Takeaways from Seahawks 26-21 win over Jets

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EAST RUTHERFORD, NEW JERSEY - DECEMBER 01: Leonard Williams #99 of the Seattle Seahawks returns an interception for a touchdown in the second quarter of a game against the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium on December 01, 2024 in East Rutherford, New (Elsa / Getty Images)

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Last week's victory over the Arizona Cardinals was "The Leonard Williams Game" for the Seattle Seahawks.

It turns out you can have more than one.

Leonard Williams almost certainly will win NFC Defensive Player of the Week honors for his efforts in Sunday's 26-21 victory over the New York Jets. Williams had a 92-yard interception return for a touchdown, two sacks of quarterback Aaron Rodgers on the final drive of the game, and a blocked extra point that helped Seattle overcome an abysmal first half.

Per the NFL, Williams is the first player with multiple sacks, an interception returned for a touchdown, and a blocked kick in the same game. And it came against the team that drafted Williams out of USC in 2015, and the stadium he called his home for nine seasons with the Jets and Giants.

"I don't know how this works, but if we can nominate Leonard Williams for player of the week, he's just playing at an all-time elite level," head coach Mike Macdonald said.

"I mean, I would just have a hard time thinking that anybody's playing better than him right now."

Williams' 92-yard interception return is the longest in NFL history by a player of at least 300 pounds, per FOX.

Williams led a defensive performance that kept the Jets scoreless in the second half, which helped Seattle dig out of a special teams disaster from the first half. Special teams were directly or indirectly responsible for 16 points scored by the Jets in the first half.

The Jets had their own calamity of errors in the second half that helped the Seahawks complete their comeback, including four defensive penalties on Seattle's go-ahead touchdown.

But the end result is a crucial Seahawks victory on the road that keeps Seattle atop the NFC West.

Here are the takeaways from the win over the Jets:

– Leonard Williams shines again.

The Seahawks were staring a potential blowout in the face due to multiple special teams gaffes in the first half before Leonard Williams' interception of Aaron Rodgers completely flipped the momentum away from the Jets.

Down 21-7 and with the Jets at Seattle's 9-yard line looking to further extend the lead, Rodgers had just missed a wide open Garrett Wilson for a touchdown on an overthrown pass on second down. Williams dropped underneath a third down throw for Wilson, tipped the pass to himself and was off to the races after a missed tackle try from Xaiver Gipson.

"I think right now he's playing at a Defensive Player of the Year level caliber. For sure, Player of the Month," safety Julian Love said.

The Seahawks showed a blitz with six players at the line of scrimmage. They only brought four, but had cornerback Devon Witherspoon blitz from the slot as Williams and Jarran Reed dropped out into zone coverage. Rodgers tried to throw behind the blitz of Witherspoon, but Williams cut under the throw to deflect the pass to himself. With five receivers running routes and Gipson's poor tackling effort, the only players left to chase Williams were Rodgers and the five offensive linemen. Williams received an escort to the end zone from his teammates for the first touchdown of his career.

"I got a lucky bounce. It went straight up in the air and gave me time to catch it. I didn't expect to get that far with it, though, to be honest. I mean, I remember running with it, and I thought I was running fast, but you never know. You know what I mean in the moment, but all my teammates were hyping me up, saying I was moving on the sideline."

Williams said he was looking to lateral the ball to a teammate once he crossed the 50-yard line, but saw he had a clean path to score and went with it.

"I seen Spoon, and, you know, my whole defense, the whole cavalry, pretty much running down the field. And they were almost more excited for me to get that touchdown than myself, and that was awesome."

That play alone may have been with a player of the week nod for Williams, but it was far from his only major impact in the game.

Williams blocked the extra point on New York's opening touchdown to keep the lead at just 6-0. Then, with the Jets getting one last drive with the chance for a winning score, Williams twice sacked Rodgers on the drive, with the second one forcing the Jets into a 4th-and-15. Seattle pressured Rodgers into a desperation heave that fell incomplete to seal the victory.

"It was a funky game," Williams said. "There was a lot of stuff happening in this game, but overall, I'm just happy with the way the team played with grit and just kept playing. Like I said, it was a sloppy game on both sides, to be honest. And there was a lot of stuff going on, and at the end of the day, we pulled it away."

Williams has seven sacks now on the season, which is already tied for second-most for a year in his career. Williams had a career-high 11.5 sacks with the Giants in 2020 and feels like this season is every bit that level of performance for himself.

"There was a season I had 11.5 sacks, and I think I won Defensive Player of the Week two or three times that year. So it's kind of close to that season," Williams said. "But even that season, I don't think was as dominant as what I'm doing right now, just because I don't think necessarily the stats always say the full picture.

"And I think now just being older, more mature, understanding what I you know, understanding my strengths and understanding the offense more just allows me to play it fast. And I just feel like I got more grown man strength now, and I just feel like even when I'm not making a play, I just feel like I'm more dominant on the field."

