Three things that caught our attention after the Vikings beat the Seahawks

The Seahawks did enough good things on Sunday to hold the now 13-win Minnesota Vikings.

But they couldn’t score the knockout blow and now face a very narrow, and perhaps impassable, path to the playoffs.

Simply put, the Seahawks need to win both of their remaining games (at Chicago on Thursday, at the LA Rams to close out the regular season) and have to hope the Rams lose to Arizona this week as well.

Like I said, a narrow road.

So as we wrap up coverage of a 27-24 loss to the Vikings, here are some things that were said in the postgame press conference that caught our attention.

“I was as surprised as all of you”

Usually we highlight things the Seahawks said, and we will, but one thing stood out to us from Theo Jackson of the Vikings. He’s the defensive back who secured the game-sealing interception by Geno Smith in the final minutes. Jackson described what he saw:

“Honestly, I was as surprised as you all were. We were two-up, I saw him throw it and I was a little confused as to why he threw it. I’m going to catch the ones he throws to me, so it was super exciting. I’m still coming off the adrenaline right now,” Jackson said.

To say he was confused as to why Geno threw the ball in his presence is an understatement. Geno, the consummate leader, took full blame.

“Interception, man. Anything you see going wrong, put it on me. Anything that doesn’t look right, put it on me,” Smith said after the game.

Seahawks fans have expressed frustration over perhaps the timing of Smith’s interceptions, including one that gave Minnesota three points deep in Seahawks territory in the first half. Mike Macdonald wanted to set the record straight on his quarterback.

“Geno is our best competitor on our football team. We’re not sitting here with life at the end of December unless Geno has done the things he’s done. He’s a fighter, man. I thought he played a good game, Macdonald said.

What now?

The playoff situation is certainly bleak compared to what it was just a few weeks ago, but there’s no doubt the Seahawks are still fighting. We saw that game ourselves in a losing effort on Sunday. But make no mistake, the team heads to Chicago on Thursday with their season riding on the results.

“It should hurt,” Macdonald said of Sunday’s loss.

“We’ve worked incredibly hard. We’ve been through a ton of adversity as a team. We’re going to stick together and go back to work. So we’re fighting for the right to stay alive in one short week. What are you going to do?” he added.

“We’ve just got to do our part, which is win out. Then let the chips fall where they may. Hopefully we’ll get some luck and we can get in there. But it’s tough in there,” linebacker Ernest Jones IV said.

“Yeah, we’ve got to go in and put it behind us now. We’ve got to get ready for Chicago. In these short weeks, you can’t really bask in this, especially when you lose, you can’t really bask in the previous game, because in three days we’re going up against a completely different team that doesn’t care that we just lost the game. For us, the focus is to move forward, handle business in prime time, we’ll see what happening with that game against the Rams,” Jones added.

Jaxon’s breakout season continues

Seahawks 2nd year receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba continues to enjoy a breakout season. To that point, he surpassed 1,000 yards on the season with 95 receiving yards on 8 catches this Sunday.

On a disappointing day, getting into the Seahawks receiver room is a sign of something special.

“First, I want to thank God for being healthy, feeling good, being able to go out there and put that Seahawk helmet on. It means a lot to me. Geno too. I want to say thank you to Geno, and the rest of my teammates, receivers, getting me open and the O-line doing their thing. Hopefully it’s just the beginning,” Smith-Njigba said of his milestone while giving credit to the veterans who showed him. the road.

“It means everything. Everything to this organization. How he (Lockett) carries himself, just everything he’s done for this organization and city. He’s a leader and I really appreciate him. I feel like I’m in the best possible position with T-Lock and DK and all these other guys. T-Lock, he’s a special guy and I’m just blessed to have his friendship and have him as my teammate,” Jaxon said.

“(JSN) is playing great football for us and fighting his tail off. We love him. Happy for him,” Macdonald said.

The Seahawks now return to work on a bye week for a Thursday night game against Chicago, on the road at 5:15 p.m. on the 26th.