NFL Week 16 recap: Winners and Losers from Seahawks 20, Titans 17

For years, the Seattle Seahawks have made a lot of their wins very dramatic, often times needlessly so. This is the fourth win in a row in which Seattle needed a game-winning 4th quarter drive from either Geno Smith or Drew Lock. Hey, if I were to tell you that this would be Seattle’s predicament in a post-Russell Wilson world, you’d assume a whole lot of losing. That hasn’t been the case with Geno (and the last start with Lock).

Let’s get to Winners and Losers after the Seahawks’ 20-17 win over the Tennessee Titans.

Winners

Geno Smith

This was Geno’s fourth game-winning drive of the season, but his first “touchdown or bust” GWD of his Seahawks career. It was a slow, sputtering 1st half for Smith, throwing a lot of short passes and missing a couple of passes down the field. The offensive line wasn’t exactly sharp in the early stages, either.

The switch flipped in the 2nd half, and he was almost flawless. Three drive, 17 points, nearly perfect on 3rd down.

The winning drive was filled with confident throws, particularly the 3rd and 14 to Jaxon Smith-Njigba (more on that later). With virtually zero help from his rushing attack, the offense had to rely on Smith and his receiving targets.

And for all of the wringing over Geno’s turnovers, he only has two over his last five starts. Of his 11 turnovers on the season, 8 occurred in the four-game stretch from Weeks 6-9. He came close on a strip-sack fumble, but that was it. With only seven possessions, Seattle couldn’t afford backbreaking turnovers, and the Seahawks generally played clean offensive football. Ideally, you’d like them not to take so long to get going against a depleted Titans defense.

Colby Parkinson

It feels like an eternity since we’ve seen a 1-on-1 mismatch where Seattle’s tight end just boxes out a smaller defender for a touchdown. Jimmy Graham gave us plenty of those, but since then? Hard to remember too many of those types of scores. Parkinson got his opportunity on Tre Avery and fought like hell to grab the ball and secure the catch for his first game-winning touchdown. It’s very evident to me that he’s the only tight end of the three who should be on the 2024 roster.

Jaxon Smith-Njigba

JSN has now surpassed DK Metcalf for 2nd all-time in Seahawks rookie single-season receptions. After a 2nd quarter scare in which he crashed against the Titans wall on an overthrown Smith pass, JSN had 6 catches for 61 yards on 7 targets, and it wasn’t all just screen passes. This 3rd and 14 throw on the final drive is one of my favorite plays of the entire season. The middle of the field is not lava, Seahawks!

DK Metcalf

4 catches for 56 yards, a stupendous touchdown despite being interfered with, and a critical pass interference drawn on the game-winning drive. Metcalf is a tick shy of 1,000 yards for the third time in five seasons, and he’s scored five touchdowns over the past month.

Tyler Lockett

A team-high 8 catches for 81 yards on 11 targets. Short of one of those deep ball touchdowns, that’s a typically efficient Lockett stat-line. He hasn’t had the best of seasons, but games like today are why he’s been so valuable to this organization.

Boye Mafe

Yes, the Titans offensive line is stinky, but Mafe ended his drought with two sacks of Ryan Tannehill, bringing him to 9 on the season. He was very close to a third on a throw Tannehill made in the nick of time. We may finally see a Seahawks edge rusher with double-digit sacks again.

Dre’Mont Jones

It’s not been a great debut season for the big-money free agent signing, but Jones had a clutch 4th quarter sack and was on clean-up duty on Mafe’s second sack. Jones has 4.5 sacks on the season, which is just about in line with his yearly totals in Denver.

Riq Woolen

That dropped pick-6 was annoying but the process in which he undercut the crossing route was exciting. The catch was harder than it looks upon seeing the replay. I’m here to praise Woolen for the tackle on Colton Dowell to end the game. By forcing Dowell backwards, the rule stipulates that his forward progress was stopped inbounds and the clock must keep moving. For someone who’s had a lot of criticism and an outright benching for his tackling woes, that was a play worth more than many of his interceptions.

