Carted off the field a week earlier in Los Angeles, DK Metcalf was back on the field Sunday at Lumen Field, catching a touchdown pass in the Seahawks’ victory over the New York Giants and celebrating afterward as if, well, as if everything was normal.
And, yep, Metcalf’s ability to play through injuries is starting to become a normal routine, even for an injury that appeared as serious as the one to his left knee last week against the Chargers.
Metcalf sat out practices Wednesday and Thursday to rest the patellar tendon injury. The plan was for him to test it out during a light practice Friday.
“And Friday, I felt good enough to be able to run and put pressure on my knee and cut and everything, and I was able to practice,” he said. “And here we are today.”
Metcalf has never missed a game in his four-year NFL career, a streak that stretched to 57 games Sunday.
He played the final 13 games of the 2021 season with a foot injury that required surgery in the offseason.
Tyler Lockett was questionable coming into the weekend, too, first because of a hamstring injury and then an oblique injury that occurred late in Thursday’s practice.
Like Metcalf, Lockett played Sunday and caught a touchdown pass in the 27-13 victory over the Giants.
“Like DK said, I think the athletic trainers did a great job being able to get us ready, giving us certain things that we needed to be able to do to be able to strengthen certain areas,” Lockett said.
Ryan Neal cramps up late
Safety Ryan Neal was carted off the field after the game because of cramping in both of his hamstrings.
He said in the locker room he was OK.
“Oh yeah. I’m feeling good. I’m good. I’m great,” Neal said.
Said Pete Carroll: “He’s cramping. Both hamstrings, that bugger, he goes back in the game. He had both hamstrings cramping and he tried to stiff his way back on the field and play.”
Neal had another strong all-around game, finishing with six tackles, including two tackles for loss.
New special teams ace?
During a fill-in day on special teams, tight end Will Dissly was involved in two fumble recoveries on punt coverage.
Dissly isn’t typically involved in punt coverage. But with special teams captain Nick Bellore out with a concussion, Dissly was called on to fill that role Sunday.
Dissly forced a fumble with a hit on Giants’ Richie James late in the second quarter. That set up Jason Myers’ first field goal to give the Seahawks a 10-7 lead at halftime.
In the fourth quarter, Travis Homer forced another James fumble, this one recovered by Dissly at the Giants 32-yard line.
Two plays later, Kenneth Walker III ran in for a 16-yard touchdown, extending the Seahawks’ lead to 27-13 with 5:31 remaining in the game.
“Bellore went down, so I had to step in and fill that role,” Dissly said. “I wear a lot of hats around here and [special] teams is one of them. I’m just happy to help the team get the win.”
Carroll gets penalty called on Seattle ‘Mariners’
As Carroll said after the game, “The team had two penalties, and then I had one.”
Indeed, Carroll was called for unsportsmanlike conduct for venturing onto the field and bumping into down judge Frank LeBlanc following a Geno Smith 14-yard scramble that converted a third-and-8 with 2:11 to play and essentially sealed the win.
“That was terrible,” Carroll said later. “But it was a good call, not a bad call.”
What Carroll said he didn’t know was what happened next.
In explaining the call, referee Jerome Boger said the penalty was committed by the Seattle “Mariners” instead of Seahawks.
“No way. Awesome,” Carroll said when informed of Boger’s Mariners mention. “… Scott [Mariners manager Scott Servais] has got it wired now. He don’t need me.”
Center Austin Blythe sprains knee, could have returned
The Seahawks got a scare when center Austin Blythe hobbled off during the second series of the game, then headed to the locker room with a knee injury. But tests revealed no major damage just a sprain, and Blythe eventually returned to the game briefly. However, the Seahawks then went back to backup Kyle Fuller to play most of the rest of the way.
“He could have gone back in,” Carroll said. “And we said, let’s wait, and we held him off to be only in an emergency. Kyle [Fuller] did a great job to get in there and step in.”
Bruce Irvin steps in for ailing Darrell Taylor
Darrell Taylor, listed as questionable with a groin injury, suited up and played on the first series. But he couldn’t play after that, which opened the door for Bruce Irvin to play most of the rest of the way at outside linebacker.
Irvin, in just his second game of his third tenure with the team after signing to the practice squad Oct. 12, finished with two tackles, one an 8-yard loss of Giants running back Saquon Barkley.
“He just couldn’t hang,” Carroll said of Taylor. “He tried. Valiant effort to get out there and go. He’s got a hip thing, kind of a groin-hip thing that’s bothering him that isn’t a real serious injury, but yet he’s not through it yet. He thought he could make it, he went and started and tried and then he couldn’t, so we had to pull him out. So I don’t know what that means for this week. I have no idea.”
A happy trio meets the media
Usually players meet the media at the podium individually.
But Metcalf, Lockett and Geno Smith decided to address reporters as a group after the game.
Why?
“We’ve got somewhere to be,” Metcalf said.
That apparently for Metcalf was a Halloween party.
As for Lockett? “My fiancée is waiting for me.”
And Smith? “I’ve got somewhere to be.”