KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Finally, in the second half of their 15th game of the season, the Seahawks again looked like the ideal of a Pete Carroll-coached team.
Seattle outrushed Kansas City 107-21 in the second half of Saturday’s 24-10 loss to the Chiefs, more yards than the Seahawks had rushed for in any of their past five games.
And they held the Chiefs to 77 for the game, the third-fewest they’ve allowed all season and half as many as they’d allowed in any of their past five games, when opponents had gotten at least 161.
So what happened?
Well, on offense, rookie Kenneth Walker III again looked like the player who dazzled early on, and appeared to finally shake off an ankle injury suffered Dec. 4 against the Rams in Los Angeles. He finished with 107 yards on 26 carries.
And as critical as anything was Seattle simply sticking with the run. Walker had just 16 yards on nine carries in the first half and then had 91 on 17 in the second.
“He is such a good player and our guys up front blocked their tails off today,” Carroll said. “You can see how we run the football. I think we ran it 11 times in the first half to nothing. We just didn’t get anything going. We were just determined enough to go back out in the second half and make them find out if we were going to run it or not. We did. The guys up front did well. Blocks at the line of scrimmage were very efficient.”
Walker pointed a thumb at himself as the difference.
“I was just more decisive,” said Walker, who didn’t practice all week due to the ankle injury but said that might actually have made him fresher for the game. “The O-line did a great job the whole game. It was just up to me to be decisive on what hole to hit and in the second half everything started to open up.”
The defense also had something of a second-half turnaround.
The Chiefs gained 56 yards rushing on 13 carries in the first half, basically about on pace with their season average of 119.9 per game. But the Chiefs managed 21 on nine carries in the second half with no run of longer than five.
So what happened?
Seattle defensive lineman Quinton Jefferson suggested the Seahawks knew what was coming.
“They’re a great team, but they’re kind of arrogant in what they do, so we know where the runs are going,” Jefferson said. “Just being accountable and being where you are supposed to be. Just playing technique. And everyone was on it today.”
Said safety Quandre Diggs: “I think we just took a stand and knew what we had to do.”
The caveat in all of it, of course, is that the Chiefs throughout had a 14-point lead, and didn’t really need to open the playbook up much in the second half — and also went 80 yards on five pretty easy plays to put the game away in the fourth quarter.
But to Carroll, it’s a formula that could make the difference as Seattle tries to win games the last two weeks against the Jets and Rams and get into the playoffs — especially with Walker appearing to make it through the game OK even though he said he jammed his ankle a few times.
“That is who we want to be,” Carroll said.
Life without Lockett proves a challenge
Saturday was just the third regular-season game Seattle has played since 2015 without Tyler Lockett, who had surgery to repair a broken bone in his hand. And they hope they don’t have to do it again.
“He is a great player and you miss him,” Carroll said, specifically noting how Lockett could have helped on third downs as Seattle converted just 2 of 14 on the day. “There are so many chances on third downs and early downs to be a factor like he always is. We missed him.”
Without Lockett, the Chiefs spent much of the day double-teaming and bracketing DK Metcalf, who finished with seven receptions for 81 yards with a long of 35, and also drew two penalties for first downs.
So will Lockett be back for one or both of the final two games?
“It would great to see Tyler playing for us,” Carroll said. “It would be great to have him back out there. I don’t know if we will get that or not.”
Smith loses breath, laments passes to Goodwin
The Seahawks momentarily appeared as if they might be suffering a big loss when Geno Smith was slow to get up following a sack early in the second quarter.
But Smith said the incident was no big deal.
“I just fell on the ball and got the wind knocked out of me,” he said. “I just had to take a knee and catch my breath, but I’m fine.”
Smith was more wounded by a few misplays, such as his interception on a pass to Marquise Goodwin in the fourth quarter that he said was just “a bad pass” and that “that’s completely on me.”
Said Carroll of the interception: “It is the right read to take it. The ball just has to get up and down before the guy gets there. The safety was all over it. I don’t know what happened. I couldn’t tell. Our guys were trying to grab it and you guys would know better than me. I didn’t see that. He was just making a really aggressive play. That is not the wrong play to make. You just have to get the ball up and down before the guy gets there.”
Another throw he wanted back came on Seattle’s first possession of the second half on third-and-6 at the Seattle 29. Smith appeared to have plenty of room to run for a first down and more but instead pulled up and threw to Goodwin at midfield. The throw was low and Goodwin couldn’t corral it.
“Fork in the road right there,” Smith said of that play. “If I get the ball up, he probably catches it and is still running. Or if I just run the ball myself, who knows how many yards I can get. … That’s something I can look at and be better.”
Injury updates
Seattle saw three players leave due to injury — right tackle Abraham Lucas (elbow), safety Joey Blount (knee) and running back Travis Homer (ankle). Carroll did not give any real specific timelines for any of the three. Lucas was injured in the third quarter and replaced by second-year player Stone Forsythe.
“His elbow just kind of gave out a little bit,” Carroll said of Lucas. “It had an issue with it. He was OK to play, but we said let’s get him out of there. We didn’t want to tax him too much. I don’t think he reinjured it so much as aggravating it.”
Carroll called Blount’s injury “Something with his kneecap. I don’t know exactly what it is, but it kind of got knocked out a little bit and came back. He was in a lot of pain and discomfort. It is not a knee injury. It is a patella situation.”
Metcalf also left for a play with cramps but returned, and Goodwin also left for a series after reinjuring his wrist but also returned.
Notes
— With Ryan Neal out, Teez Tabor got the start at strong safety. But Johnathan Abram also came on to play substantially, particularly in the second half. Carroll said, “I don’t have any observations on that right now” when asked how Abram played.