SEATTLE — One moment Thomas Rawls was lowering his shoulder and planting it into the chest of a would-be tackler, sending said defender sprawling to the turf. The next he was stutter-stepping to change direction, then dancing through a hole and leaving defenders diving futilely at his heels.
There’s been a lot of wondering the past couple years about the Seattle Seahawks’ succession plan for running back Marshawn Lynch, but Rawls appears to be making that decision easy for the Seahawks.
In what may have been a passing-of-the-torch moment, Rawls produced one of the best performances ever by a Seattle running back, rushing for 209 yards on 30 carries to lead the Seahawks to a 29-13 victory over the San Francisco 49ers Sunday at CenturyLink Field.
The undrafted rookie free agent out of Central Michigan University wasn’t supposed to feature prominently in Sunday’s game. But Lynch, Seattle’s No. 1 tailback, was a late scratch because of an abdominal injury that will force him to see a specialist Monday, and Rawls was thrust into the spotlight.
However, if Rawls is the understudy, he sure looked like a performer bucking for his name to be the top one on the marquee. He refused to run out of bounds, instead bowling into defenders or stiff-arming them away — 49ers cornerback Tramaine Brock will have the misfortune of having Rawls’ hand imprinted on his forehead for the next couple days.
It was, dare one say it, a Marshawn Lynch-like performance.
“Yeah,” Seahawks receiver Doug Baldwin replied when asked if he saw shades of Lynch in Rawls. “The looking for contact, the shiftiness. Marshawn has a little more pizzazz to him, but Rawls is an extremely gifted runner.”
“That fires us up,” tackle Garry Gilliam added. “He seeks contact. He’s going to hit somebody, lay a hit, make them think twice — you know, have a little business decision the next time they want to come in contact with him.”
Just how historic was Rawls’ day? His 209 yards rushing was the second-highest single-game total in franchise history, behind Shaun Alexander’s 266-yard effort against Oakland in 2001. It broke Curt Warner’s single-game rookie rushing record of 207 yards set in 1983. Rawls’ 255 total yards from scrimmage were the third-most in franchise history, trailing just Alexander (273) and wide receiver Steve Largent (261 in 1987).
Rawls also scored two touchdowns, one on the ground and one through the air. On this day he was the total package.
“He catches the swing route and you see him run up the sidelines, that’s the stuff that jumped out when we were watching him as a college player, that he’ll attack guys down the field,” Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll said. “To me that was the first impression I got about Thomas, that’s why I liked him from the start. He has that mentality about him, he’s a very aggressive kid, and a very aggressive style of runner, and I think that’s probably what we like the most about him.”
Was Rawls trying to emulate Lynch? No, that was just Rawls being Rawls.
“I have never ran out of bounds,” Rawls said. “It’s just my make-up, it’s my whole mentality. I think I would feel less of a person just running out of bounds instead of being physical, showing toughness, and (having) a different mentality at the running back position.”
This was no mere cameo by Rawls. Rawls was called upon earlier in the season when Lynch missed part of one game with a calf injury and two contests because of a hamstring injury. He produced a 16-carry, 104-yard performance almost entirely in one half in Seattle’s 26-0 victory over Chicago, then went for 169 yards on 23 carries in the Seahawks’ 27-24 loss at Cincinnati. Rawls is giving the Seahawks everything they hoped previous potential Lynch heirs, including Robert Turbin and Christine Michael, couldn’t.
This season Rawls leads Lynch in yards (604-417) and yards per carry (6.0-3.8). It’s food for thought. Especially with the 29-year-old Lynch, who missed just one game in the previous five seasons in Seattle, showing signs of breaking down physically.
Even Lynch apparently provided words that suggested a changing of the guard, at least for now.
“Marshawn came up to me (before the game) and said, ‘Look youngin,’ I’m going to pass the torch for the day, you know what to do,’” Rawls said. “That’s all I did. I just waited on my number to get called, and (I went) out there and served as best as I could for the team.”
The moment may last a bit longer. Lynch is scheduled to travel to Philadelphia on Monday to visit Dr. William Meyers, a specialist in core and muscle injuries who has performed surgeries on athletes in the past, including Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson and Seattle Mariners second baseman Robinson Cano. Both Peterson and Cano had sports hernias repaired, and Carroll didn’t rule out the possibility Lynch also has a sports hernia.
“These injuries have a way of being really difficult to figure out from the outside,” Carroll said when asked if it could potentially be a season-ending injury for Lynch. “The surgery thing is always an option in there. There’s some other things that they’ll take a look at. It’s hard to detect what it is at this point. The specialist will let us know more.”
Ominous words about a player who carried Seattle’s offense the past four-plus seasons. But the good news for the Seahawks is that if the torch does indeed need passing, Rawls has proven he’s ready to carry it.
Check out Nick Patterson’s Seattle Sidelines blog at http://www.heraldnet.com/seattlesidelines, and follow him on Twitter at @NickHPatterson.
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