SEATTLE — The Seattle Seahawks know they’re a much better team than the one that lost in Kansas City a month ago.
Four straight wins have shown that, including Sunday’s 17-7 victory over the San Francisco 49ers that eliminated the Seahawks’ biggest rival from playoff contention. But while nobody in Seattle’s locker room would argue that they turned a corner last month, beginning with a 19-3 victory over the Arizona Cardinals, they never felt like the season was getting away from them.
While the Seahawks’ recent success, as well as the stumbles of some NFC teams ahead of them, means they now control their destiny in the division, and have a very good shot at the No. 1 overall seed should they win their final two games, they believed they were going to be just fine even when they were 6-4.
“We never felt like we were out of control of our own destiny,” cornerback Richard Sherman said. “I think the media and you guys kind of panicked a little bit.”
Back when the Green Bay Packers were struggling on offense and had a 1-2 record, quarterback Aaron Rodgers said in a now famous radio interview, “Five letters here just for everybody out there in Packer-land: R-E-L-A-X. Relax. We’re going to be OK.”
Sherman joked that no such message was necessary from the Seahawks earlier this season, because “We’re not A-Rod, we’re not going to tell you to relax, because we don’t really care what you think. We’re just going to keep playing our game and keep chipping away, and that’s what we’ve done.”
Call it confidence, dominance, maybe a dash of arrogance, or what Seahawks players keep coming back to: just having fun. Whatever it is, the Seahawks have rediscovered their winning formula over last month, and built upon Sunday to improve to 10-4, marking the first time in franchise history the Seahawks have won 10 or more games in three straight seasons.
Even if the Seahawks weren’t panicked a month ago, it’s impossible to deny how much their season has changed in the past four weeks. After losing to the Chiefs, the Seahawks trailed the Cardinals by three games in the NFC West and had a lot of work to do just to make the playoffs with a brutal finishing stretch of games awaiting them. But after dominant wins over the Cardinals, 49ers, Eagles and the 49ers again Sunday, Seattle would win the NFC West with two more wins. And Seattle would earn home-field advantage as well so long as they don’t finish in a two-way tie at 12-4 with Dallas (any three-way tie scenario or two-way tie with Detroit or Green Bay would give Seattle the top seed).
The defense, which looked for much of the season like it had regressed from 2013, held the 49ers to a single touchdown and 245 yards Sunday, meaning they’re now allowing fewer yards per game (272.4) than they did a year ago. And while the offense isn’t lighting up the scoreboard on a weekly basis, the running game, led by 91 hard-fought yards from Marshawn Lynch, is even better than it was a year ago. And save for one bad throw at the end of the second half, quarterback Russell Wilson has been very good at taking care of the ball.
The Seahawks are winning now with a formula reminiscent of the one that led them to a title last season, one that they’ve shown to be very repeatable over the last month.
“We’re playing better,” Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll said. “We’re playing better football, obviously. The defense is playing well, the running game is there for us week in and week out. As long as we continue to do a great job of taking care of the ball, we have a chance to beat people with that formula. That’s just the way we play, and there’s no mystery about it. I love that it’s so clear and you know what our philosophy is, and we have to go out and prove it every week. And we’ll try to do it again next week.
“We have definitely elevated, and we’ve gotten back to the connection that it takes to play with this kind of intensity. This is what you’re trying to do, right at this time of year, the finish is so crucial. Really, we couldn’t be more excited about the way that they feel about what they’re doing. They know. The players know what’s going on. They can feel it, they know what’s shifted, they know what happened, and now, we have to recreate it each week. We only have a couple more shots before we end this regular season.“
Buoyed by a defensive performance that included six sacks, defensive end Michael Bennett suggested that, “Statistically we’re probably one of the best defenses ever to play the game of football right now.”
It’s a claim that at first sounds a little over-the-top, but when you consider the past four games in which the Seahawks have allowed just 188 yards per game and 6.75 points per game, Bennett might not be that far off with that statement.
“We’re rolling right now,” said linebacker K.J. Wright. “We’re at our peak right now and we’re playing really good football.”
Even when they weren’t playing this well, the Seahawks believed they could find their way. Now with two games left on the schedule, all of their goals are within their reach.
“We have everything ahead of us,” receiver Doug Baldwin said. “We said that three weeks ago, four weeks ago, and it’s no different.”
Herald Columnist John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com
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