattle's 2nd now, on 3rd-6. Diamond stack right, but Wilson throws a slant left to Kearse, who just gets the 6. Everybody's overloading one side and throwing away from it this weekend. Mike Zimmer wants to challenge the spot of the last play, hopefully without starting a fight with anybody. The spot looks right enough on replay, and Zimmer has thrown away his last timeout. Classy Zimmer flails hotly at the refs after the call. Seattle at their 38. Michael cuts inside overpursuit by Griffen again before getting slung down by Rhodes for 6. You'll have to trust me when I say I figured out that play is opening up because Griffen has to keep an eye on Russell Wilson before Collinsworth said it. 23 alignment, empty backfield, Wilson overthrows Fred Jackson's quick out route. 3rd-4. Seattle has to burn their final timeout to prevent delay-of-game. Eric Kendricks and Anthony Barr stop Wilson a couple short on a designed run. The snap to Ryan is terrible again, and he has to rush a bad 26-yard punt.
I don't see Seattle surviving another long Viking drive. They need to get them off quickly. We'll start at the 28, with 28 matadoring Irvin and heading upfield for 4. A couple more for AP, with another stop by Irvin. McKinnon makes a nifty cut and beats Chancellor deep out of the backfield. Chancellor gets away with a hold and that slows McKinnon down just enough for the ball to be at his fingertips and for Earl Thomas to crash in and break up the pass.
From the 39, Wilson hits Doug Baldwin for 23 off a play-action rollout right. Michael eludes pressure in the backfield and bangs into Kendricks on the left edge for a couple. Ahh, and now Wilson brilliantly fakes Griffen into attacking Michael on a handoff, but he kept the ball and zipped around right end for 9. Griffen couldn't stay patient on that play forever. Michael up the middle for a couple, to the MIN25. Barr excellently blows up a quick screen to Baldwin for a loss. Gregg Williams probably would have been blitzing that play and given up a TD. A delayed delay-of-game call moves Seattle back to the 34, and a short pass to Kearse only gets 4 back. Seattle's passing game hasn't shown a lot of downfield ambition. Pete Carroll's going to go for it on 4th-and-13. I might understand bypassing a 48-yard attempt in these conditions, but wasn't Ryan's last punt only 26 yards? Your chances of pinning the Vikings deep are probably the best. They run a 7-yard dumpoff to Jackson on a play I'm sure no one in Seattle understands, and the ball goes back to Minnesota.
5:42 to halftime, Vikings at their 23. AP turns the left corner for 13 and his best run of the day. Minnesota did Bennett there like KC was doing Watt yesterday. Let him overpursue. Nice pass to Mycole Pruitt beats Chancellor for 18. Throwing at him continues to sound like a good idea. Stretch handoff to AP is instead stretched out to the sideline by Avril and Wagner for no gain. Avril wins a big speed mismatch and drops Zach Line for a loss on a dumpoff. 3rd-13, Sherman stops a flare to Pruitt for about 3. Vikes punt with about 3:00 left. Lockett dangerously fields it at the 9, returns it to the 14.
Smoke pass to Baldwin for 2. Read option handoff to Michael for a couple more, swallowed whole by Griffen this time. 2:00 warning. Wilson flings deep for the first time all day and Rhodes clumsily plows over Lockett for an obvious DPI at the MIN40. 41-yard penalty. Jackson makes the least out of a lot of room up front and gets 2. No TOs for Seattle, so the clock's running. Kendricks swats down a pass for Baldwin on a drag, a play James Laurinaitis will never make in his life. Baldwin embarrasses Andrew Sendejo with an inside-out move to get wide open at the goal line, but Wilson's throw is a miserable floater and Sendejo and help get there to break it up. Wilson was hit on the throw. Seattle has to punt, and Ryan's punt is down at the 9. Minnesota will kneel out the low-scoring and quick-moving first half.
This has looked like a pretty typical Seahawk game on defense to me. They see what their straight 4-man rush accomplishes in the first half (not much) and start turning on the heat after halftime. They might as well use Chancellor to blitz, because he's useless in coverage and will probably get picked on when Seattle does finally start blitzing. Minnesota might want to think about double-teaming Bennett, who is having an Aaron-Donald-like game against the run. I'd try going at those big tackles up the middle. The Rams exposed those guys a little bit and I don't think they're as strong there as they typically are. Both teams need to extend the field in the passing game, because both defenses are too good to purposely limit yourself to the fishbowl. Seattle's already started to do it, with success. The Seahawks also arguably have shown more explosive potential with their running game. Read option had Minnesota mesmerized at times in the 1st half and I would think they're ready to really spring it on them in the 2nd.
