Geno Smith rallies Seahawks, but Tom Brady beats them late in ‘unforgettable’ Germany game

For the most of this historic night, the Seahawks were so bad they may never have gotten invited back to Germany.

It was furchtbar.

They were down 14-0 before most in the rollicking crowd had downed their first liter of Paulaner. It was 21-3 in the fourth quarter.

Then Geno Smith happened. Again.

Smith threw two touchdown passes in 4 1/2 minutes of the fourth quarter to cut Tampa Bay’s lead to 21-16. Allianz Stadium, home of famed soccer club FC Bayern Munich, was roaring with chants of “SEA! HAWKS!”

But then Tom Brady, whom even the Seahawks called “The Greatest of All Time” this past week, completed two passes in the clutch to rebound from his interception to Cody Barton the previous drive.

Smith never got the ball back for a chance at a miraculous, three-touchdown rally late. And the first-place Seahawks had to fly 12 1/2 hours halfway across the world to have their four-game winning streak end in a 21-16 loss to the Buccaneers in front of 69,811 roaring, singing Germans and Americans in the first NFL regular-season game ever played in Germany.

“Unforgettable,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said.

“This feels like a real opportunity missed,” Carroll said. “Coming here in this beautiful setting, all the buildup, and everything that the game could have been it was in hype. The fans were extraordinary, and everything about this whole trip has been great.

“So the opportunity to win a game here would have been one to really cherish.”

Smith completed 23 of 33 passes for 275 yards and the two late touchdowns. But he lost a fumble inside the Tampa Bay 10-yard line in the second half. He has hit from behind by Buccaneers linebacker Devin White while holding the ball loosely, far away from his body. That a key play that kept the Seahawks chasing a two-score instead of one-score game deep into the fourth quarter.’

“Obviously, I’ve got to protect the football. That can never happen,” Smith said. “Guy made a great play as I was going down.

“But if I don’t turn it over in the red zone, I think it’s a different game.

“Unfortunately for us, it just took us too long to get going. Our defense made some key stops. Cody [Barton] made a great pick to set us up for a chance to get back in the game, and that’s what we did. Obviously we’ve just got to start better and be better on third downs. I don’t think today we did well. So those are the things that hurt us.”

The Buccaneers’ last-ranked running game continually pummeled Seattle’s defensive line. Tampa Bay ran 44 times for 162 yards. It entered Sunday rushing for just 61 yards per game.

Seahawks Pro Bowl safety Quandre Diggs said the Buccaneers suprised his defense with their play calls.

Diggs felt the brunt of that surprising rushing attack. He got stiff-armed into Bayern’s pitch with a angry stiff-arm by rookie Rachaad White during White’s 29-yard run in the third quarter.

“We’d stop them on runs — and they were running again on the next down,” Diggs said. “That’s how they were breaking tendencies to what we’d seen in the past.”

Seattle (6-4) takes its post-Europe bye week before hosting Las Vegas in its next game Nov. 27.

But Carroll was already talking about coming back to Germany to play here again, as soon as the NFL will put the Seahawks back in Bavaria.

“What a spectacle. This is an unforgettable occurrence,” Carroll said. “To be in that stadium with them all connected like that, I don’t know, it’s obviously — I was respecting the fact they must have done this (singing and chanting in unison) a lot, because they’re really good at it.

“It is an unforgettable, really, experience. And really feel lucky to have a chance to be here.”

Tom Brady, a receiver?

Everyone had to fly halfway across the globe to see it, but the Buccaneers tried perhaps the second-most ill-conceived play call in Seahawks’ game history.

There was that Seahawks-Patriots Super Bowl...

This one helped get the Seahawks back in Sunday’s game.

Brady had the Buccaneers driving deep into Seattle’s end leading 14-3 in the third quarter. Then the Bucs used a Wildcat formation. Lead back Leonard Fournette took a direct snap then attempted a pass deep down the left side challenging Seahawks rookie cornerback and NFL interception co-leader Tariq Woolen with receiver...Brady?!

Woolen wasn’t fooled. He was probably shocked, like everyone else in Allianz Arena and watching back on television back in the U.S., that the Buccaneers would try Fournette trying to throw to Brady against Woolen. Brady leaped and fell down, looking all of 45 years old while a duck of a pass hung for Woolen to make his fifth interception in 10 games to begin his NFL career.

Smith and Seattle’s offense zoomed back down the field after the gift. But on second and goal at the Bucs 9-yard line, Smith took off trying to run early on a pass call while not pressured. He ran into a wall of defenders, escaped outside to his left, then got hit from behind and lost the ball while getting sacked.

Tampa Bay’s Anthony Nelson recovered the fumble at the Bucs 13.

That play was reisig, huge. Instead of being down at least by 14-6, Seattle stayed down two scores, 14-3, entering the final quarter. They had momentum and changed the game by every measure except significantly on the scoreboard in the third quarter.

“Yeah, man, I felt like that second half, to me is an example of truly who we are,” Smith said. “I don’t think that first half really is who we are. We couldn’t get anything going.

“But we really fought back in the second half,” Smith said. “That’s a team that won a Super Bowl two years ago, three years ago. They have a lot of great players, great quarterback, great coaches, and they’re also fighting for their season.

“So we knew they were going to come out playing intense.”

If only Seattle had matched them. Even halfway.

“They outplayed us there in the beginning of the game. Simple as that,” Seahawks linebacker Jordyn Brooks said.

