Drew Lock, Seahawks pull off wild comeback vs. Eagles to snap losing streak

Ninety-two yards and 1:52 to save a season?

Drew Lock and the Seahawks ultimately needed just 1 minute, 24 seconds to turn in a drive that not only kept Seattle’s playoff hopes alive but will go down firmly in franchise lore.

“Nobody will forget that game,” said coach Pete Carroll after Lock’s 29-yard pass to rookie Jaxon Smith-Njigba lifted the Seahawks over the defending NFC East champs, in the process snapping a four-game losing streak and evening their record at 7-7.

“We needed this game,” said safety Julian Love, who had two interceptions in the fourth quarter to help seal the win. “… This I already know is going to revitalize us.”

Still, Seattle seemed just about on life support when they took over at their own 8 with 1:52 left.

At least they’d gotten the ball, though, the Seahawks stopping the Eagles at the 50 on the previous drive. One more first down and the game might have been over.

“Our guys kept hanging,” Carroll said.

And finally, they pulled themselves up.

The final drive began ominously — a Lock pass off tight end Noah Fant that a couple Eagles almost had a chance to pick off.

But from there, Lock — making his second straight start in place of injured Geno Smith — was in lockstep with his offense, completing five of his next nine passes for all 92 yards.

The keys were passes of 18 and then 44 to DK Metcalf to get Seattle to the 29.

Then on a third-and-10 from the 29, Lock saw that Smith-Njigba — who also scored a winning TD in the final minute to beat Cleveland earlier this season — was in man coverage on veteran cornerback James Bradberry. Lock lofted the pass and Smith-Njigba then used all of his listed 6 feet to cradle in a pass as he fell to the ground on the out-of-bounds line.

The play gave Seattle a 20-17 lead — the first time the Seahawks led all game.

“Beautiful football,” Carroll raved. “Just beautiful football.”

Lock said Seattle used a similar formation earlier in the game and he told Smith-Njigba that if he got man coverage, he was going to throw it to him.

“I told him ‘you’re getting the ball if you’re one-on-one here,’ ” Lock said. “Sure enough …”

And when Love pulled down his second interception of the game — both in the fourth quarter — with six seconds left Seattle had also turned around its playoff hopes.

Via the New York Times’ Upshot playoff calculator, the Seahawks now have a 52% chance of making the playoffs. It would have been 14% with a loss.

“We’re thrilled to get that game,” Carroll said. “It’s been a really difficult stretch.”

The win was the fourth this year for Seattle either in the last minute or in overtime.

Carroll said he reminded the team of that trait after the game.

“The thing is to make sure if you keep hanging you can win,” Carroll said.

The win also capped a tough week for the team in the wake of the four losses. Smith and linebacker Bobby Wagner each gave the team what teammates called rousing talks before practice on Thursday.

“I think we all got the message that everything we have is in front of us for the taking,” Love said. “Just had to get this one, and thankfully we did.”

Seattle overcame an early 10-0 deficit, and also trailed 17-10 entering the final quarter, having struggled to move the ball much of the night against a defense ranked 28th in the NFL in points allowed coming in.

The Seahawks also had to overcome a dubious timeout decision by Carroll earlier in the quarter that seemed as if it might have doomed Seattle’s last real chance to make it a game.

Seattle was lined up to go for it on a fourth-and-two at the 18 down 17-10 with just over 10 minutes left.

But with the play clock running down Carroll called timeout.

At about the same time, Eagles coach Nick Sirianni decided to challenge the call that Lock had gotten rid of the ball.

During the timeout, the ruling came in that Lock was down, and Seattle was now facing fourth-and-nine at the 25.

Carroll sent on the field goal team with Jason Myers hitting a 43-yarder. But that left Seattle down 17-13 with exactly 10 minutes left.

The Eagles easily moved the ball to Seattle’s 45, and with the Seahawks’ season seemingly reeling, the Eagles decided to go for broke on first down with Jalen Hurts hurling a pass to Quez Watkins in the end zone.

But safety Julian Love outfought Watkins for the ball, and Seattle had the ball at the 20 and new life.

Seattle, though, couldn’t move it with a third-and-5 pass going off Lockett’s hands.

The Eagles got one first down on their next drive.

But the Seahawks got a stop on third down on the next drive, forcing an Eagles punt from midfield.

Braden Mann’s punt went dead at the 8 with 1:52 left, and the Seahawks held one timeout.

The Seahawks moved so easily, though, they never even needed the last timeout.

Instead, it was the Eagles who were left wondering what hit them, the defending NFC champions having now lost three in a row.

Lock got his second start after the team decided not to go with Geno Smith.

Smith, listed as questionable with a groin injury, conducted an on-field agility drill workout more than two hours before the game and threw some passes, which was enough to convince the team to leave him on the 48-player active list.

But Smith did not play.

The Seahawks continued their perplexing and disturbing trend of getting off to a bad start against a good team, allowing the Eagles to go on drives of 15 and 16 plays to take a 10-0 lead midway through the second quarter.

That included a 75-yard march after the Eagles got the opening kickoff, which ended in a 3-yard TD run by Hurts.

It might have been worse had not Eagles center Jason Kelce been called for a false start on a third-and-1 play at the Seattle 3 with the Eagles leading 7-0, which forced Philly to settle for a field goal and a 10-0 lead.

At that point, the Eagles had a 148-35 edge in yards and 11-1 in first downs, mirroring early deficits Seattle got buried in at Baltimore and in a Thanksgiving night home loss to the 49ers.

But Seattle used a 20-yard pass interference drawn by Metcalf to jump start a drive that moved to the Eagles 8, where the Seahawks faced a fourth-and-four.

The Seahawks initially lined up as if to go for it but ultimately only tried to draw the Eagles offsides. That didn’t work, and after a timeout, Seattle settled for a 27-yard Jason Myers field goal to make it 10-3 at the half.

The Eagles outgained Seattle 169-90 in the first half.

But the Seattle defense forced the Eagles to punt on three of their last four possessions.

Seattle took the opening kickoff of the second half and on its best drive of the game, moved 75 yards in nine plays, tying the game on a 23-yard run by Kenneth Walker III.

As Walker crossed to the right of the field and to the corner of the end zone, Lock circled back and broke in front to help throw a finishing block on Eagles cornerback Eli Ricks.

The Eagles didn’t let Seattle’s celebration last long, responding with their own 12-play, 75-yard drive that included two early third-down conversions — one an 11-yard completion on a third-and-9 — that set up a 1-yard Brotherly Shove touchdown by Hurts.

That put the Eagles up 17-10 with 4:43 to play in the third.

The Eagles, though, never scored again.