Banged-up Seahawks hang on to beat Raiders
SEATTLE – Marshawn Lynch plowed. He plundered. He pulled half of downtown Seattle with him across the goal line to score.
“I think maybe six of them was my own team,” Lynch said, “so it was all good.”
He ran 21 times for 67 yards and two touchdowns, as the Seahawks began this game against the NFL’s only winless team the way they bulled to the Super Bowl last season: with Lynch’s power running early and often.
He caught five passes for a team-high 76 yards receiving, too, because injuries and protection issues on the porous offensive line reduced Russell Wilson’s passing game to mere screen passes.
“Beast Mode” plus Bruce Irvin’s brilliant, tipped-ball-to-himself interception and 35-yard return for a touchdown and an avalanche of Raiders mistakes allowed the Seahawks to build a three-touchdown lead. Subsequent errors on Seattle’s special-teams units filled with young fill-ins and an inert offense in the second half marred the Seahawks’ escape of a 30-24 victory over Oakland.
This win over a two-touchdown underdog wasn’t the Seahawks’ until Jermaine Kearse recovered a high-bounding, onside kick following a touchdown by the Raiders (0-8) with 1:52 left. Kearse secured the ball amid a mad scramble after the ball got away from teammate Cooper Helfet.
“My first dogpile with me having the ball. Ever,” said Kearse, who also forced a fumble. “I just did whatever for the team.”
Starting receivers scrapping for a loose ball beneath a pile of 300-pound men to preserve the win.
Nothing is coming easily to these battered, scuffling Seahawks (5-3) in this season of defending their Super Bowl title.
With San Francisco losing at home to St. Louis, the Seahawks find themselves in second place in the NFC West. They are two games behind first-place Arizona (7-1), with the New York Giants (3-4) coming here next week.
“That’s how this is. I know you all like it easier and smoother and cleaner and all that, but it’s a battle,” coach Pete Carroll said. “So suck it up.”
Wilson was 17 for 35 for 179 yards while getting chased everywhere. Seattle’s offensive line was missing two starters then had a third, guard James Carpenter, leave in with an ankle injury.
In all, Seattle was missing seven starters. But Irvin’s touchdown, an interception by Richard Sherman and a 36-yard pass-interference foul and then a taunting penalty, both on Raiders cornerback DJ Hayden that extended drives to the Seahawks’ two other touchdowns in the first half helped leave Seattle up 24-3 at halftime.
But early in the second half, the Raiders blocked a punt and recovered it in the end zone for a touchdown to make it 24-10.
Then, after a short Seahawks punt, Raiders QB Derek Carr, on fourth-and-inches from the goal line, found Mychal Rivera open in the back of the end zone and it was 24-17.
But then a return to Lynch’s running, a key catch by rookie Kevin Norwood for a first down and a fortuitous defensive-holding foul on Tarell Brown during a third-and-3 incomplete pass by a harried Wilson helped Seattle drove to the first of two field goals in the fourth quarter to make it 30-17.
Seahawks 30, Raiders 24
| Oakland | 3 | 0 | 14 | 7 | – | 24 |
| Seattle | 14 | 10 | 0 | 6 | – | 30 |
Oak – FG Janikowski 48
Sea – Lynch 3 run (Hauschka kick)
Sea – Irvin 35 interception return (Hauschka kick)
Sea – FG Hauschka 34
Sea – Lynch 5 run (Hauschka kick)
Oak – Butler blocked punt recovery in end zone (Janikowski kick)
Oak – Rivera 1 pass from Carr (Janikowski kick)
Sea – FG Hauschka 30
Sea – FG Hauschka 40
Oak – Rivera 1 pass from Carr (Janikowski kick)
A – 68,337.
| Oak | Sea | |
| First downs | 17 | 21 |
| Total Net Yards | 226 | 326 |
| Rushes-yards | 18-37 | 38-149 |
| Passing | 189 | 177 |
| Punt Returns | 3-52 | 3-37 |
| Kickoff Returns | 2-69 | 3-64 |
| Interceptions Ret. | 0-0 | 2-57 |
| Comp-Att-Int | 24-41-2 | 17-35-0 |
| Sacked-Yards Lst | 1-5 | 1-2 |
| Punts | 6-52.3 | 6-35.2 |
| Fumbles-Lost | 3-1 | 1-0 |
| Penalties-Yards | 5-69 | 9-65 |
| Time of Poss. | 24:54 | 35:06 |
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING – Oakland, McFadden 13-20, Reece 1-10, Carr 2-9, Jones-Drew 2-(minus 2). Seattle, Lynch 21-67, Turbin 5-35, Wilson 8-31, Michael 4-16.
PASSING – Oakland, Carr 24-41-2-194. Seattle, Wilson 17-35-0-179.
RECEIVING – Oakland, Rivera 8-38, McFadden 4-47, J.Jones 3-18, Holmes 2-28, Butler 2-20, Murray 2-12, Reece 1-12, Jones-Drew 1-11, Thompkins 1-8. Seattle, Lynch 5-76, Baldwin 5-38, Richardson 3-12, Norwood 1-19, Willson 1-16, Turbin 1-14, Kearse 1-4.
MISSED FIELD GOALS – Oakland, Janikowski 51 (WR). Seattle, Hauschka 46 (WL).