The condition of quarterback Robert Griffin III’s knee is going to dominate the fallout from Wild Card weekend in Washington D.C., but the state of Washington is going to be talking more about another Seahawks win.
Seattle scored the final 24 points of the game to overcome an early deficit and advance to a date with the Falcons next weekend with a 24-14 victory over the Redskins. Their defense locked things down after the Redskins scored on their first two possessions, probably no coincidence since that’s when it became clear that RG3’s right knee was nowhere near 100 percent. That’s not meant to make less of the Seahawks’ effort as their defense was outstanding in the final three quarters. Their job was definitely easier because Griffin was so limited, though.
There will be plenty of debate about whether Griffin should have been in the game given how much he was clearly missing from his usual bag of tricks. Hopefully there was no significant damage done on Sunday because the Redskins were clearly pushing their luck with the guy who now stands as the franchise’s cornerstone.
The Redskins defense almost made that effort moot, however. Despite being outgained 271-38 over the second and third quarters, the Redskins took a 14-13 lead into the fourth thanks to their defense. They forced a fumble by Marshawn Lynch on the goal line to keep the Seahawks off the board and their blitzes reached Russell Wilson for five sacks. Safety Reed Doughty had two of those sacks and he played a terrific game overall for a Redskins defense that continued their second half improvement on Sunday.
Eventually, though, the Redskins’ inability to generate any offense caught up with them. The Seahawks finally broke through with about 11 minutes to play in the game as Lynch started to find running room and the offensive line held off a blitz long enough for Wilson to hit Zach Miller for 22 yards on third-and-10. Lynch eventually scored on a 27-yard run that featured some of his routine Beast Mode work and some downfield blocking from Wilson to help him into the end zone.
Lynch finished with 132 yards on 20 carries and Wilson added 68 rushing yards to his 187 through the air to get the team to the second round of the playoffs. They have a couple of injury concerns as defensive end Chris Clemons left early with a knee injury and kicker Steve Hauschka was hobbling around on an injured left ankle. They’ll try to heal up and the Seahawks will try to continue their six-game winning streak with a shot at the NFC title game on the line.
