The Seattle Seahawks were already dealing with a mountain of issues on special teams against the New York Jets on Sunday when another one popped up late in the third quarter.
Punter Michael Dickson's back seized up on him, forcing coach Mike Macdonald to strategize with his assistants on the fly.
Dickson would hobble onto the field while grabbing his lower back to hold for a Jason Myers field goal early in the fourth quarter. He also held for the PAT that followed Seattle's game-winning touchdown, but he couldn't punt -- and Macdonald didn't want to have Myers do it either, figuring they'd be better off going for it on fourth down if their placekicker might only be able to net them 20 or so yards on a punt.
"That was fun conversations in the headset," Macdonald said sarcastically.
The Seahawks converted a fourth-and-6 to extend the field-goal drive then converted twice on fourth-and-1 via Jets penalties on their decisive touchdown drive, leading Macdonald to jokingly nominate Dickson as honorary player of the game for being fortuitously unavailable.
Only after the Seahawks prevailed 26-21 could they find humor in the ordeal, because for much of the afternoon at MetLife Stadium, their special teams performance was nothing to laugh about. There were enough gaffes from that unit on top of its earlier ones to consider it a potentially fatal flaw the Seahawks will have to overcome as they try to hang onto first place in the NFC West during the final month of the regular season.
Their next game against the Arizona Cardinals (4:05 p.m. ET, CBS) is perhaps the most pivotal in the playoff race and Seattle can't afford the kind of mistakes they made vs. the Jets.
In the first half Sunday, the Seahawks lost a pair of fumbles on kickoff returns, allowed a 99-yard kickoff return for a touchdown as well as a 45-yard return, and had a PAT blocked.
They also blocked a PAT of their own and got a 54-yard field goal from Myers as well as his 43-yarder in the fourth quarter. But all told, it was a disastrous day for first-year coordinator Jay Harbaugh's group.
"We've had some moments that have been challenging, for sure, throughout this season, but we've had some highlight moments as well," assistant head coach Leslie Frazier said Monday. "And so yesterday was definitely a challenge in a lot of ways. You don't like to see a kickoff return for a touchdown. You don't want to see blocked field goals or extra points. That always kind of gets under your skin, especially if you're putting the ball on the ground.
"We've got some things that we have to get cleaned up in order for us to get to where we want to be as a team. And I know Jay Harbaugh and our players are working on that extremely hard, but we've had some challenges for sure."
Frazier, handling Macdonald's Monday news conference with the head coach and his wife on baby alert, said the team is still working through a decision on who will take over as the primary kickoff returner in light of the Seahawks waiving Laviska Shenault Jr. a day after he was responsible for their second lost fumble against the Jets.
Running back Kenny McIntosh and wide receiver Cody White stepped in earlier this season, cornerback Tre Brown returned kickoffs in college and veteran wide receiver Tyler Lockett was an All-Pro returner as a rookie in 2015.
Dee Williams is the Seahawks' other kickoff returner, but he lost the first fumble Sunday when he was stripped while carrying the ball in his inside arm, a fundamental error that led to a Jets touchdown. The undrafted rookie has also muffed two punts, and while one came after he slipped on wet turf in Week 8 against the Buffalo Bills, he was also saved from what should have been another muff thanks to a blown call two weeks earlier against the San Francisco 49ers.
Williams remained on the Seahawks' roster as of Tuesday, but sticking with him in either return role would be an incongruous move for a team that has benched (rookie guard Christian Haynes) or parted with (veteran linebackers Jerome Baker and Tyrel Dodson) players that general manager John Schneider invested significantly more in this offseason.
The Seahawks' special teams are 21st in efficiency rankings from ESPN Analytics. According to ESPN's Football Power Index, a predictive model, that group went from 24th last week to 30th after its debacle against the Jets.
Before Sunday, the low point for Seattle's special teams came in Week 5, when Myers' fourth-quarter attempt at a tying field goal against the New York Giants was blocked and returned for the game-sealing touchdown.
Myers has also had two PATs blocked. He's otherwise been a bright spot for Seattle's special teams, bailing out the offense several times with long field goals while converting on 17 of 20 tries. A highlight for that group came in Week 6, when Shenault made up for an earlier lost fumble against the 49ers by returning a kickoff 97 yards for a touchdown.
Until Sunday, the Seahawks were allowing an NFL-low 23.5 yards per kickoff return.
"We've done a really good job most of the season covering kicks," Frazier said. "There was a period there, I think we were number one in the league in covering kicks and yesterday kind of puts a dent in that. We'll get it right, we'll get it fixed, and our guys are anxious to get back on the field and show that we're getting it fixed."
