SEATTLE — Ninety-two yards and 1:52 to save a season?
Drew Lock and the Seahawks ultimately needed just 1:24 to turn in a drive that not only kept Seattle’s playoff hopes alive but will go down firmly in franchise lore.
Lock completed five of 10 passes for all 92 yards, the final 29 coming on a third-and-10 pass to rookie receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who used a double-move to get open against veteran cornerback James Bradberry, then used all of his listed six-feet to cradle in a pass as he fell to the ground on the out-of-bounds line.
The play gave Seattle a 20-17 lead — the first time the Seahawks led all game.
And when Julian Love pulled off his second interception of the game — both in the fourth quarter — with 6 seconds left, the Seahawks had snapped a four-game losing streak, improved to 7-7 and turned playoff hopes from life support to better than even.
Via The New York Times’ Upshot playoff calculator, the Seahawks now have a 52% chance of making the playoffs. It would have been 14% with a loss.
The drive began after the Eagles punted from midfield with just over two minutes left.
And it began ominously as a first-down pass went off the hands of tight end Noah Fant and flew high enough in the air that for a moment it looked like it might be an Eagles interception that would have ended the game.
But on the next play, Lock hit DK Metcalf for 18 yards to get the drive started.
He then hit another one to Fant for 5 and then to Metcalf for 6, who caught it while falling to the ground heavily defended.
An incompletion followed, leaving Seattle with a second-and-10 at its own 37 with exactly one minute remaining.
A pass intended for Lockett was then broken up by Nicholas Morrow.
But on the next play, Lock threaded it high to Metcalf, who caught it between two defenders on the sidelines at the 29 for 44 yards.
Two incompletions followed.
Then Lock saw Smith-Njigba split out wide right in man coverage on Bradberry, an All-Pro second-team pick last season.
Smith-Njigba got a step, Lock lofted the ball, and when Smith-Njigba came down with it, the Seahawks had yet another in a long line of improbable wins in the Pete Carroll era.
Seattle overcame an early 10-0 deficit, and also trailed 17-10 entering the final quarter, having struggled to move the ball much of the night against a defense ranked 28 th in the NFL in points allowed coming in.
The Seahawks also had to overcome a dubious timeout decision by Carroll earlier in the quarter that seemed as if it might have doomed Seattle’s last real chance to make it a game.
Seattle was lined up to go for it on a fourth-and-2 at the 18 down 17-10 with just over 10 minutes left.
But with the play call running down Carroll called timeout.
At about the same time, Eagles coach Nick Sirianni decided to challenge the call that Lock had gotten rid of the ball.
And during the time out, the ruling came in that Lock was down, and Seattle was now facing fourth-and-9 at the 25.
Carroll then sent on the field goal team with Jason Myers hitting a 43-yarder. But that left Seattle down 17-13 with exactly 10 minutes left.
The Eagles then easily moved the ball to Seattle’s 45, and the Seahawks’ season seemingly reeling, the Eagles decided to go for broke on first down with Jalen Hurts hurling a pass to Quez Watkins in the end zone.
But safety Julian Love outfought Watkins for the ball and Seattle had the ball at the 20 and new life.
Seattle, though, couldn’t move it with a third-and-5 pass going off Lockett’s hands.
The Eagles got one first down on their next drive.
But the Seahawks got a stop on third down on the next drive, forcing an Eagles punt from midfield.
Braden Mann’s punt went dead at the 8 with 1:52 left, and the Seahawks holding one timeout.
The Seahawks moved so easily, though, they never even needed the last time out.
Instead, it was the Eagles who were left wondering what hit them, the defending NFC Champs having now lost three in a row.
Lock got his second start after the team decided not to go with Geno Smith.
Smith, listed as questionable with a groin injury, conducted an on-field agility drill workout more than two hours before the game, and then threw some passes, which was enough to convince the team to leave him on the 48-player active list.
But Smith did not play.
The Seahawks continued their perplexing and disturbing trend of getting off to a bad start against a good team, allowing the Eagles to go on drives of 15 and 16 plays to take a 10-0 lead midway through the second quarter.
That included a 75-yard march after the Eagles got the opening kickoff, which ended in a 3-yard TD run by Hurts.
It might have been worse had not Eagles center Jason Kelce been called for a false start on a third-and-1 play at the Seattle 3 with the Eagles leading 7-0, which forced Philly to settle for a field goal and a 10-0 lead.
At that point, the Eagles had a 148-35 edge in yards and 11-1 in first downs, mirroring early deficits Seattle got buried in at Baltimore and in a Thanksgiving night home loss to the 49ers.
But Seattle used a 20-yard pass interference drawn by Metcalf to jump start a drive that moved to the Eagles 8, where the Seahawks faced a fourth-and-4.
The Seahawks initially lined up as if to go for it but ultimately only tried to draw the Eagles offsides. That didn’t work, and after a time out, Seattle settled for a 27-yard Jason Myers field goal to make it 10-3 at the half.
The Eagles outgained Seattle 169-90 in the first half.
But the Seattle defense forced the Eagles to punt on three of their last four possessions.
Seattle then took the opening kickoff of the second half and on its best drive of the game, moved 75 yards in nine plays, tying the game on a 23-yard run by Kenneth Walker III. As Walker crossed to the right of the field and to the corner of the end zone, Lock circled back and broke in front to help throw a finishing block on Eagles cornerback Eli Ricks.
But the Eagles didn’t let Seattle’s celebration last long, responding with their own 12-play, 75-yard drive that included two early third-down conversions — one an 11-yard completion on a third-and-9 — that set up a 1-yard Brotherly Shove touchdown by Hurts.
That put the Eagles up 17-10 with 4:43 to play in the third.
The Eagles, though, never scored again.
