Riding their biggest upswing in a seesaw season, the Seattle Seahawks (8-5) retained their position atop the NFC West Division standings with a win over Arizona. And from that height, they may have been able to get a clearer view into their future.
In some ways, they’re starting to resemble the early stages of the legendary Legion of Boom era. Too early. Still collecting evidence. All of that.
So, these may turn out to be something less than the new generation of Legionnaires, and the recent streak of success may prove to be a function of lesser opposition.
But it’s fair to point out that, over the recent stretch of four straight wins, they easily could be considered a gang of Baby Boomers.
With the 30-18 win over the Cardinals on Sunday, the Hawks collected their fourth straight win, and kept their points-against total among the NFL leaders during that stretch (17.6 a game).
The Seahawks, under coach Pete Carroll, averaged between 14.4 and 17.3 points scored against during the 2012-15 stretch. But in 2011, as the Legion was first mastering its marching orders, they averaged 19.7 points-against per game.
They were loaded with young stars on an upswing, along with some veterans with sound leadership, and a hunger for contact and big plays and turnovers and opportunities to leave as many dents as possible in opposing players.
Over the seasons, it grew into a magical blend of talent that was self-sustaining because they challenged each other to keep improving.
At times, the biggest hits of the game were when safeties Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor collided while rushing to congratulate each other over big plays. Or when pass rushers like Michael Bennett and Cliff Avril would crash while battling each other to flatten the quarterback first.
This defeat of Arizona featured an entirely complementary effort by the offense, defense and special teams.
Early pressure by the defensive line on Cardinal quarterback Kyler Murray led to passes that were intercepted by linebacker Ernest Jones IV and Coby Bryant.
It’s clear, now, how important the midseason addition of Jones has been. He’s not only stout enough to fill the gaps against the run that were vulnerable early in the season, but he’s also speedy enough to course from sideline to sideline to limit gains off the edges.
The addition of rookie linebacker Tyrice Knight to the starting unit was equally inspired. Knight finished with a team-high 12 tackles and two passes defensed on Sunday.
Exceptional play in recent weeks by veteran defensive lineman Leonard Williams is being enhanced and supported by rookie Byron Murphy, Jarran Reed and others, while the secondary is home for young stars with true elite potential — Devon Witherspoon and Riq Woolen.
Given short field possessions on a couple occasions by the defense, the offense played its role almost to perfection, with the enlightening emergence of second-year running back Zach Charbonnet.
With regular starter Kenneth Walker III sidelined with an injury, Charbonnet powered to 134 yards and two touchdowns on 22 carries, while also pulling in seven catches for 59 yards.
Charbonnet had often appeared as a power-back in short yardage situations, but showed admirable burst on a 51-yard touchdown run in the second quarter.
While offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb drew critiques from some fans during the span when the Hawks lost five of six games to fall from first place into last place in the division, this game seemed planned to effectively exploit the Cardinal defense with both the run and pass.
Maybe the best example of the Seahawks’ newfound tenacity came when they had put the game out of reach — up by two scores in the final two minutes.
With Murray moving the Cards with short passes against the Hawks’ soft coverage, they arrived at the Seattle 7-yard line.
Obviously loathe to allow a garbage-time touchdown to mar their scoring average, the Hawks pressured Murray into three straight incompletions, and put an emphatic exclamation point on the game as safety Rayshawn Jenkins sacked Murray for minus-16 yards as the clock expired.
Very Boomish all the way around. Whether it continues will be determined over time, but for at least a month, it’s been entertainingly nostalgic.
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