The Seahawks pulled out a victory in the final moments against the Texans last Sunday and it looked like they might do so again this week, but Kirk Cousins wasn’t out of tricks.
Playing behind a ragtag offensive line, Cousins was sacked six times and hit several other times over the course of the afternoon but stood tall enough to deliver big plays to run the Redskins down the field after a late Seahawks touchdown. The biggest of those plays was a 39-yard strike to Josh Doctson that set up Rob Kelley’s one-yard touchdown run with 59 seconds to play.
Russell Wilson, who hit Doug Baldwin for a 30-yard touchdown with 94 seconds left in the game and beat Houston with 18 seconds left on the clock, got one last chance with the ball, but time ran out on a 17-14 win.
The Seahawks were able to rack up 437 offensive yards, but penalties, three missed field goals by Blair Walsh and two interceptions erased many of those gains. All of that kept the offense from scoring any points until the fourth quarter, which is when Wilson opened 7-of-8 for 114 yards and two touchdowns to put them right back into the game.
Cousins made all of that moot and got the Redskins back to .500 on a day when they were missing four starting offensive linemen, tight end Jordan Reed and wide receiver Jamison Crowder. That made for a fairly ugly offensive showing for most of the day, but Cousins managed to go 21-of-31 for 247 yards -- the sacks and lack of a run game meant the team only had 244 yards for the day --and his team needed every one of them. They’ll hope to be healthier when the Vikings pay D.C. a visit in Week 10.
The Seahawks are now 5-3 and a game back of the Rams in the NFC West. Getting back on top will take cleaner play after 16 penalties for 138 yards on Sunday and they’ll need to work quickly with a trip to Arizona looming on Thursday night.