In the fourth quarter of a game with huge playoff seeding implications for both teams, Tarvaris Jackson was handing off to Christine Michael, who was running behind a line that included Patrick Lewis, Alvin Bailey and Lemuel Jeanpierre. A few minutes later, David King (who?) sacked Ryan Lindley on the final play of the game.
Things were going that well for the Seahawks, who dominated the Arizona Cardinals in a 35-6 victory that not only put Seattle in first place, but put them in control of their destiny for the No. 1 seed in the NFC unless Green Bay and Detroit tie next week.
The Seahawks gained a team-record 596 yards, held the Cardinals to just 216 and a pair of field goals, and well, were in a position to empty the bench late in a very important game against a team that came into the game unbeaten at home and with an 11-3 record overall.
“Well that was about as much fun as you can have playing football in the regular season,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said in his postgame press conference. “…That’s as much fun as you can have in football.”
Here are five takeaways from one of Seattle’s most impressive wins of the season:
1. Russell Wilson was spectacular
Considering the limitations of Arizona’s offense and the dangers the Cardinals defense presents, the Seahawks probably could have won this game with a conservative effort from their quarterback as long as Wilson didn’t turn the ball over. Instead Wilson made big play after big play — without giving the ball away, mind you — passing for 339 yards and two touchdowns while running for 88 more, including a career-long 55-yarder, and an ankle-breaking touchdown run. Wilson said earlier in the week that he likes it when teams pressure him because it leaves a lot of green grass behind the defense, and on Sunday the Seahawks found it.
“Russell was just ridiculous tonight,” Carroll said. “He was so good tonight.”
2. Marshawn Lynch continues to amaze
You’d think by now, after nearly five seasons in Seattle, Marshawn Lynch would have a hard time surprising anybody, and then he does something like what he did in the fourth quarter, ripping off a career-long 79-yard touchdown run that rivaled his famous “Beastquake” run from the 2010 postseasons right down to the PG-13 finish to the run. At an age when many running backs start to slow down, Lynch, who finished with 113 yards on 10 carries after missing the first quarter with an upset stomach, legitimately looks better at 28 than he ever has since joining the Seahawks in 2010.
“I’ve never seen a better run than Marshawn’s run tonight,” Carroll said. “… It was as good a run as I can ever remember seeing.”
3. Luke Willson showed his big-play ability
When the Seahawks drafted Willson in 2013, they pointed to his speed — he ran a 4.51-second 40-yard dash coming out of college — as one of his best assets. Willson has had some very nice games for the Seahawks over the past two seasons, but nothing like what he did Sunday, catching three passes for 139 yards and two scores, including an 80-yarder that set an NFL record for Canadian-born tight ends (we’re just assuming that’s true). Willson’s 139 receiving yards were the most by a Seahawk since Mike Williams had 145 in 2010.
4. The defense dominated, again
After holding the Cardinals to 219 yards and 6 points, the Seahawks are now allowing 193.6 yards and 6.6 points per game over their last five games. Think about that for a second — fewer than 200 yards and a touchdown, per game, for almost a third of the season. That’s absurd, regardless of the opposition, no matter who’s playing quarterback. And yes, Ryan Lindley was pretty awful, completing just 18 of 44 attempts with an interception, but still, the Seahawks needed to take care of business against an overmatched offense and they did just that.
5. What happened to Hauschka?
Steven Hauschka missed just two field goals all of last season, and coming into this game had three misses this year. Then on Sunday he went 0 for 3, marking the first time in his career that he has missed multiple field goals in one game. Granted none of the kicks were short — he missed from 52, 50 and 47 yards — but a good NFL kicker, which Hauschka most definitely has been, makes more than he misses from that range, especially in good conditions, which he had in Arizona. Thanks to Seattle’s dominant play on both sides of the ball, those misses weren’t costly, but the Seahawks had better hope Hauschka can figure out what went wrong before they need him for a big kick in the playoffs.
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