Seahawks defense was half good against the Chargers. But oh, that first half

It wasn’t until midway through the fourth quarter, but Frank Clark finally got to Philip Rivers.

With less than nine minutes to play Sunday at CenturyLink Field, the Seattle Seahawks defensive end beat his man off of the edge, and dropped the Chargers quarterback.

Clark’s sack — he’s now recorded at least one in each of the past three games — culminated in a 3-yard loss to set up a third-and-long. Bobby Wagner broke up the next pass, giving the Seahawks the ball back.

“Just a will to win,” Clark said about his pursuit of Rivers.“I wish we would have come out to play with that, and finished that through the first half, and then for the rest of the game.”

Minutes later, trailing by a touchdown, Jarran Reed dropped Rivers for a 10-yard loss to force a late punt, and give Seattle a chance to tie in the final two minutes.

Despite the late stops, and the defense shutting out Los Angeles in the second half, the Seahawks came up short in a 25-17 loss. That’s because the Chargers were able to roll to 19 unanswered points in the first half while Rivers rarely felt the heat from the Seahawks’ defense.

“As it came came down to it, the defense played a really good second half and gave us a chance,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said. “I don’t think they gave up any points, and shut them down on third down to give us a shot.

“A great job surging it at the very end to get the ball back so we had a chance to win the football game. ... We had a chance. We were right there.”

That wasn’t the case in the first half. The Seahawks allowed three early touchdowns and several big plays as the Los Angeles’ offense was able to extend drives.

“I feel like we got in our own way a lot,” Clark said. “When you look at the past few weeks, you look at how much we improved from where we started, it’s obvious. ... But, we didn’t come to show that today.”

Clark said he was surprised by the amount of big plays Seattle’s defense allowed. Of the Chargers’ 50 offensive plays during the game, 16 of them — including all three touchdowns — chewed up more than 10 yards.

Eight plays went for more than 20, including a game-long 54-yard pass Keenan Allen hauled in early in the second quarter. On the next play, Melvin Gordon rushed for a 34-yard touchdown that gave the Chargers a lead they never lost.

“Great defenses don’t give up explosive plays — or at least not that many,” Clark said.

Gordon finished with with 113 rushing yards and the one touchdown on 16 carries, and Allen piled up 124 receiving yards on six catches.

Tyrell Williams (12 yards) and Mike Williams (30 yards) each had touchdown receptions as Rivers carved up the Seahawks defense for 228 yards and the two touchdowns on 13-of-26 passing.

“We can’t allow the big plays, all of the explosive plays,” Clark said. “We can’t allow (Allen) to get loose. We can’t allow Phillip to have that much time to throw the ball.

“Any quarterback, when they have windows open and have that much time to throw the ball, they’re going to throw over 300 yards. Any running back, if we’re not tackling, he’s going to gain those extra 5 or 6 yards to make those second downs shorter.”

Los Angeles piled up 249 of its 375 yards of offense in the first half, and moved the ball almost effortlessly.

Clark was often double- or triple-teamed, and said the Chargers did a good job slowing him and the rest of Seattle’s defense down early, but persistence and execution helped the defense make the plays late.

“That’s just believing and sticking with it,” Carroll said. “The coaches did a nice job adjusting. We had to adjust a couple things from first half to second half, and they did a good job, and the players could take advantage of that.”

“(We) can’t sit back and feel like we have the whole world in our hands when we (have) a lot to prove,” Clark said. “We’re a young team, we’re climbing.”

Despite forcing four punts and a 42-yard field goal attempt that Caleb Sturgis missed wide left in the second half, the Seahawks couldn’t climb all the way back.

“I believe just that persistent effort and want to get better, and to keep on improving is the difference-maker, and what we’re going to do for the rest of the season,” Clark said.

This story was originally published November 4, 2018 at 7:09 PM.