The Seahawks’ game-winning field goal on Thursday night was set up by a short kickoff from Cardinals kicker Chad Ryland, who failed to get the ball inside the landing zone, which gave Seattle the ball at the 40-yard line without taking any time off the clock. But Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon said after the game that he doesn’t blame Ryland.
Asked what Ryland was trying to do with the short kick, Gannon said he wanted to be sure to avoid a touchback so that the Seahawks would have to take some time off the clock.
“Keep it in play. Keep it in play. That’s one of the things we talk about, late in the game, with the amount of timeouts and time, what they needed, trying to burn off some time there,” Gannon said. “Chad played his ass off. The game doesn’t come down to one play. We didn’t do enough collectively to win the game.”
The kick came with the score tied and 28 seconds left. The Seahawks quickly got into field-goal range and hit the game-winning 52-yarder as time expired.
Prior to that short kickoff, Ryland had played a good game: He made all of his kicks, including a 57-yard field goal, and he placed his previous four kickoffs so that they had to be returned, and none of the Seahawks’ kickoff returns reached the 35-yard line. It was just one bad kick that turned out to be Ryland’s worst kick of the game.
