Rapid Reaction: Late Miscues Cost Seahawks in Gut-Wrenching 27-24 Loss to Vikings

Seeing their playoff hopes take a massive hit in the process, the Seattle Seahawks failed to finish off a late rally as they suffered a deflating 27-24 loss to the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday, dropping their home record to a dismal 3-6 for the season.

Shining throughout the game with a couple of crucial mistakes marring his overall performance, Geno Smith threw for 314 yards and three touchdowns while also being intercepted by a ball-hawking Vikings defense twice. Jaxon Smith-Njigba led the team with eight catches for 98 yards and caught a touchdown late in the first half to knot the game at 17, while DK Metcalf scored his first touchdown since Week 7 and finished with 57 receiving yards.

With their NFC West title hopes dwindling and the wild card now out of the picture completely, here are five key takeaways from a gut-wrenching defeat in Seattle's home finale:

As he has done all season long, Smith didn't give up or give in after throwing an ugly second quarter interception that led to a Vikings field goal. Quickly shaking the mistake off, he completed all five of his throws for 88 yards on the final drive of the first half, including an 18-yard touchdown Smith-Njigba on a wheel route from the slot, pushing the Seahawks back within three points at intermission. After leading a field goal drive to open the second half, he rebounded from back to back drives that ended in punts to guide the team 83 yards on 11 plays, finding Barner in the back of the end zone to give them their first and only lead of the afternoon.

From there, Seattle's defense gifted Smith and company two more chances to either tie or win the game by forcing punts. But after completions to Noah Fant and Kenny McIntosh advanced the ball down to the Minnesota 37-yard line with three minutes to play, the quarterback found himself under siege against a blitz and took a back-breaking sack, knocking the team back seven yards. Two plays later, Myers couldn't get enough leg on a 60-yard field goal attempt that fell well short of the uprights. Following a three-and-out, he tried to fire a deep out route to Metcalf, only for safety Theo Jackson to pick him off to ice the contest and prevent him from manufacturing another game-winning drive.

Going into Sunday's game, the Seahawks were coming off a rough outing where Smith and Sam Howell were sacked by the Packers seven times, which seemed like a bad omen considering the Vikings ranked in the top five in sacks for the season. However, a maligned offensive line held up surprisingly well against coordinator Brian Flores and a feisty, blitz-happy defense, keeping Smith clean for most of the afternoon. In the first three quarters, the unit didn't allow a single sack and just three quarterback hits, regularly picking up extra rushers and allowing the quarterback time to make throws downfield as well as check downs.

Unfortunately, with the game hanging in the balance late, Seattle's front line broke down a couple of times, allowing outside linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel to get to Smith twice for sacks. The first one came at the 13 minute mark in the fourth quarter on 3rd and 11, leading to a Michael Dickson punt only four plays after safety Julian Love picked up a first down on a fake punt direct snap run. The quarterback went down again after a 15-yard completion to McIntosh at the three minute mark after he tried to side step the rush, only for Van Ginkel to wrap him up for a drive killing sack that all but knocked the team out of Myers' realistic range. Still, the unit deserves a ton of credit for limiting hits on Smith and played one of its better games in pass protection.

During a four-game winning streak from Week 11 to Week 14, the Seahawks did a fantastic job of cutting down on self-inflicted mistakes on defense, seeing their penalties and explosive plays allowed shrink substantially. But on Sunday, that was far from the case with penalties and lack of execution coming to the forefront at crucial junctures of the game.

After Smith dropped a rainbow into Metcalf's hands for six points and the two teams traded punts, Sam Darnold had marched Minnesota into the red zone and Derick Hall chased him down from behind on 3rd and 8 for a drive-stalling sack. But the play wound up not counting due to cornerback Tre Brown lining up in the neutral zone and on the next snap, Darnold threw a 14-yard touchdown to Justin Jefferson with Brown in coverage, capitalizing on the killer penalty to turn three points into seven.

Fast forwarding to the fourth quarter on what ended up becoming Minnesota's game-winning drive, rookie defensive tackle Byron Murphy II latched onto Darnold's face mask while bringing him down for a sack, giving the visitors a new set of downs. On the very next play, the quarterback found Jefferson wide open against Cover 2 with safety Julian Love unable to get to the receiver from his center field post quick enough to make a play, once again seizing the opportunity presented to them via penalty to steal the road win.

While Minnesota didn't have a ton of success getting to Smith, Seattle managed to turn up the heat quite often on Darnold, finding a groove after the initial touchdown drive to open the game. Immediately after Smith's touchdown to Metcalf, Jarran Reed collapsed down on the quarterback on 3rd and 8 and punched the ball out of his hands for a strip sack. On the ensuing possession, Hall nearly had his seventh sack of the season, only for Brown's penalty to wipe it out.

In a key sequence in the game midway through the second quarter, the Seahawks came up with another clutch sack to hold the Vikings to three points following Smith's first interception and limit the damage. Boye Mafe came rocketing off the edge, dipped his shoulder, and caved in on Darnold from behind on second down for a 12-yard loss to bring up 3rd and 20, all but ending a drive that looked to be on the fast track to the end zone.

Overall, Seattle tallied three sacks and seven quarterback hits to go with several other pressures that resulted in rushed passes for Darnold. Unfortunately, there also were instances where the quarterback managed to step up into the pocket, evade the rush, and find open receivers, including a 27-yard completion to Jefferson in the third quarter, as he finished with 246 yards, three touchdowns, and no turnovers.

With Smith throwing for over 300 yards and three touchdowns for just the second time this season, the Seahawks obviously found plenty of success airing it out against a Vikings defense that has had issues giving up chunk plays in the passing game all year. From that standpoint, it was understandable why offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb leaned heavily on passing calls, especially at the end of the first half in a two-minute situation where they needed to move the ball downfield quickly.

However, Grubb once again fell into an all-too-ideal trap, abandoning the run game early in the contest despite the fact that the Seahawks averaged north of four yards per carry in the first two quarters. By halftime, he had dialed up 17 pass plays compared to five runs, equating to a 77 percent pass rate. He continued the one-sided approach in the second half, running the ball only nine more times while Smith dropped back to throw 28 times, eclipsing a 75 percent pass rate again.

Seattle has struggled to run the ball all year and Ken Walker III going down in the fourth quarter may have played into the lack of carries down the stretch. But it can be debated that not mixing in runs after the offense had advanced inside the Minnesota 40-yard line with three minutes to play and taking some pressure off of Smith while chewing some clock wasn't a wise strategy, setting the Vikings up to be able to tee off on him with it being obvious what they planned to do.