Minnesota won the first half, but there's still plenty of work left in order to advance. A huge key for Seattle is to prevent long drives, but I'm expecting them to step up the pressure on Bridgewater. Who'll win the halftime adjustment battle?
THIRD QUARTER
Ha, Tony Dungy stole my halftime adjustments. Put that man in the Hall of Fame! Touchback by Blair Walsh, who laughs at -2 degree temperatures. Brian Robison spins Wilson down on an attempted play-action rollout and Wilson gets away with throwing away a wild pass. 2nd-10, Michael can't bounce outside Griffen and loses a little. Everyone agrees Seattle should be running a ton of read option. The only one who doesn't agree so far is the Seattle OC. Wilson gets a ton of time on 3rd-10, throws way high over the middle for Baldwin, but he brings it down Odell Beckham one-handed style for 17. Big play. And now here's the read option; Wilson runs left for 4. Lockett beats Trae Waynes deep as Wilson eludes Floyd on another rollout pass, but it's underthrown again and broken up. 3rd-6, Minnesota blitzes two off LT but Wilson goes to Jackson out of trips right for 11 to the MIN48. Michael power-runs behind fullback Derrick Coleman for 8 off the right side. And we now have Danielle (Hunter) tackling Christine for a 1-yard gain. What is this, the Lingerie League? 3rd-1. Floyd stuffs Christine for a loss after J.R. Sweezy completely whiffs on him. Gary Gilliam blew his block there, too. Seattle going for it on 4th-3 but has to blow TO#1 AGAIN to prevent delay of game. You know how teams that blitz hate to get blitzed? I guess teams with loud home crowds hate loud road crowds. Gilliam is terrible again and gets beaten badly by Hunter on a wide split. He flushes Wilson, who throws too high for Chase Coffman, who tips it to Waynes for an INT. Waynes takes it out to the 46 as it's become painfully obvious that Russell Wilson can not throw downfield today.
Big play for starters here - Bridgewater play-action dumpoff to Line for 11, accompanied by a 15-yard penalty on Avril for a dumb cheap-shot. That puts the Vikes on the SEA28. AP left for 3. Avril redeems himself a little by blowing up a stretch handoff to AP for a loss of SEVEN. Another lame 4-man rush gives Bridgewater time to hit McKinnon for 7 and into makeable FG position. Walsh drills a 43-yard FG true with no problems. Outside! In Minnesota! Somewhere Jeff Fisher and Greg Zuerlein are marveling. Vikings 6, Seahawks 0
I don't know why Seattle is still refusing to turn up the heat on Bridgewater. Walsh blasts another touchback. Play-action dropback, and not only can't Wilson find anyone, he's oblivious to Griffen beating Okung, taking a hard sack back at the 11. Make it back-to-back sacks now at the 7. Griffen and Hunter both drive their tackles practically into Wilson, who escapes, but into Floyd's grasp. We-give-up handoff to Michael, and that's exactly the kind of possession Seattle did not need. Derrick Coleman drags Marcus Sherels down at the 38 but gets flagged for a horse collar tackle without yanking Sherels backwards. He pulled him to the side, but maybe that's still enough for a proper penalty. I thought you had to pull back, though.
Minnesota will start another drive on the Seattle half of the field and may be on the verge of putting the game away. AP tries to bounce a run outside, and would have had a lot of room if not for Sherman cutting him off. 3 yards. DPI on Sherman against Jarius Wright gives Minnesota a first down at the SEA39, though. Bennett holds AP to a couple up the middle. Jet sweep left to Diggs, who gets around Bennett to gain 6. Gregg Williams would have been blitzing that play and given up a TD. 3rd-2, LAME 4-man rush, easy 4-yard pass from Bridgewated to Diggs, who ran a pivot route for the 1st. SEATTLE. BLITZ SOMEBODY! The Seattle Seahawks are inexplicably letting Teddy Bridgewater beat them through the air. AP left for 3. Rubin stops a draw to McKinnon for 1. 3rd-6, Seattle FINALLY blitzes and FINALLY gets to Bridgewater. Rubin split the RT and RG and missed but Avril finished it off at the 30. I'd still bring Walsh in. Mike Zimmer does, and the true Legatron blasts a 47-yard FG. Vikings 9, Seahawks 0
I would suggest this game is over, but we're coming up to the 4th quarter and Russell Wilson is still at QB. After touchback #3 for Walsh, a play-action rollout left gets Kevin Smith wide open for 15 to end the quarter.
