By Golden Tate: “I don’t know how I do any of this. I still wow myself”
December 4, 2012 – 11:20 am by Chris Fedor
As Seattle continues to be one of the surprises in the NFL this season, there was one question that still lingered before this weekend. Could the Seahawks win outside of Seattle against a quality opponent? Before this weekend the answer was no. There were some tense moments this past weekend in Chicago and it took overtime to get it done but thanks to two magnificent drives late in the game by Russell Wilson and the Seattle offense and an excellent catch and run by Golden Tate that looked like the game winner at the time, the Seahawks finally went on the road and got the signature win they were looking for.
Russell Wilson deserves a ton of credit for engineering those two drives on the road but Tate has been a pleasant surprise at receiver this season as well. In his third season, Tate is finally starting to show the playmaking skills that made him a second round pick coming out of Notre Dame and he has made big plays all season long for Seattle, including his Hail Mary catch earlier this season against Green Bay
Golden Tate joined KJR in Seattle with Mitch Levy to talk about his touchdown, what he saw on the go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter, if he feels tracking the ball in the air is a strength of his, where this win ranks in terms of regular season wins for the Seahawks since he was drafted and what the feeling was in the huddle when they had to drive the length of the field against the Bears, down by four points at the time.
On his touchdown late in the game against Chicago:
“I knew at some point I was going to get the ball and it was up to me what I was going to do with it. Was it going to be a five yard play or was I going to turn it into more? Once I got the ball in my hands I wanted to find a way to get into the end zone. I didn’t know if I was going to have to run all across the field to get in or what I was going to do but I wanted it, I just, all it was, I wanted it so bad and already had gotten tripped up once on a walk-in touchdown earlier in the game I thought so I didn’t want it to happen again. 100 percent just wanting to do it.”
What he remembers from the play as it was happening:
“It happens so quick that I don’t remember, I can just remember the play. I remember it being a touchdown, I remember at the end just kind of diving. I don’t remember how many tackles I broke or any of that. It all happened so quick. I was just trying to get into the end zone. I can’t explain it, it’s a gift I have. I caught the ball, scanned the field quick and just did me. I turned into a running back and just found a way. Great play call, great block by the offensive line, Russell threw it right on the dot, I caught it, had a chance to scan the field, saw a lot of guys there but I knew they were in a zone so I was just working my way through all of them and found a way to the end zone and it was a touchdown, what we thought was going to be the game winner but turned out not to be the case. Brandon Marshall made a heck of a play coming back, we go to overtime and then next thing I know we take the ball 80 yards and ran the ball easy. It was great to see that. That was two drives right there back-to-back and it shows a lot of heart from our offense to do that.”
Whether he feels tracking the ball in the air is one of his strengths:
“Me tracking the ball at its highest point is definitely one of my best attributes. I’m a 5-10 guy, I’m not 6-2 or 6-3 where I have those few inches where I can extend higher than most DB’s. I just find a way man, I just find a way. I’m a competitor and that’s what Coach Carroll wants from this team and I just compete. I don’t know how I do any of this. I still wow myself. When I look at plays like yesterday and me jumping over guys and Green Bay, I’m honestly like ‘wow.’ How did I do that but at the same time I expect myself to find a way to do things like that to help this team. That’s one of my great attributes, yards after the catch, I feel like I’m dangerous when the ball gets in my hands, I was a running back in high school and that was kind of my natural position so once I get the ball in my hands I try to turn into a running back and make plays like Marshawn (Lynch).”
Where this win over Chicago ranks amongst regular season wins since he has been with Seattle:
“I’m going to say number two. That Green Bay game was really chaotic and fun to be a part of. It’s hard to even compare that. I’d say number two. This is my third year now and my rookie year, going into that game, we didn’t expect to win. I feel like we’re getting to the point where we’re confident and we have the personnel and the coaching staff where I think we’re starting to believe and we’re starting to expect to win games and it’s a good feeling. Feel like we’re finally getting there, we’re getting there, we’re almost there. We got a huge road win. The question has been can Seattle win on the road? We knew for us to make a run at the playoffs we have to win some of these away games. For us to do that, it’s a great start, we’re trying to catch fire right now and if we can do that it will be really exciting for us.”
What was said in the huddle before the last drive in regulation:
“We were confident and I know when I got in the huddle I was like ‘hey guys this is what you want, this is what you want. It’s all on us. We know what we’re going to do here and we know we can do this.’ We had great leadership on our offense and we just came out and ran our plays. There wasn’t anything that happened in the huddle. Really the only time we would’ve had to discuss anything would have been at the beginning of overtime when we first got the ball but once we started moving the ball we’re not really thinking about speeches, we’re just trying to find a way to get the ball in the end zone and end the game.”
Listen to Golden Tate on KJR in Seattle here
Tags: Golden Tate, KJR, NFL, Russell Wilson, Seattle Seahawks
3 Responses to “Golden Tate: “I don’t know how I do any of this. I still wow myself””
As a Seahawk fan, I extremely happy to see Golden Tate take his game to the next level. Great job Golden! Keep it up! Go Hawks!
By Hawk_Eye on Dec 4, 2012
2 Trackback(s)
Dec 4, 2012: [Official] NFL 2012-2013 Megathread by Adroit – Page 167 – TribalWar Forums
Dec 5, 2012: Golden Tate: “I don’t know how I do any of this. I still wow myself” | The Football Radio Show
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