Woolen needed that type of big impact moment after a pretty inconsistent season, and I’m glad he slammed the door shut on a comeback.

Julian Love

Congratulations to Julian and Julia on their newborn son, Noah! And then armed with his Dad Energy, Love took out Chris Moore with this perfectly legal hit for the PBU.

Leonard Williams

He was commanding double teams and getting held like crazy on the final drive, which aided his teammates in their pursuit of Tannehill. Also had a tackle for loss on a run stop. He’s been such a good player along the defensive line.

Losers

Coby Bryant

Devon Witherspoon can’t come back soon enough. No Witherspoon and no Jamal Adams means Coby getting snaps as an extra DB. He was beaten in coverage on multiple 3rd downs and uh… look, this pump fake was behind the line of scrimmage, but well short of the first down marker.

Run Defense

Woof. That was bad. Would’ve been a whole lot worse if the Titans had a better/healthier offensive line. Derrick Henry and Tyjae Spears combined for 128 yards on 28 carries. The longest run came from Ryan Tannehill on that 23-yard scramble, but the Seahawks defense gave up way too many “successful rushes” without bleeding explosives. Tennessee had 10 rushing first downs, which tells you how dominant they were.

And yes, it’s hard to ignore how many of these run fits are getting busted at the second-level. Bullied upfront and then not filling their gaps is a horrible combination to have.

Seattle’s 3rd down defense was lackluster again (6/12) and the run defense was a major reason for it. The pass defense largely did its job against a decimated, limited attack, which is what they’re supposed to do. Stopping the run continues to be an issue even against inefficient rushing offenses.

Run Blocking

Kennth Walker had a 24-yard run. The other designed rushes averaged under two yards per carry. Holes were not being opened and blocks were not being made. In terms of the run game, Seattle got owned in the trenches on both sides of the ball.

Zach Charbonnet

Not a Charbonnet day. He only had two carries for 0 yards, both on the final drive, and his one catch lost four yards. The one catch he should’ve had for positive yards before halftime was dropped.

Final Notes

• I hope Damien Lewis and Jordyn Brooks are both alright, because the guard depth for Seattle is an issue and the linebacker depth is pretty much non-existent.
• Evan Brown’s shotgun snaps are a problem. Multiple times over the past few weeks he’s been off-line and a little high, which has thrown off the timing of some plays. If Seattle isn’t careful, one of these snaps will lead to a fumble.
• Jake Bobo should’ve had 2 catches on the day. I don’t understand how there was an incomplete ruling on his opening quarter catch to begin with, and then no overturn? Weird. Pete Carroll lost a challenge on this, and shouldn’t have needed to challenge the DK TD.
• My only big complaints about the officiating (besides the Bobo catch/non-catch) were the Tre Brown pass interference call, which DeAndre Hopkins “earned” by just running directly into him, the non-DPI on DK’s touchdown, and DeeJay Dallas not getting a fair catch interference call on his last punt return. Dallas shouldn’t be swinging elbows but there should’ve been a flag from what I saw. Otherwise, lots of penalties on Tennessee, not as many on Seattle, and most of the flags were well-earned.
• Derick Hall sniffing out that Tyjae Spears run was impressive. Perhaps a bit like rookie Boye Mafe, he’s showing more positives as a run defender than as a pass rusher. We can only hope his trajectory is similar.
• Bobby Wagner had a sack and one tackle for loss against the run, but he was a part of the problem in run defense. We get glimpses of vintage Bobby but too many plays where he just looks old out there. It’s like 2010 Lofa Tatupu after his injuries.
• Seattle is two wins away from the playoffs. Two weeks ago they needed substantial help to stay afloat and got it. Don’t piss this opportunity away. The Steelers are still fighting for their playoff lives, and the Cardinals are the Cardinals. We’re still waiting for the Seahawks to play a complete game. Now would be a good time to do that!

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