– Special teams deliver disaster performance.

That was as awful a game as the Seahawks have ever had on special teams.

Special teams were directly responsible for losing eight points, and indirectly responsible for losing another eight points in the first 20 minutes of game time alone on Sunday.

I’ll firmly admit my experienced history of the team is limited mostly to the 1990s and onward, but it’s hard to imagine any game being worse than the performance seen on Sunday in New York.

Three fumbles by kickoff returners, two of which resulted in turnovers, a kickoff return touchdown allowed, and a blocked extra point all in the first 20 minutes of game time put the Seahawks in a massive hole.

"We got the protect the ball better in the kicking game, for sure," Macdonald said. "We'll definitely review that.

Dee Williams and Laviska Shenault Jr. each lost a fumble on kickoff return duty. Williams at least had his turnover forced where Shenault twice muffed his catch attempts. Kene Nwangwu punched the ball free from Williams following New York’s opening touchdown to set the Jets up for another quick score. Four plays later, it was a 14-0 Jets lead as Seattle had to dig out of a big hole early.

Shenault dropped the next kickoff, but managed to recover to (temporarily) avoid further disaster. Seattle would march 88 yards for a touchdown on the drive to answer the quick start for the Jets.

But Nwangwu immediately restored the 14-point advantage for New York on the next kickoff. Kenny McIntosh missed a tackle attempt on Nwangwu at the 25-yard line as he sprinted through Seattle’s coverage unit for a 99-yard touchdown return for a 21-7 lead.

Shenault then fumbled another kickoff with the Jets recovering this one to again give the Jets possession in Seattle territory.

Cue Leonard Williams saving the day.

For Dee Williams, it’s yet another miscue on special teams this season. Williams lost fumbles on muffed punts in games against both Denver and Buffalo earlier this season. Additionally, Williams was the beneficiary of a missed call by officials in the game against the San Francisco 49ers where they did not see a punt had touched him, even upon review of the play. It saved what should have been another turnover Williams would have been responsible for.

Shanault does have a kickoff return touchdown of his own this season against the 49ers, but the tandem has not been consistent enough on kick and punt returns. Consecutive kickoffs with dropped catches by Shenault was a brutal showing.

– Goal line, short yardage offense continues to be a problem.

The running game of the Seahawks continued to hold back the full potential of the offense. With the inability to convert short yardage plays with the running game, it puts the entire burden on Geno Smith and the passing attack to try and deliver instead.

The whole operation failed spectacularly late in the third quarter as Seattle had eight plays inside the 5-yard line, and five snaps from the 1-yard line. Three rushing attempts were each stopped for no gain, three throws for DK Metcalf fell incomplete, and a misfired throw from Smith to Noah Fant on a would-be touchdown set up a fourth-and-goal snap. The play appeared doomed from the start with Smith taking a 15-yard sack to end the drive and keep Seattle trailing, 21-16.

"We got to get better at that," Smith said. "I think, you know, if I was to be critical of anything, I think that's the main thing. We've got to be better in the short yardage area. And that's all of us, you know, it's on all of us. And, you know, those are the situations where you can really punch it in and kind of dominate a game. If you can dominate short yardage and you can get all those, you're going to be a really good team."

Finally, on a third-and-1 on their final possession, Zach Charbonnet sprung free for an 8-yard touchdown that serves as the winning score.

"We do have to be better in those situations," Macdonald said. "We have to be able to convert those so we're going to, we'll look at how we're game planning, it, what we're calling and all the things right there. So we need to be more effective in those situations."

Charbonnet and Ken Walker III combined for 77 yards on 20 carries. And even that was with some incremental improvement from the rushing attack this week, but short yardage situations in particular remain a problem.

Notes:

- Jason Myers set a franchise record with his 7th 50-yard field goal made this season. Two 50-yard kicks against the 49ers two weeks ago, and a 50-yard kick last week against Arizona to put the game out of reach, along with a 54-yard kick agianst the Jets are a big reason why the Seahawks are on a three-game winning streak.

- DK Metcalf had four catches for 66 yards. His 6,095 yards so far for his career are the most ever by a Seahawks receiver through the first six years of a career in franchise history.

- Punter Michael Dickson was unavailable to kick late in the game due to back spasms. He was able to serve as holder for Jason Myers' 43-yard field goal, but was not able to punt, per head coach Mike Macdonald. Dickson's unavailability led Seattle to choose to go for it on a 4th-and-6 (turned 4th-and-1 after a Jets penalty) in their own half of the field in the fourth quarter.

- The defense continues to shine with Williams leading the way. The unit was responsible for just 14 of the Jets' 21 points due to the kickoff return touchdown, and held the Jets scoreless in the second half. Through the winning streak, they've held the 49ers to 17 points, the Cardinals to 6, and the Jets to effectively 14.