The Seahawks needed all 60 minutes, plus an extra 7 minutes of OT to pull out the win against the 0-7 Tampa Bay Buccaneers Sunday afternoon. The most worrying fact for Seahawks is that this game was played in Seattle, where the Hawks have not lost a game since November 2011, when T-Jack (Tavaris Jackson) was under center and lost to a Rex Grossman led Washington Football Team. We have come a long way since that game and yesterday afternoon it looked as if that streak may be coming to an end.
The Seahawks opening drive ended abruptly right outside the Bucs red zone (21 yard line), when Russell Wilson threw his first pick of the day on a pass intended for TE Zach Miller, but intercepted by S Mark Barron. The Seahawks and Bucs were both held scoreless for the 1st quarter, the only quarter where neither team was able to score. The second quarter was when the Bucs went in for the kill, a little to early but they were going for the throat and looked as if they really might be able to knock off the best team in the NFC when they scored 21 unanswered points. You could tell the fans were getting nervous because for a moment in the 2nd quarter they actually seemed to have quieted down a bit. The flurry came fast and furious from Tampa Bay, which may have been their downfall. The Seahawks held it together and were able to end the half with a Touchdown of their own thanks to Russell Wilson and some penalties that went their way to bring them into the half with a score of 21-7.
The 2nd half was all Seahawks, holding the Bucs to only one field goal the rest of the game. Russell Wilson rushed for a TD in the 3rd quarter to set the score to 14-24. The Hawks would go on to score 10 more points (A Steven Hauschka field goal thanks to a 71 yd punt return by Golden Tate and Wilson threw a TD pass to Doug Baldwin with 1:51 remaining in the 4th) to knot the game up at 24-24.
Tampa Bay won the coin toss to start off OT, but had no luck against the clutch Hawks defense going for a quick 3-n-out. The Seahawks then traveled 52 yards on 9 plays, finally getting a chance to "Feed the Beast" in Marshawn Lynch with 44 yards gained by pounding it down the Bucs throat to set up a game winning field goal.
Seattle's defense has allowed over 200 yds rushing for two consecutive games, and although I am not sure how much longer this trend will continue I still would not bet on those kind of yards on a weekly basis. RB Mike James of the Bucs, who was filling in for an injured Doug Martin, had a career high 158 yds rushing on 28 carries. Marshawn Lynch had a slow start in this game but by the time it was all said and done, had also eclipsed the 100 yard mark, rushing for 125 yds on 21 carries.
The key piece I continue to see about these Seattle Seahawks this year is that they have what it takes to win against any adversity, whether its a goal line stance like last week or 21 point deficit like Sunday afternoon, they will not give up and you better be on your A game when facing them. The Buccaneers actually played well for an 0-7 team and pulled out all the stops to try and sneak out a win in Seattle from onside kicks to RB's throwing TD's and even won the turnover battle (+3) but it just wasn't enough and the Seahawks were able to come back from their largest deficit in team history.
Final Score:
SEA over TB 27-24 OT
Despite Russell Wilson's two red zone INT's and an early 21 point deficit the Hawks were able to staple down their defense and played well enough to get what should have been an easy win. The Seahawks next game will be a trip down to Atlanta to play the (2-6) Falcons, who they lost to in the playoffs last year by a field goal in the closing seconds of the game. The Bucs next game will be at home against in-state (4-4) Miami Dolphins on Monday Night.
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