Much has been, and will be, said about the mishandling of the closing moments of Thursday night’s game by the Packers. It’s important to not lose sight of the fact that, regardless of anything the Packers did wrong, the Seahawks did plenty of things right.
Quarterback Russell Wilson made some key throws in the second half, despite a first half marred by Wilson missing a wide-open Doug Baldwin for what would have been a touchdown.
“Just missed it, you know,” Wilson told reporters after the game. “Sometimes you shoot, and you miss. Sometimes it bounces off the rim. But you just keep shooting. . . . Sometimes you just miss some here and there. But we were able to make the throws when we needed to in the fourth quarter and third quarter, and stuff like that, and stay the course.”
Wilson said that coach Pete Carroll reminded his quarterback of a story about a former NBA player.
“Rick Barry, one of the greatest shooters of all time, [Carroll] said he saw him when he was coaching with the 49ers, and Rick Barry said that if he’s missing some, then watch out,” Wilson said. “I just believe that, I know what I’m capable of. Great things can happen. We have great receivers, guys that can make plays. I missed a couple here and there, but we stayed the course and had a great night.”
The great night culminated in a great play that became the game-winning touchdown, via a short throw to tight end Ed Dickson that Dickson took to the end zone on third and nine from the Green Bay 15.
“We got a lot of work on it during practice and everything else,” Wilson said. “Ed made a vet play, and we were able to see what we were trying to do. I thought that whole drive was pretty exceptional. I thought the offensive line did a tremendous job and we were able to get the ball down the field. We knew we had to throw the ball, let’s go win the game, let’s go do it. We had to run the ball, occasionally, here and there, but let’s go win. Tyler [Lockett] made a few exceptional plays down the field. . . . When it came down to it, on third down you have to win in the red zone and we were clutch in the red zone there at the end of the game.”
Wilson didn’t make any throws on the final drive of the night, because he didn’t need to. The Seahawks opted to run the ball and, two first downs later (including one gained by Wilson on a run and a smart decision to slide in bounds), the game was over.
As a result, Seattle’s season is far from over. And the team that should be the most nervous about this development is the team that currently sits atop the division in which the Seahawks reside. Because the Rams should dread the possibility of the Seahawks, who scored 31 points twice against the Rams, rolling into the Coliseum for the divisional round of the playoffs.