Takeaways from Seahawks 24-20 victory over Browns

SEATTLE - A little luck never hurt.

The Seattle Seahawks managed to capitalize on one too many mistakes from the Cleveland Browns on Sunday to earn a 24-20 victory that moves the team into first place in the NFC West.

A third down pass from P.J. Walker deflected off the helmet of a blitzing Jamal Adams and into the arms of safety Julian Love to give Seattle's offense one last chance at a game-winning drive. Despite disappearing for most of the day after a stellar first quarter, the offense did manage to deliver the scoring drive it needed as Geno Smith hit Jaxon Smith-Njigba for a 9-yard touchdown with 38 seconds left to play to propel the team to its fifth win of the season.

"Fantastic illustration of hanging in and staying in and keeping the belief going and giving ourselves a chance to win a football game. Beautiful illustration of that," head coach Pete Carroll said.

Love and Riq Woolen each intercepted Walker, and linebacker Jordyn Brooks forced a fumble on a sack of Walker that led to another turnover as Seattle's defense did its part. 

"Our defense is playing lights out football, Smith said. "We’ve got to continue to reward those guys because they're really one of the better defenses in football. We have a chance every single week when we have that type the defense."

The offense came out of the gates firing with 17 points in the first quarter on a Jake Bobo 3-yard touchdown run and 12-yard Tyler Lockett touchdown reception.

It was just the third time in the Carroll-era that the Seahawks had scored at least 17 point in the first quarter. They ddi so last year against the Los Angeles Chargers and in 2013 against the New Orleans Saints as well.

But once those 17 points were scored, the Seahawks offense floundered for much of the afternoon. After going 3-for-3 on third down to open the game, Seattle was 0-for-8 after that point until getting one third down conversion on their final scoring drive of the game.

Ultimately, the interception off Adams' helmet gave Seattle the bit of luck it needed to secure a final offensive possession. And the Seahawks offense came through when it had to.

"I got that (Lionel) Messi," Adams said. "I was just coming on a blitz, great call by coach (Clint Hurtt) and Pete (Carroll) and had to make something happen. We needed the ball back and seeing the guard pull I jumped as high as I could and luckily pulled it off, man, right off the head."

Smith was then 4-of-5 on the final drive for 52 yards including the game-winning touchdown to Smith-Njigba.

"It feels great," Smith Njigba said. "A great win. I thought we answered the call real well, and got the W when it mattered."

Here are the takeaways from the win over the Browns:

– Geno Smith delivers game-winning drive after a few more rough moments on the way.

It hasn't been the cleanest stretch of football for quarterback Geno Smith and Sunday was no exception.

Smith was intercepted twice, misfired on a few other throws, and saw the offense he was leading unable to score for most of the final three quarters of the win over Cleveland. However, Smith overcame the mistakes and led a final touchdown drive in the closing two minutes after Julian Love's interception gave the offense one final chance to deliver.

"He's upset. He doesn't like it," head coach Pete Carroll said of Smith's performance. "I thought he figured out a way to get us started beautifully and we looked great, and then when it came down to it, we had to have it, he took us right down the field and we scored and we won the game. There is some stuff in between. There is a couple passes that looked kind of off. He threw one to Jaxon; Jaxon stopped on the route and screwed it up, and looked like we threw the ball to the other guy. That was a miscue. But he's got room to play better. I love the way he's playing and leading us."

Smith completed 23-of-37 passes for 254 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions in victory while being sacked just once.

The first interception came on a comeback route alongside the left sideline to DK Metcalf that was undercut by cornerback Martin Emerson Jr. It came three plays after Smith had a throw to Metcalf on the same route that just didn't connect.

The second one came when nose tackle Maurice Hurst II drops into a throwing lane and tipped a pass intended for tight end Noah Fant into the air that he was able to haul in for an interception.

"The one interception to DK, the last play, two-minute, guy undercuts it, makes a great play," Smith said. "D-lineman drops out, we're throwing a hot route, he tips the ball up to himself. This is the NFL, one of the best defenses in football. We knew we were going up against a really good defense. And they made some plays. Really good. Hats off to the Browns. Really good team. We are too, so when you have those type of battles, it's going to be back and forth. You can expect that. The ultimate thing is to get the win. We did a great job fighting to the end."

