Defibrillator please. Whew. #SEAvsDAL pic.twitter.com/vAkU4WQrd7
â Seattle Seahawks (@Seahawks) November 2, 2015
The Seattle Seahawks beat the Dallas Cowboys 13-12 yesterday, securing a much-needed road win to keep their playoff hopes alive. The team showed some genuine resiliency for the first time in what felt like ages, coming from behind late and making big plays on both sides of the ball when they had to. Russell Wilson went a whole week without getting sacked. The Seahawks can use this win as a springboard into their bye week preparations for their week-ten showdown with the Arizona Cardinals.
Oh, also this game sucked. It sucked a lot in myriad ways. It sucked so much. It was the worst. I love watching football, but everything about this was very, very bad.
The biggest play of the gameâan incredibly athletic tipped interception on a screen passâwas made by Greg Hardy. (Hardy should be in jail for assaulting and threatening his ex-girlfriend. However, he isnât because she disappeared and refused to testify during his trial after Hardy appealed the conviction.) After he made the play, Fox cameras cut to Cowboys owner, general manager, and unrepentant Hardy defender Jerry Jones giggling with glee. That was the second worst moment of the game by a wide margin.
With every play Greg Hardy makes, Jerry's heart gets blacker. https://t.co/cDrEUJVbPJ pic.twitter.com/FyYJiP7xtP
â SB Nation GIF (@SBNationGIF) November 2, 2015
Before moving onto the worst moment of the game, itâs worth mentioning that the second biggest play of the gameâDallasâ field-goal blockâwas made by rookie David Irving. If you were just watching the broadcast, you might have heard about Irving overcoming the odds to make the pros after starting only eight games at Iowa State. He only started eight games at Iowa State because, after having a DV charge dropped, he was charged with theft fifth-degree, disorderly conduct, and criminal mischief for his role in a campus riot. Also, Frank Clark made a big impact on the Seahawks defensive line, and is also someone with a troubling history.
The worst moment of the game, however, came when it looked like Seahawks wide receiver Ricardo Lockette died on a meaningless block on a meaningless punt return. Lockette, who is an absolute burner, was moving at full speed when he took the full brunt of a hit from a Cowboy to his face and collapsed in a heap. It was unclear how long he fell unconscious for, or what his exact injury was, but it was clearly severe. He appeared to be unconscious for at least a few minutes, and the main reason I donât know what happened is that Fox cut away from the injury for an Oakland Raiders score update.
The good news is that Lockette is alive and did not suffer a spinal fracture. The bad news is that he has a concussion and suffered ligament damage, which requires surgery and means he'll miss the rest of the season. Given what we knew about head and neck trauma, we likely saw the course of a manâs life change on a meaningless play in an athletic competition.
Locketteâs mind is one of the many Pictures of Dorian Gray that football relies on: The game keeps goingâstronger, faster, sleeker than everâwhile the damage it inflicts is locked away inside the heads of the players, where it canât be seen or fully understood. The severity of Locketteâs injury gave us a very clear glimpse of whatâs going on, but that sort of damage is constant and unwavering for these players. Lockette is glacial melt and football is global warming, and weâre not doing anything to stop it, as we slide collectively toward the abyss. Weâre all complicit yet the responsibility is diffuse, and those with access to the levers of power benefit too much from their access to change anything. Thus, all we are left with is horror. What happened on Sunday was horrifying. I donât know what else to say.
Bad refereeing happened. I guess that mattered. The NFL has yet to define the word âcatch,â so the Seahawks were denied a turnover early in the game. Luke Willson was then given a touchdown right as replays showed the ball had not broken the plane of the goal line. Then a bunch of other stupid calls happened. If players are going to kill themselves over a game, the game might as well have enforceable rules.
The only genuinely exciting moment of the game came from the play of Laâel Collins, a Dallas offensive lineman who is only in Dallas because his draft stock fell after he was implicated in a murder. He was later fully cleared of wrongdoing, and does not deserve to be lumped in with the others listed above. Nevertheless, the fucking highlight of this game was an offensive line play made by a rookie who went undrafted because of a murder. I'm not embedding a highlight here for reasons that I hope are obvious.
The Cowboys played Matt Cassel at quarterback, which was good for the Seahawks but absolutely terrible for the quality of play. Cassel was in for Tony Romo, who was badly hurt earlier this year and looked like the bad Colin Kaepernick we saw last week, missing receivers while running for the occasional first down. His performance made me feel bad for Cowboys fans, which was not a feeling I knew I could feel.
Also bad: The game was boring. Seattleâs offense looked okay, except in the red zone where it looked terrible. The Cowboys' offense was anemic, especially in the passing game. There were a bunch of grinding drives, but no explosives of note for either team. Matt Cassel ran a lot, Jimmy Graham caught some balls and dropped some others. The Seahawks' offensive line played good enough to avoid doing anything of note, or allowing anyone else to do much of note. It was not good.
So yeah, this is too many words complaining about a win. I donât care. This game sucked. Good news is the Sounders won. Bye week next week. Watch some soccer instead. When someone looks like they died playing soccer, theyâre probably just a Spaniard faking an injury.