Trailing by four points late in the second quarter of Sunday’s loss to the Buffalo Bills, Seattle Seahawks edge rusher Derick Hall committed a critical roughing the passer penalty that shifted the momentum of the game.
On 3rd and 7 from Seattle’s 24-yard line, leading 7-3, Bills quarterback Josh Allen threw the ball away in what should have been the Seahawks defense forcing a field goal attempt. That would have kept it a one-score game.
Instead, Hall pushed Allen to the ground well after the ball left his hand. It was an easy call for the officials. Veteran defensive tackle Jarran Reed took issue with Hall’s penalty and immediately got in his face on the field. Later, the two were seen on the sidelines continuing their scrum.
“For one, emotions are in football, right? But, we’ve talked about what Josh Allen could do all week with the flopping and everything,” Reed said of the interaction on Wednesday. “It was a bonehead play, but I just wanted to let him know that we can’t do that at that time. That was a critical play, a critical time in the game. When you do stuff like that, it leads to explosives. That’s what we’re trying to eliminate. That’s all we were talking about.”
Reed’s perspective was affirmed shortly after. Allen threw a touchdown pass to tight end Dalton Kincaid two plays later. Buffalo led 14-3 at halftime, and eventually ran away with the game in the second half to earn a 31-10 victory — the Seahawks’ largest margin of defeat this season.
“All the other extracurricular activities that went on, that’s just being two guys who care about football,” Reed added. “[Hall] is my guy. He’s one of my friends on this team. Our parents are cool, we’re still cool, there’s no love lost. It just happens. We talked about it right afterward and we’re just two alpha males. Everybody out there is an alpha male, and it happens. You’ve got to move on to keep playing. That’s what we did.”
Although the exchange appeared heated, and was, the pair later had a much calmer and more collected conversation on the sideline as Hall listened to what Reed had to say. Reed also heard Hall out, and the two moved on.
“For me, it’s just I had to do better on my part to address it better. That’s why I went, I doubled back on him,” Reed added. “I said ‘Look, we were heated at the time. Of course, I’m mad. You want to get off the field. It was going to be a huge play. We could’ve taken points off the board.’ … I explained the scenarios and situations and everything that was calculated in my mind just so he could understand where I was coming from and I wanted to hear him out as well."
Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald also spoke about the situation on Monday, and he appreciated the passion from both players. Macdonald added he spoke to Hall that morning before his press conference, and he was “more upset with himself about the penalty than the interaction with Jarran [Reed].”
Players fighting during a game isn’t exactly encouraging, but it does show they care. Being emotionally neutral in a spiraling, blowout loss at home would spell even worse issues for the team. Hall has been one of Seattle's best defensive players this season, but he's still in just his second NFL season. He is bound to make mistakes, like all young players do.
Reed, who was originally drafted by the Seahawks in 2016 and returned to the team last season after two years away, knows what it’s like to be a young player who has lessons to learn. He was once on the receiving end of a scuffle with former Seattle defenders Michael Bennett and Frank Clark.
“Nobody’s seen that, it happens indoors. But, it just happens when you’re young,” Reed, now 31, said. “Sometimes you think you know stuff, you don’t want to listen. But sometimes you’ve just got to be humble and be held accountable. Hold yourself accountable, listen to the other guys when they’re trying to give you some knowledge. That takes time. When you’re young, you wouldn’t understand that. It comes with growth.”
Reed was brought back last season to be a veteran presence in the locker room and bolster Seattle’s struggling defensive line. The lessons he learned from the Seahawks’ former players helped him have a long career, and he’s now trying to instill the same mentality in Hall and the team’s other budding stars.