“Once it was working, they stuck with it,” Brooks said in a quiet but not angry visiting soccer dressing room beneath Allianz Arena. “That’s just the way it is in this league.

“We’ve just got to do a better job of that.”

Brooks left the game for one play then game back. He had dehydration and cramps in both legs.

The Seahawks’ defense relented again to begin the fourth quarter. After White planted Diggs in the loose, slippery grass with his stiff arm, Cade Otton, from Tumwater High School and the Washington Huskies, caught his third pass of the day, for 25 yards.

From there, Brady threw a 4-yard touchdown pass on a second look to Chris Godwin to make it 21-3. That play was designed to the right flat, where two Buccaneers receivers were blocking Seattle defensive backs illegally clearing out the goal line for an underneath receiver. But Brady saw the traffic and didn’t throw that way. Officials picked up the flag they had thrown, and the touchdown stood.

Carroll said officials gave him an explanation of the call/no-call.

It wasn’t one that satisfied Seattle’s coach.

“I’m not sure. The explanation is that even though it was offensive pass interference, the philosophy is, when it’s away from the play, you don’t call it,” Carroll said.

That is, even though it’s called by letter of the law among many defensive fouls for contact away from the ball every week in most NFL games.

Carroll nodded at that point but was smart enough not to comment on it.

“So that’s why they picked it up,” Carroll said. “It was a hard night. It was a hard night. There was a lot of stuff that we’ll go back and look at and see, and maybe we’ll feel differently about it.

“I don’t know. But it was a hard night.”

The Seahawks needed only five plays, all passes, to score their first touchdown of the game with 8:20 left in the game. Smith to Tyler Lockett, 21 yards inside the goal line over the middle, made it 21-9. The two-point attempt after the touchdown failed, an incomplete pass to seldom used Penny Hart as Smith had no one open.

Then it was 21-16 after Smith found diving Marquise Goodwin in the back of the end zone on fourth down with 3:58 left. Goodwin said they’d practice that play all the time since summer. Sunday was the first time on it Smith threw to him.

After the catch, Goodwin got on both knees and pointed through to the Bavarian night sky.

“I lost my son five years ago yesterday,” Goodwin said of one of the three unthinkable tragedies he and his wife have endured.

Bruce Irvin tries to ignite Seahawks

In the second quarter, Brady found another open Buccaneer without a Seahawks defender in sight to set up Leonard Fournette’s walk-in touchdown stroll of 1 yard. Seattle trailed 14-0.

On the sidelines after that score, 35-year-old linebacker Bruce Irvin did what coach Pete Carroll signed him back last month to do. He kicked teammates in the rear ends.

Brooks had called them over. But Irvin had all defensive players around him on the bench. He stood up — and reamed them. Irvin was screaming at his teammates for most of a tense minute.

The Seahawks’ answer to that on offense: one first down, a forced incomplete pass on the sideline to DK Metcalf, and another punt by Michael Dickson.

Seattle’s answer to that on defense: a three-and-out stop against Tampa Bay’s own goal line.

But the Seahawks’ offense answered by missing a chance for a huge play to free Metcalf down the left sideline because no one picked up Tampa Bay’s blitzing White. The linebacker sacked Smith before he could see Metcalf open late in the half. That 2-minute drill ended when Seattle rookie running back Ken Walker, so good for four weeks, tip-toed into a tackle for loss instead of bulling straight ahead on third and 1.

Walker had just 17 yards on 10 carries. His run of seven rushing touchdowns over five consecutive games ended with a thud.

The Seahawks went into their cramped visitor’s soccer dressing room, as they call it in Europe, down by two touchdowns.

But not out of the game.

Run on

The Seahawks trailing 14-0 at halftime actually made the first half sound better than it was for Seattle.

The Buccaneers entered Germany with the NFL’s 32nd- and last-ranked rushing offense. Yet when they saw Seattle going with two and three true defensive linemen on early downs, the Bucs just ran straight ahead. Tampa Bay running backs rushed 21 times in the first half. That’s more running plays than it averaged in an entire game coming in.

The Buccaneers gained 76 yards on the ground in the half. That’s 15 more yards than they were averaging rushing before Sunday.

Thrown on

It wasn’t much better early on for the Seahawks defending the pass.

Brady and the Bucs repeatedly challenged Woolen on throws and routes, more than the Seahawks’ three previous opponents did.

Late in the first quarter, Brady sent a running back on a wheel route down the left sideline. Seahawks safety Ryan Neal went with him. Woolen retreated toward Mike Evans running a deep flag route late. No one ran with Julio Jones running a drag route underneath from the same left side. Jones was open from Munich to Salzburg when he caught Brady’s quick, short throw in the middle and turned it into a 31-yard touchdown. Tampa Bay led 7-0.

The Seahawks’ deficit doubled after another blown coverage. Wide receiver Scotty Miller was lonely deep in the middle of what looked like zone coverage by Seattle. Only Miller unnecessarily leaping for Brady’s pass, expecting a defender, and falling kept him from a touchdown.

After the 22-yard gain, Leonard Fournette trotted in for a 1-yard touchdown run with, like most of Seattle’s early game, no resistance.

The Seahawks trailed 14-0. And they were fortunate it was only that.

Tampa Bay gained 208 yards to Seattle’s 57. The Buccaneers had 13 first downs, to the Seahawks’ three.

Another number that stung for Seattle: 1 for 9 on third downs.

“We just didn’t execute the plays that were called,” Metcalf said.