SEATTLE — Someone get that man a towel and some icepacks. Break out the oxygen tank and IV bag. Maybe even grab a bottle of Recovery Water out of the refrigerator.
Whatever it takes for Russell Wilson to regain his vigor, get it too him. He deserves it, and he needs it.
The Seattle Seahawks quarterback starred in his own reality television show Monday night, but instead of Monday Night Football it was titled: “Run For Your Life!”
Thankfully for the Seahawks, Wilson was able to elude all the obstacles and survive all the predators — barely — to earn the grand prize at the end, a 13-10 Seattle victory over the Detroit Lions. But Wilson needed every single blade of FieldTurf covered by his legs at CenturyLink Field to pull it off.
Wilson’s passing numbers were those of a quarterback who had himself quite the day: 20-for-26, 287 yards, 125.0 passer rating. They’re the type that suggest a stroll in the park in a what was a blowout victory.
But the numbers don’t even begin to tell the story of Wilson’s day. Wilson might as well have been on a track team with the amount of running he was forced to do. He had to run to scramble. He had to run to get passes off. He practically had to run just to complete a handoff. It was fitting that the game’s clinching play, a 50-yard completion to Jermaine Kearse on third-and-short that allowed the Seahawks to run the clock out, came following yet another extended Wilson scramble.
“I can’t even think of all the crazy scrambles he had to make,” Seattle head coach Pete Carroll marveled after the game.
“It just changed so drastically from what it looked like was going to happen to what eventually happened. It was a remarkable effort.”
And it must have been a remarkable drain. Wilson was largely left on an island Monday. He received little help from the running game as, in Marshawn Lynch’s absence because of a hamstring injury, replacement Thomas Rawls was held to 48 yards on 17 carries. The offensive line, which couldn’t open any holes for Rawls, also left Wilson out to dry. Not only was Wilson sacked six times, he was the subject of another 10 QB hits. He must have been flushed at least a dozen times, either taking the ball himself or throwing on the run.
The Seahawks knew they were going with a makeshift offensive line this season. In order to sign the team’s stars, including Wilson, to big-money contracts Seattle had to scrimp in other areas, and the offensive line was the one of those. Two of the five starters had never started an NFL game prior to this season. Part of the rationale for choosing the offensive line as a budget unit was that Wilson, because of his mobility, would be able to compensate for any deficiencies on the offensive line.
But I doubt this is what the Seahawks brass had in mind. Wilson came into the game having been sacked 12 times, which tied him for the most in the NFL with Tennessee’s Marcus Mariota. Wilson was brought down six more times by the Lions on Monday, avoiding the dubious distinction of being the most-sacked QB in the league all by himself only because the Cincinnati Bengals got to Kansas City’s Alex Smith seven times Sunday — the same Bengals team Seattle plays on the road next week.
“It’s not as good as we need it to be,” Carroll said of the offensive line play. “We didn’t run the ball as well as we wanted to tonight and obviously had trouble protecting. So we’ve got to look at it.
“We’re still not as clean as we need to be,” Carroll added. “Six sacks, that’s a lot of negative yards. We have to be better there, in all ways. If it was one guy it would be a different story. It’s not that, we have issues we have to take care of.”
There are those who argue that Wilson is part of the problem, holding onto the ball too long and allowing the pass rush time to create pressure. He certainly didn’t help his cause by fumbling twice while being sacked in the second half — Wilson acknowledged that “those are on me” following the game. The second of those fumbles was returned for a touchdown that made it 13-10, giving life to a Detroit team that was in the process of having the last rites read after doing nothing offensively all game long.
But what is Wilson supposed to do when he constantly has pass rushers in his face immediately after dropping back three steps?
“You watched Russell battle all night long,” Carroll said. “He was being sacked, he was scrambling, then he was completing passes. It was a crazy night of football, I can’t wait to see what that film looks like from his night because he had some phenomenal plays. Then the ball got away from him a couple times, just uncharacteristic things that happened to us.”
The fumbles may have been uncharacteristic. The pressure on Wilson, unfortunately for the Seahawks, is not. And until the Seahawks get their offensive line issues sorted out, Wilson better keep those legs nice and limber. They’re going to get plenty of use.
Check out Nick Patterson’s Seattle Sidelines blog at http://www.heraldnet.com/seattlesidelines, and follow him on Twitter at @NickHPatterson.
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