Deshaun Watson was a rookie making his sixth NFL start when the Houston Texans visited Seattle on October 29, 2017. Russell Wilson was in his sixth season and already a Super Bowl champion. For three and a half hours they traded touchdowns in one of the wildest games of the decade. Watson threw for 402 yards and four touchdowns. Wilson threw for 452, then a career high, and four touchdowns, the last an 18-yard strike to Jimmy Graham with 21 seconds left that gave the Seahawks a 41-38 win.
A rookie on a roll, a team under strain
Houston came out of its bye at 3-3, and Watson had been the story of the league’s first half. The Texans had scored 57 points against Tennessee, 34 against Kansas City and 33 against Cleveland in his previous three starts. Seattle was 4-2, unbeaten at home and fielded one of the league’s best defenses, with Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas, Bobby Wagner and Michael Bennett.
The week had been tense in Houston. Two days before the game, owner Bob McNair was quoted as saying “we can’t have the inmates running the prison” during an owners’ discussion about players kneeling for the national anthem. Before kickoff in Seattle, most of the Texans took a knee.
Twenty-one points each in the first half
It took Watson two plays to score. From his own 41, he threw deep down the middle to Will Fuller for a 59-yard touchdown. Seattle answered without its offense: on Houston’s next possession, Thomas jumped a pass intended for DeAndre Hopkins and returned it 78 yards for a touchdown. Lamar Miller ran 3 yards for a Texans score, and Wilson spun away from pressure and found Paul Richardson for 20 yards to make it 14-14 after one quarter.
Watson hit Fuller again from 20 yards out in the second quarter. Wilson answered with a 53-yard throw to Tanner McEvoy and a 7-yard touchdown pass to Richardson. It was 21-21 at halftime.
Five lead changes in the last 17 minutes
Ka’imi Fairbairn’s 31-yard field goal put Houston up 24-21. Blair Walsh kicked two 21-yarders for Seattle, the first after a 66-yard catch by Tre Madden and the second after Sherman intercepted Watson. That gave the Seahawks their first lead, 27-24, with 2:27 left in the third quarter.
Watson took it back. A 34-yard catch by Hopkins and a 36-yarder by Fuller set up a 2-yard touchdown pass to Miller, and Houston led 31-27. Tyler Lockett’s 54-yard catch moved Seattle to the Houston 21. From the 7, Wilson found Richardson for what looked like the go-ahead touchdown. It was wiped out by a chop block on running back Thomas Rawls. On the next play, a pass interference penalty on Kareem Jackson put the ball at the 1, and Wilson threw a 1-yard touchdown to Graham with 5:41 left. Seattle led 34-31.
On Houston’s second play after the kickoff, Watson threw a short pass to Hopkins on the right side. Hopkins ran 72 yards for a touchdown, and the Texans led 38-34 with 5:01 to play.
Three plays, 80 yards
Wilson drove Seattle to the Houston 20, but Marcus Williams stepped in front of a pass for Richardson and intercepted it at the 6 with 2:55 left. Seattle used all three of its timeouts to force a punt, and Shane Lechler’s 63-yard kick and an 11-yard return left the Seahawks at their own 20 with 1:39 left and no timeouts.
Wilson threw deep down the middle on the first play, and Richardson came down with it for 48 yards. A false start brought a 10-second runoff, but Wilson then found Lockett for 19 yards to the Houston 18. On the next snap Graham was alone in the middle of the field, and Wilson hit him for the winning touchdown. Watson had 21 seconds to answer. He was sacked by Frank Clark on first down, and his deep throw for Fuller on second down was Sherman’s second interception of the day.
| Qtr | Time | Team | Play | HOU | SEA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 12:47 | HOU | Will Fuller 59-yard pass from Deshaun Watson (Ka’imi Fairbairn kick) | 7 | 0 |
| 1 | 10:21 | SEA | Earl Thomas 78-yard interception return (Blair Walsh kick) | 7 | 7 |
| 1 | 6:12 | HOU | Lamar Miller 3-yard run (Fairbairn kick) | 14 | 7 |
| 1 | 2:19 | SEA | Paul Richardson 20-yard pass from Russell Wilson (Walsh kick) | 14 | 14 |
| 2 | 9:40 | HOU | Fuller 20-yard pass from Watson (Fairbairn kick) | 21 | 14 |
| 2 | 6:07 | SEA | Richardson 7-yard pass from Wilson (Walsh kick) | 21 | 21 |
| 3 | 7:08 | HOU | Fairbairn 31-yard field goal | 24 | 21 |
| 3 | 4:39 | SEA | Walsh 21-yard field goal | 24 | 24 |
| 3 | 2:27 | SEA | Walsh 21-yard field goal | 24 | 27 |
| 4 | 9:14 | HOU | Miller 2-yard pass from Watson (Fairbairn kick) | 31 | 27 |
| 4 | 5:41 | SEA | Jimmy Graham 1-yard pass from Wilson (Walsh kick) | 31 | 34 |
| 4 | 5:01 | HOU | DeAndre Hopkins 72-yard pass from Watson (Fairbairn kick) | 38 | 34 |
| 4 | 0:21 | SEA | Graham 18-yard pass from Wilson (Walsh kick) | 38 | 41 |
By the numbers
| Number | Detail |
|---|---|
| 26 of 41, 452 | Russell Wilson passing, with four touchdowns and one interception. He added 30 rushing yards |
| 19 of 30, 402 | Deshaun Watson passing, with four touchdowns and three interceptions. He also ran 8 times for 67 yards |
| 8 for 224 | DeAndre Hopkins receiving, including the 72-yard touchdown |
| 5 for 125, 2 TDs | Will Fuller receiving |
| 6 for 105, 2 TDs | Paul Richardson receiving, plus the 48-yard catch on the final drive |
| 3 | Rushing yards by Seahawks other than Wilson, on 17 carries |
| 988 | Total yards in the game, 509 by Houston and 479 by Seattle |
| 69,025 | Attendance at CenturyLink Field, now Lumen Field |
“Go ahead and give him Rookie of the Year”
The winning quarterback spent part of his news conference on the loser. “Deshaun Watson is special,” Wilson said. “I mean go ahead and give him Rookie of the Year, he is a great player. I love watching him.” Pete Carroll called it “a wild football game” and said of Watson: “He doesn’t have to wait around, he’s already there.” Carroll also gave credit to his own quarterback: “If there was ever any doubts about Russell, what he can do, there is no limit.”
Sherman said facing Watson felt unfamiliar. “I know how other teams feel, now,” he said. “He made plays that very few people in this league, including the top-tier guys, can make.”
Watson called the loss “heartbreaking.” “Just, almost having it, to end like that is tough,” he said. Asked whom he blamed, he said, “I blame myself. I’m the quarterback.”
What came next
Four days later, on November 2, Watson tore the ACL in his right knee on a non-contact play in practice. His rookie season was over after seven games, with 1,699 passing yards and 19 touchdown passes. That broke Kurt Warner’s record for touchdown passes in a player’s first seven NFL games. The Texans won one more game without him and finished 4-12. Seattle went 9-7 and missed the playoffs.
The chop block that took a touchdown off the board in the fourth quarter is a 15-yard foul that still decides drives today. Our chop block guide explains it. For another October shootout from our history series, see the Monday Night Miracle.
No published comments yet. Start the conversation.