The Seahawks had several miscues on special teams during Sunday’s 26-21 win over the Jets and the player responsible for a couple of them was dropped from the roster onMonday.
Wide receiver Laviska Shenault has been waived. Shenault mishandled two kickoffs during the game and lost one of the fumbles in the second quarter. The Seahawks also saw their other returned Dee Williams lose a fumble in the first quarter of the game.
Shenault has returned 16 kickoffs so far this season and he returned one of them 97 yards for a touchdown against the 49ers in Week Six. Shenault also lost another fumble on a return in that game.
While on offense for Seattle, Shenault had five catches for 36 yards and one carry for a yard.
After a game in which Seahawks defensive lineman Leonard Williams took an interception 92 yards for a touchdown, we asked Williams by phone whether he’s ever run that far on a football field.
“Honestly, I think that is the farthest I ran in my life,” Williams said. “As a big guy, you know, I’m more of a short-burst, 10 yards at max, 15 yards at max type of guy. So you know running 92 yards was definitely a little much for me, so I just laid down in the end zone there at the end.”
He never thought he’d make it that far without being tackled.
“Once I reached around the 50, I was expecting someone a lot faster than me to be around me by then,” Williams said. “And honestly, as I was looking around, I seen . . . the whole calvary, the whole defense running down the field.”
He said he knew at that point no one from the Jets would get through his teammates to make the tackle.
One Jets player caught up with Williams at halftime. Quarterback Aaron Rodgers had this message: “That’s an early Christmas gift from me to you.”
Jets cornerback D.J. Reed likely will be getting a letter from the league office this week.
After Sunday’s loss to the Seahawks, Reed posted this on Twitter: “@NFLOfficiating you FXCKING suck, yall should be ashamed of yall selves!”
The NFL will allow a certain amount of criticism from players, but there’s a line that will trigger a fine. Last year, Browns defensive end Myles Garrett was fined $25,000 for calling officiating a “travesty” after a win over the Jaguars.
I don’t know where the line is, by “you FXCKING suck” probably lands on the wrong side of it.
We spoke to Seahawks defensive lineman Leonard Williams after Seattle’s come-from-behind win over the Jets on Sunday. During the call, he was very diplomatic about Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers. (More to come about the things he said.)
Before the call, and during his post-game press conference, Williams was not quite so diplomatic when talking about Rodgers missing a wide-open receiver, one play before Williams intercepted a Rodgers pass and returned it 92 yards for a touchdown.
“I think he’s an older guy,” Williams said, “doesn’t want to take big hits like that anymore. So, sometimes if you feel the guy coming full speed at him, he’s going to chuck it and duck. We had him in a situation where [coach] Mike [Macdonald] called a great call and it paid off.”
Rodgers had yet another long day, and the Jets sank to 3-9 for the season. After the game, coach Jeff Ulbrich wouldn’t commit unequivocally to Rodgers keeping the starting job.
Whether he stays in place or not, the Jets are sinking in the standings and running out of chances to turn it around. Even if they run the table, 8-9 probably won’t do anything more than screw up their draft position for April.
The Seahawks looked like they were about to be blown out by the Jets in the second quarter at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, but a former Jet came up with a game-turning play.
After the Seahawks’ second lost fumble on a kickoff of the first half, the Jets drove inside the 10-yard-line with a 21-7 lead. Aaron Rodgers missed a wide-open Garrett Wilson in the end zone on second down and a third-down pass was deflected into the hands of defensive lineman Leonard Williams, who returned it for a 92-yard touchdown.
The Seahawks would remain behind the Jets into the fourth quarter, but Williams’s score kept things within reach and Zach Charbonnet finally got them a lead with an eight-yard score with 5:31 left to play. The Jets’ ensuing drive ended when Rodgers and Wilson couldn’t connect in the end zone on a fourth down and the Seahawks could celebrate a 26-21 road win.
Williams added two sacks in what must have been a satisfying win against the team that drafted him in the first round of the 2015 draft. Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith was one of his teammates back then as well and Smith was 20-of-31 for 206 yards and a score in his first game against his former team in the stadium he once called home.
The drive that ended with Charbonnet’s score was indicative of how the entire Jets season has gone. The Seahawks went for it on fourth-and-6 from their own 33-yard-line because punter Michael Dickson had a back injury, but the Jets were flagged for having 12 men on the field. The Seahawks went again, cornerback Qwan’Tez Stiggers was flagged for pass interference and the Seahawks converted another fourth down a few plays later on a horse collar tackle by defensive tackle Solomon Thomas.
There were 12 penalties on the Jets overall and those kinds of mistakes have been an issue for the Jets all season. So have extended offensive droughts and Sunday’s saw them fail to score on their final eight possessions. In addition to Rodgers’s interception, they lost a Breece Hall fumble and failed to convert a fourth down during the second quarter. That fumble was forced by Seahawks safety Julian Love and he was impactful all day for the winning side.
In addition to the fumbles by kick returners Dee Williams and Laviska Shenault, the Seahawks also allowed a 92-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by Kene Nwangwu. That leaves them with much to clean up in the kicking game.
Sunday’s loss guarantees the 3-9 Jets will have a losing season and they’ll try to avoid their 10th loss in Miami next Sunday. The 7-5 Seahawks will be in Arizona with a chance to strengthen their grip on the NFC West.
