Seahawks coach Pete Carroll mentioned that a focus of their offense in recent weeks has been the quick passing game, and Russell Wilson made some pretty good quick, decisive throws in Sunday’s win. Most notably, Wilson hit Paul Richardson for an 11-yard completion on a curl route to convert third-and-10, setting up a Marshawn Lynch touchdown, and he also made a nice throw into a tight window to hit Richardson for a 10-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter.
But one of Wilson’s best and overlooked plays against the 49ers was the result of what was probably Wilson’s worst throw in that 17-7 victory.
It’s fair to question the Seahawks’ decision to run another play on third down with eight seconds left in the first half rather than just attempt a field goal, and then that arguably bad coaching decision was compounded by a poor decision and throw from Wilson, who tried to hit Doug Baldwin over the middle of the field, but overthrew him and was intercepted by 49ers safety Eric Reid.
“I knew what I was doing,” Wilson said. “I just kind of threw it high. I kind of misaimed there. I was trying to get it to Doug. He was running across the guy, I was trying to get it to him, I just threw it a little high.
Had Wilson taken a shot in the end zone and ended up throwing an incomplete pass, giving the Seahawks time to attempt a field goal, the play would have been easily forgotten, but instead he attempted a throw that probably wouldn’t have worked out even if it had been accurate. As Carroll noted Monday, even if the pass had been on the money, there’s a good chance Baldwin had been tackled short of the end zone, and since the Seahawks had no timeouts left, time would have run out without them kicking a field goal.
But while that throw was probably Wilson’s worst moment of the game, what happened seconds later was one of his most important plays. After picking Wilson off, Reid had room to run and blockers in front of him, and as he approached midfield, the safety had three blockers in white in front of him in front of him, and Wilson was the only player in blue between him and the end zone. Running back Robert Turbin and receiver Paul Richardson were both giving chase, but they may not have had time to catch Reid if his blocker were able to, between the three of them, take a 5-foot-10 quarterback out of the play.
But Wilson was not only willing to sacrifice himself to make a play—something that often isn’t the case when it comes to quarterbacks who just threw an interception—he had the athletic ability and strength to take on Chris Borland, hitting the linebacker so hard that he crashed into Antoine Bethea, forcing Reid to slow up enough that Turbin was quickly able to close the five-yard gap between him and Reid to make the tackle.
“The guys made a great effort of stopping Reid there, in terms of tackling him,” Wilson said. “I had three big guys coming at me, and I thought ‘uh-oh.’ I tried to slow those guys down some way, and I believe that Robert Turbin made the tackle. That was good.”
Unfortunately for Borland, he suffered an ankle injury on that play that knocked him out of the game and might have ended his season, but while Wilson would never have wanted to injure his former Wisconsin teammate, that only further underscored what a physical play Wilson made to save a touchdown.
Seriously, watch the play again and tell me how many NFL quarterbacks are willing or able to make that play?
Had Wilson not made that play, the 49ers likely score to take a 14-3 halftime lead into the locker room. Maybe the Seahawks would have come back from that deficit—they did, after all, end up outscoring San Francisco 14-0 in the second half—but maybe the 49ers play the second half a little differently with a double-digit lead, or maybe they gain some momentum from a 10-point swing at the end of the half and come out inspired in the second half. We’ll never know for sure how the game would have played out had Wilson not helped stop Reid on that interception, but if the Seahawks keep winning and end up with home-field advantage in the playoffs, remember the underrated hustle play made by Wilson seconds after he made one of his worst plays of the game.
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