FOURTH QUARTER
Illegal contact on Captain Munnerlyn advances Seattle to the 39. Michael takes a delay handoff for 3. Wilson scrambles out of trouble after play-action, pump-fakes about four different times and runs out of bounds for 5. Michael's wide open in the flat off play-action, and Wilson rolls left and hits him out to the MIN39. And talk about making lemons into frozen lemonade! The snap is terrible, past Wilson's left ear. He corrals it 16 yards behind the LOS but alertly springs up and runs out of the pocket, where he can at least throw the ball away, right? But Lockett has been left wide open in the middle of the field, so Wilson tosses to him, he eludes Rhodes and swings all the way down inside the 5. A play that should have lost 16 yards gains 35 instead. VINTAGE RUSSELL WILSON! What'd I say, what'd I say - it's Russell Wilson in the 4th quarter. Collinsworth points out two keys to the play - excellent discipline by the offensive line to not be downfield illegally and excellent improv by Lockett, who was supposed to be the target on a screen pass but took off downfield when he saw trouble. 1st-and-goal. Michael leans up the middle for a couple. Touchdown to Doug Baldwin running a simple slot out at the goal line, and shame on the Vikings, leaving him completely wide open. Josh Robinson blows the coverage; he's in to replace Waynes, who was injured earlier. Vikings 9, Seahawks 7
These are the fires where young playoff teams are forged; let's see how Minnesota responds. Patterson makes the 22 from the goal line on the kickoff. Dumpoff to AP for 5. Play-action leaves AP wide open in the flat for another 10, and just when you think the Vikings have found a creative response to Seattle's TD, AP FUMBLES. That's been a bugaboo for him all year. Chancellor stripped him and Tim Barnes comes up with the loose ball. OK, make it Rubin. It's suddenly Seattle's ball again at the MIN40.
Seattle shows killer instinct by firing deep down the far sideline for Lockett, but Rhodes has him blanketed for a near-pick. Michael right for 3. 3rd-7, with the Vikings really stuffing the box, Kearse beats a returned Waynes for 8, stretching the ball across the marker on a hitch. Seattle next inexplicably leaves Griffen completely unblocked, which forces Wilson to scramble around crazily and barely avoid a 20-yard loss after tossing the ball away while in Griffen's grasp. Vikings fans gotta be wondering where the old in-the-grasp call went. Michael right for 1 at most as Linval Joseph is taking over in the middle. 3rd-9 at the 28. The Vikings blitz off LT and about 4 guys get to Wilson again, forcing another scramble and a throwaway. Seattle brings Hauschka in for a 46-yard attempt. They went for it on 4th-and-13 earlier in the game when it would have been a 48-yard attempt, but on the other side of the field. Hauschka nails this one and makes you wonder why Seattle didn't try the first one. Seahawks 10, Vikings 9
Fire, forge, yada yada. Patterson makes a nice move at the 20 and gets out to the 32, so the Vikings start in good shape. Shead makes a nice play to take Peterson down on the left edge. Peterson was lucky not to fumble that play; the exchange was not clean at all. The uh-oh's for Seattle, though; Bennett's down. Minnesota tried to set up a screen on 2nd-and-9, but Seattle pours through much too fast for a sack. Demarcus Dobbs got there, as did Wagner on a blitz despite getting held. See what happens when you blitz, Seattle? Bridgewater dumps off to Asiata on 3rd-and-18, but Earl Thomas takes him down well short. Fair catch by Lockett at the SEA 31 with just under 6:00 left.
WRAP PLAY for Michael gains 6 off LT. Minnesota stuffs Michael initially out of a full house backfield, but Okung pushes him forward for 3. 3rd-1, could be ballgame right here. Bad play call by Seattle here; they actually want to run an against-the-grain screen to Kevin Smith. Minnesota's all over that and Wilson fires down field and nearly gets picked off by Sendejo. I would have just booted Russell there; Seattle got FAR too fancy and will punt now without taking much time off the clock. And Sendejo by all rights should have picked that off. Ryan's punt gets the roll down to the MIN15. 4:14 to play.
