Keenan Allen spent Sunday making the Seahawks’ secondary pay for every mistake, and the Chargers never let Seattle settle in.
Allen finished with six catches for 127 yards, a 20.7-yard average that stands as the highest the Seahawks have allowed to any opposing player with more than two receptions in a game this season. He wasn’t the only one finding room. Tyrell Williams and Mike Williams each got loose for touchdowns early, while Philip Rivers kept attacking downfield with little resistance and finished by hitting six different receivers for 228 yards, 164 of that coming in the opening half.
By the time Los Angeles walked off with a 25-17 win at CenturyLink Field, the Chargers’ receivers had stacked up the kind of day that prompted Allen to ask, “If we don’t have the best group of receivers in the National Football League, who does?”
The answer wasn’t settled on Sunday, but Seattle’s coverage group gave the question some weight.
Rivers completed 13 passes, and eight of them went for at least 10 yards. Nine moved the chains, and two ended in touchdowns. Pete Carroll didn’t hide from the damage.
“It didn’t feel like as we have been playing, and give them some credit, but I think we need to clean it up,” Carroll said. “We gave them too much against a good team.”
The Chargers opened the scoring on the final play of the first quarter when Rivers found Tyrell Williams for a 12-yard touchdown. Williams worked rookie cornerback Tre Flowers out of the play and secured the catch as he went to the ground. That score started a stretch of three straight touchdowns to close the first half for Los Angeles.
“We have confidence in the plays we can make,” Tyrell Williams said. “We got the coverages that we wanted, and when the opportunities come, we have confidence in our receivers to make plays.”
Seattle did get one major stop in the second quarter when Shaquill Griffin chased down Allen after a 54-yard catch, saving a touchdown in the open field. But the next snap still turned into points, as Melvin Gordon ripped off a 34-yard touchdown run to give the Chargers the lead they would never give back.
The big strikes kept coming. With 1:10 left before halftime, Rivers hit Mike Williams for 30 yards and another touchdown. Flowers was the defender again, and Mike Williams shook him off, spun away, and outran Bradley McDougald to the pylon to make it 19-7.
Seattle’s defense steadied after the break and did not allow an offensive touchdown in the second half. The Chargers’ only points after halftime came on Desmond King’s 42-yard interception return. Even so, the Seahawks were dealing with more than just the scoreboard.
McDougald left early in the second half with a nagging knee injury, and Delano Hill stepped in. Carroll said, “His knee that was sore all week long, after he played for quite a while in the game, it just tightened up again, and he couldn’t finish.”
Tedric Thompson said McDougald remained active on the sideline, and McDougald later returned briefly in place of Thompson. Carroll said Thompson had “the wind knocked out of him” after colliding with Allen on a catch, and he came back the next play. Flowers also spent time on the bench with a trainer before returning.
“Injuries are just part of the game,” Thompson said. “Guys getting injured during practice (and) during the game. You obviously don’t want anybody to get hurt, but the good thing is that we’ve got guys that are going to come ... in the game, and not miss a beat.”
The Seahawks secondary ended the day with five defensed passes, but the early burst of explosive plays left Seattle chasing the game. Thompson said the breakdowns were about communication, and the group spent time on the sideline studying film and trying to sort them out.
“Every time they had an explosive play, it was something on our end that we had to correct, that we kind of already knew,” Thompson said. “It wasn’t really (anything) that they were doing or Philip (Rivers) making his checks.
It was just us. Like I said, we’ve just got to go back to the drawing board.”
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