Landover, Md.– What is the difference between playing hurt and playing injured? Robert Griffin III found out the answer to that question with one errant shotgun snap.
Washington’s surge into the playoffs was stymied by Seattle’s top-ranked scoring defense, and the winter-long questioning officially begins in earnest in D.C. after RG3 reinjured his right knee in the Seahawks’ 24-14 playoff win in the Wild Card round of the 2012 playoffs.
Griffin III – who first sprained his knee on a vicious hut Dec. 9 vs. the Baltimore Ravens – looked more like Joe Namath on a good day running with the football, with every jaunt outside the pocket and past the line of scrimmage more painful – and painful to watch – with each successive attempt. Despite that, the Redskins continued to win in the regular season (with or without RG3 in the lineup), and then held onto the lead for more than three-fourths of this contest.
Once Seattle wrested the lead away midway through the fourth quarter (21-14), instead of witnessing the spectacular from RG3, they got the spectacular fall.
On first-and-10 on the next drive, Griffin labored out of the pocket, then almost had his body inverted when Bruce Irvin sacked him, causing a collective gasp to go about FedExField on RG3’s descent to the chewed-up grass. He was able to get up, but on the next play, a shotgun snap went to the left of Griffin from center Will Montgomery. The ball fell to the turf, and as he bent to pick up the ball, his right knee twisted and gave out on him, leaving him writhing in pain – and Seattle with the ball after Clinton McDonald recovered the loose ball.
Game over. The second-guessing? It’s only the beginning.
When asked whether he thought about taking his star rookie QB out of the game before the fourth-quarter injury occurred, head coach Mike Shanahan gave what amounted be a vacuous mea culpa.
“I did. I did, and I talked to Robert and he said to me, ‘Coach, there’s a difference between being injured and being hurt.’ He said, ‘I can guarantee I’m hurt right now but give me a chance to win this football game because I guarantee I’m not injured.’
“That was enough for me,” continued Shanahan. Here’s doubting that line will assuage any of the Washington faithful in the off-season.
On the other side, it’s the Seahawks that extended their own winning streak, on the shoulders of their own rookie quarterback, Russell Wilson. Showing the poise and calm demeanor that enamored Pete Carroll so much in training camp that he made him the opening-day starter, Wilson led Seattle out of its biggest deficit of the season – 14 points – to lead them to victory on the road in the postseason for only the second time in team history.
“I kept telling the guys that we’ve been here before,” Wilson said. “We had a lot of great opportunities to capitalize on in the red zone today. We didn’t do that as much as of late, but that’s alright. In the playoffs, you just have to make plays, continue to fight, continue to have that edge. We came up with some huge plays tonight to come up with a huge victory.”
The Seahawks continued to fight after Washington hit them with an offensive one-two to open up a 14-0 lead. After winning the toss, the Redskins marched down the field 80 yards on nine plays, culminating on a third-down pass to backup running back Evan Royster for a four-yard touchdown. “Hail To The Redskins” was being belted out by the record-setting attendance, and after a three-and-out on three dropbacks by Wilson, Washington stayed in its offensive rhythm the next time they had the ball. Three third downs were converted on the next drive, including a four-yard touchdown pass from Griffin to tight end Logan Paulsen to give the Redskins a two-score edge.
It was loud, it was raucous. But the lead for Washington only proved to be a kiss of death, as Griffin, on nearly every run and every dropback, was limping almost more noticeably than at any point from his return from injury. The more the Redskins stayed in the lead, the more RG3 wanted to play through the pain.
The more the risk for serious injury, too.
Seattle, got back into the game in the second quarter after turning to its run game, utilizing the zone read option look that Washington has used to so much success this season. Steven Hauschka kicked a 32-yard field goal, and Wilson hit Michael Robinson on a four-yard pass to cut the lead to 14-10. Another Hauschka field goal at the end of the first half made it 14-13.
That’s when Lynch and the Seahawks defense took over.
A scoreless third quarter kept the Redskins in the lead, but only after Lynch fumbled the ball away near the goal line on the way to giving Seattle the lead. He atoned for the error, punishing his way down the right sideline for a 27-yard touchdown midway through the fourth for Seattle’s first lead. A Wilson to Zach Miller pass completion on the two-point conversion attempt made it a touchdown margin.
Wilson, on the Lynch touchdown run, threw some interference downfield in helping to escort him to the winning score.
“[Lynch] always tells me, ‘Russ, I got your back. No matter what, I got your back,’” Wilson said. “So I try to help him out every once in a while. He gets downfield, and I just try to make a play for him to help our football team win.”
Seattle’s defense, fourth in total offense and the pace-setter in scoring defense, put the icing on the cake, forcing two turnovers on the day and only yielding 63 yards of total offense in the final 30 minutes.
“They were going really fast and we weren’t at the start,” Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll said. “After that, we were okay. We didn’t change anything. We just talked our way through the schemes that they were running. 70 yards in three-and-a-half quarters is ridiculously good defense.”
Seattle now travels to Atlanta to play the Falcons at the Georgia Dome, with the kickoff set for 1 PM Eastern on Sunday.
[Photos: Cover: Evan Vucci/AP Photo, Griffin III: Brad Mills/USA Today, Lynch: Laurence Kesterson/Reuters]