Smith was nearly intercepted a third time when Jaxon Smith-Njigba made the wrong adjustment on his route. If the ball had been intercepted, it likely would have been a Cleveland touchdown. Instead, it was just an ugly missed third down chance.

"That's something we’ve got to clean up," Smith said. "Just got to be clearer with him in the huddle to make sure we're on the same page. I'll do a better job of that."

But beyond those plays, there were more misses as well. A slant to Metcalf in the fourth quarter was thrown short at his feet, and a throw on the run to Tyler Lockett forced a diving catch that picked up only minimal yardage, Smith also had a questionable decision on the final drive as he attempted to force a throw to Metcalf in the end zone against a cornerback with his back turned to the ball. Seattle was already in range for a possible tying field goal and had plenty of time left. It was a risky throw that didn't ultimately hurt the Seahawks.

Smith isn't playing terrible football. But compared to the peak form he's shown at times over the last two seasons, he's just not as sharp as he's been.

He made several really good plays on Sunday as well. Extending a play that led to Lockett's 12-yard touchdown was terrific. A 43-yard shot throw to Metcalf helped set up an early touchdown. Also…

– Perfectly executed run-pass option play gets Jaxon Smith-Njigba winning touchdown.

While the offense had its shaky moments, the game-winning score was run to perfection for Seattle.

On second-and-5 from the Browns 9-yard line, the Seahawks called a play that had both a run and pass option. When nickel cornerback Cameron Mitchell came on a blitz, it gave Geno Smith a green light to throw a quick bubble screen to Jaxon Smith-Njigba.

Safety Juan Thornhill was unable to cut off Smith-Njigba from getting the corner up the sideline and DK Metcalf delivered a great block on cornerback Martin Emerson Jr. to allow Smith-Njigba to find the endzone for a 9-yard touchdown.

"Seeing the nickel blitz, I knew I was getting it," Smith-Njigba said. "Geno spit it to me, and we got in the end zone."

After Noah Fant's 27-yard catch-and-run moved Seattle down to the Cleveland 14-yard line, they had plenty of time to seek the winning score. A run-pass option takes some precision to execute effectively as offensive linemen can get too far upfield for a penalty if the timing isn't right. 

"Definitely a lot of things go right," center Evan Brown said. "We see (the blitz) coming off the edge, you know, we're expecting the throw there. So you know, we're fanned out to get that and I think DK off the edge made a fantastic block and JSN exploded right into the endzone. So it was great play and great execution all around."

With the blitz, it basically left Smith-Njigba and Metcalf in pure man-to-man situations on the perimeter. Smith-Njigba was able to make his defender miss and Metcalf was able to block Emerson sufficiently to clear the way into the end zone.

"The touchdown play to win the game was a fantastic block by DK," Carroll said. "Clean. The guy (official) was looking right at him. That's the (holding) call they make sometimes. I thought he did it perfectly. Jaxon got every inch out of that play in really championship fashion.

"Kept his hands in really tight and released at the right time so there was no penalty. Nothing wrong with that. Exactly the way you should do it, right when we needed it most."

– Why was run game underutilized?

Perhaps the most curious thing from Seattle's game plan on Sunday was the lack of commitment to what appeared to be a successful rushing attack.

Of the 55 offensive plays the Seahawks had against the Browns, running backs Ken Walker III and Zach Charbonnet combined for just 13 rushing attempts. That's despite the pair combining for 119 yards on the ground on those 13 rushing attempts. That's good for 9.2 yards per carry.

"I thought we were spotty," Carroll said of the run game. "We had a couple big plays. Kenny had a big play (45 yards). Zach looked really good at the end I thought when he had his opportunities. It's there. It's there. We haven't really found it to where we can really rely on it yet, but it's there. We just got to keep working it."

But it didn't feel like a game where the Seahawks couldn't get to their run game. They weren't facing a ton of long yardage down-and-distance situations. Carroll did say that their ability to pass protect against the Browns formidable pass rush gave them confidence to lean more on the passing game.

"We took what they were giving us," he said. "We were protecting the passer better than we thought and, so we went with it and made some yards for us."

Smith was sacked just once and hit only three times on 38 dropbacks. The offensive line did protect Smith quite well. But they also seemed to be good at opening up holes in the rushing game too. And with the offense collectively struggling to find success after the first quarter, it's a bit surprising that the run game didn't get more of a chance. 

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