SEATTLE — A day that began so festively — a concert by Macklemore and Ayron Jones to welcome back fans to Lumen Field for the first time in 630 days for a regular season game — ended as one of the most disastrous losses for the Seahawks in recent memory.
Seattle blew a 15-point halftime lead and 14 in the fourth quarter before often standing by helplessly as Tennessee rallied for a 33-30 overtime win.
Randy Bullock finally put the Seahawks out of their misery with a 35-yard field goal with 4:45 to play in overtime.
Seattle fell to 1-1 on the season and is now 65-3 since 2012 when leading by four or more at halftime.
The Seahawks had trailed for just 1:44 until that point.
But after appearing in good shape at halftime, Seattle’s offense stalled in the second half with three three-and-outs, including on its only possession of overtime, while Tennessee finished with 532 yards after having 187 at halftime.
Tennessee running back Derrick Henry scored the tying TD with 29 seconds left.
Seattle the ball at its own 28 with 24 seconds remaining and two time outs.
But that was too much for the usual Russell Wilson-hurry up magic, and Seattle didn’t get close before time ran out and the game went to overtime.
Tennessee won the toss and received.
Seattle appeared to force a three-and-out. But a third down stop was negated by a roughing-the-passer penalty when Jamal Adams went high to the head of Ryan Tannehill.
But a false start on first down compelled the Titans to take the ball out of Henry’s hands, and the Titans threw three straight incomplete passes and punted.
Seattle got the ball at its own 13 with 8:19 left but two straight incomplete passes were followed by a Wilson sack at the half-yard-line.
The Titans took over after the punt and drove easily into field goal territory for the win.
The Seahawks led 24-9 at halftime, overcoming some early sluggishness on offense to score touchdowns on their final three possessions of the second quarter.
Wilson hit Tyler Lockett three times in the half for 122 yards, including a 63-yard TD that put Seattle in front 10-6 in the second quarter.
The defense bent at times as has so often been the case in the Pete Carroll era, but it rarely broke — at least early.
The Titans had three long drives that reached Seattle’s 15 or closer but were held to three field goals.
And the defense also came up with a key play, a sack and forced fumble by Alton Robinson that gave Seattle the ball at the Tennessee 6 and set up a short scoring drive.
Wilson was 11-15 in the half for 191 yards and a touchdown.
Seattle’s first touchdown came when Wilson and Lockett again sniffed out a Tennessee blitz. As safety Kevin Byard crashed from the left side Lockett burst bast Tennessee nickel back Elijah Molden — a rookie from Washington — and into the open. After he caught the ball, he evaded both Molden and safety Bradley McDougald — a former Seahawk — to race into the end zone and complete a 63-yard score to make it 10-6 with 6:34 left in the first half.
At that point, Lockett had two receptions for 114 yards while the rest of the Seattle offense had 48 on the other 17.
On the second play of Tennessee’s next possession, Robinson burst past tight end Geoff Swaim to hit Tannehill and force a fumble that set up a 2-yard TD run by Chris Carson with 5:20 to go in the half.
The Titans responded with a drive to the Seattle 6. On third down the Titans appeared to have a TD on a pass to Julio Jones in the back of the end zone. But after a review it was ruled that Jones’ heel had touched first and he did not have both feet in and the call overturned and the Titans kicked a field goal that made it 17-9 with 1:05 left.
Taking over at Seattle’s own 25 following the kickoff, Wilson hit on four of five passes for 39 yards to get Seattle into Tennessee territory. Alex Collins also added a 25-yard run and then a Wilson pass to Lockett in the end zone drew a pass interference penalty that put the ball at the 1 and led to Carson’s second TD.
And in just 48 seconds, Seattle had taken its biggest lead of the game at 24-9.
But Tennessee showed quickly that this wouldn’t be en easy day for Seattle.
The Titans finally got the ball in the end zone to start the second half, with Henry capping an 80-yard, eight-play drive with a 9-yard TD run.
That cut the lead to 24-16, and the Titans then held the Seahawks out of the end zone on their first drive of the second half.
The Titans responded with another long drive — 66 yards in 12 plays. But the march stalled at the Seattle 26, and typifying a day when the Titans were often their own worst enemy, Randy Bullock then missed a 44-yard field goal on what was the final play of the third quarter.
That seemed like it might be it when Wilson hit Swain for a 68-yard TD on Seattle’s next possession to make it 30-16. Seattle faced third-and-12 on the play after a penalty on DK Metcalf moved the Seahawks back.
Swain got about as easy of a touchdown as he may ever in his career, breaking behind a busted coverage and slowing down to catch the pass with no Tennessee defender within 10 yards of him.
But that proved to be Seattle’s last score.
And the Titans didn’t stay down long as on the next series, Henry burst into the open down the left side and then outraced safety Quandre Diggs into the end zone to make it 30-23 with 12:17 remaining.
After stopping the Seahawks, the Titans got the ball back and moved into Seattle territory when D.J. Reed was called for taunting after defending a deep pass to A.J. Brown.
But the drive stalled at the 29 when a fourth-and-2 pass by Tannehill went incomplete as he was hit by Kerry Hyder.
The Seahawks have now stopped four fourth-down attempts this season.
But Seattle again couldn’t move it, and the Titans got the ball back at their own 32 with 4:13 left and moved swiftly for the TD that sent the game to overtime.