Vikings start at the 19 because Seattle originally touched the punt there. Quick hitch to Diggs for 6. Can Minnesota get anything open downfield? They'll have to. Inside handoff to McKinnon for a 1st out to the 32. AP is on the sideline with Minnesota in passing mode; Seattle better bring it now or never. Bennett, who only missed one play after his injury, bats down a pass. And here come the Seahawks. They blitz all three LBs, McKinnon has no clue who to pick up and picks up no one, Bridgewater tries to escape the pocket but can't. I think the sack will go to Irvin. Bridgewater fires deep for Diggs on 3rd-and-16 but Jeremy Lane breaks it up. Lockett goes down with a pretty big punt at his 25.
About 2:20 to play. Minnesota has all 3 TOs left and the 2:00 warning but obviously HAVE to have a stop now. Michael cuts back and drives for 4 out of another full house backfield. TO#1, Vikings. Read-option handoff to Michael, up the middle for 1. 2:00 warning. 3rd-5. What's the call here? Quick slant to Kearse? No, they wanted to go to Lockett on a swing pass, but Minnesota covered that well and chased Wilson into throwing a pass at Jackson, incomplete on the sideline. Gilliam would have been called for a blatant hold on Anthony Barr anyway. Minnesota's going to get the ball back with two timeouts left. Good punt by Ryan; Sherels returns it to the 39, and the way Walsh is kicking today, the Vikings don't need much more than 20 yards.
1:42 to go. How did a game with so little scoring get this exciting? Good 4-man rush by Seattle gets a pass knockdown by Frank Clark. Benett making like Aaron Donald again. CRITICAL penalty next as Chancellor interferes with Kyle Rudolph at the SEA42. That's FG range for Walsh as far as I'm concerned. And now all of a sudden, here's Rudolph again, breaking away from Chancellor for a big gain, all the way down to the 18! Did somebody tell Minnesota to start picking on Chancellor at halftime or something? 1:26 left, and now Minnesota may be moving too fast. Or not, they have to take their 2nd timeout to avoid delay of game after the big gain. AP left for a yard, TO Seattle #2 at 1:20. Peterson down to the 13 to burn up Seattle's last timeout at 1:15. Peterson nearly gets what would be a game-clinching first down, but Shead drags him down just short. Zimmer bleeds the clock down to 0:26 and sends in Walsh.
OH MY GOD. Walsh just hooked it badly left. Minnesota loses! That's like Tiger Woods in his prime missing a one-foot putt! What a choke-
WAIT A MINUTE. OH MY DOUBLE GOD.
LACES OUT, MARINO! The hold was bad. A decent recapper would have already mentioned this has been a problem for the kicking teams all day. Blair Walsh has gone from Legatron to Ray Finkel thanks to this. Holder Jeff Locke better watch out for a cross-dressing police lieutenant trying to kill him in the near future.
Laces out, Jeff Locke. Laces freaking out.
Final: Seattle 10, Minnesota 9
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| Seattle Times |
That stunning finish shouldn't detract from what Seattle did here. They proved the clutch team coming from 9 down at the start of the 4th quarter. This was Seattle doing what Seattle does, making clutch defensive plays and Russell Wilson running around and making at least one crazy game-changing play. It's the stuff of champions, and the Seahawks showed they've completely still got their chops. I'm going to call Michael Bennett (bottom of the picture) the POTG for having such an Aaron Donald-like effect, especially in the running game. He's a big reason Seattle held Peterson to 45 yards on 23 carries. The award could have gone to Wilson, or to Wagner, or to Sherman, or to the weather that was bad enough to play havoc just with long snaps. Bennett was a key disruptor start to finish.
And disliking Mike Zimmer the way I do, I got more than a little chuckle out of this result. And you know what? Minnesota's another playoff team reminding us why the Rams suck. In this case it was the lack of a credible downfield passing game. Minnesota's definitely joining the Rams in the offseason search for WRs. Beyond that, they just need to flesh this roster out with good role players. A blitz-blocking 3rd-down back like Benny Cunningham would have been big for them today, or a good blocking TE.
Seattle does not get the cover, but I'll gladly take another 2-1 gambling result from a memorable, thrilling game. The question for the Seahawks next week is whether Carolina's pass rush overwhelms their weak (though better with Okung healthy) o-line well enough to put them away early. The Panthers will be courting trouble if they don't get an early knockout.
I need a quick lunch break; we're on to Green Bay-Washington on about a 1/2 hour delay. Good luck matching this game.
-$-
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