‘I could’ve handled that better’ - Drew Lock on late-game fumble vs. Steelers

Most of Drew Lock’s debut with the Seattle Seahawks was positive, but his day unfortunately ended on a sour note. Literally one play after the Seahawks defense turned over the Pittsburgh Steelers on downs, Lock was sacked and fumbled on a blindside blitz. Pittsburgh recovered and eventually broke the tie with a late touchdown in the closing seconds of Seattle’s 32-25 preseason opening defeat.

Now just a quick glance at the comments and much has been made about whether or not this turnover was on Lock, the offensive line, running back Darwin Thompson, or “all of the above.” We don’t have a truly definitive answer yet but based off the comments of both Pete Carroll and Drew Lock, the onus was on Lock to recognize that blitz and get rid of the ball to a hot read.

“I’ll always be honest up here. Yeah, I could’ve handled that better. Could’ve flipped the [protection], could’ve played it hot. As a quarterback you’re always able to fix those things. I’ll just take it on the chest that I could have done better there,” Lock said.

Here’s the play in question.

Normally this wouldn’t be a big deal that the backup quarterback had a key fumble in a preseason game, but Lock is trying to win the starting job from Geno Smith and he’s playing from behind, so plays like this will be magnified even if there’s every reason to think that he is indeed a better QB than Smith and should eventually be the team’s starter.

The turnover aside, Lock finished the game 11/15 for 102 yards and a couple of touchdowns. There were a couple of highlights that I think are worth seeing, and if nothing else the checkdown to Dallas was a great moment for both parties involved.