Seahawks hurt themselves with botched clock management to end half

The Seattle Seahawks had a bad first half Sunday against the New Orleans Saints, and it culminated in some terrible clock management just before halftime.

Seattle fell behind 20-7 before getting the ball back with 33 seconds left in the half. Despite holding two timeouts, it seemed reasonable to assume that the Seahawks would just head to the half and try to regroup. The team seemed to have other plans, as Russell Wilson came out throwing for a nine-yard pass. However, the Seahawks didn’t take one of their timeouts, and the clock kept running.

With the clock ticking, Wilson uncorked a 53-yard pass to D.K. Metcalf, which would have at least brought Seattle into field goal range. However, time ran out before they could call timeout, and the half ended. It begged the question why Pete Carroll didn’t use a timeout after the first play to set up the long throw, as not doing so left the Seahawks with no time to do anything.

Brutal ending to the first half for the Seahawks: Russell Wilson found DK Metcalf for a 54-yard completion but Seattle couldn't call one of its two timeouts before the clock hit zero. So it's 20-7 Saints at the half. Could have also called timeout before the throw to Metcalf.

— Brady Henderson (@BradyHenderson) September 22, 2019

If the Seahawks wanted to run out the clock, they could’ve knelt. If they were serious about scoring, they should have been aggressively using those two timeouts. It’s fair to say the entire sequence made Carroll’s rough day even rougher.