There was a time when disrespect united Seahawks fans. Announcers mispronouncing player names would set off Twitter firestorms. Entire panels of “experts” picking against the Seahawks or harshly grading their drafts sparked missives more bitter than than a NW microbrew. Our diminutive former quarterback was the embodiment of this national dismissiveness. Overlooked. Patronized. Irrepressible. The more people doubted Russell Wilson, the more he proved them wrong, and Seahawks fans loved every second of it. Somewhere along the way, though, a fracture formed within the fanbase. Driven some by analytics, some by frustration, and some by bias, Seahawks fans started to either be Pete Truthers or Russell Zealots. It was like a virus that turned the immune system against the host. The vitriol that had been aimed at outsiders for so long had turned inward, creating an endless civil war. Every win, every loss, every play, was a chance to prove your side right and the other wrong. As bright as the LOB era of Seahawks football was, the last five years were arguably the darkest despite a lot of winning.
Those days are done. Like a pounding headache that disappears after a good night of sleep, this fanbase has pressed the reset button. More accurately, they pressed it together with Jody Allen, Bert Kolde, Pete Carroll and John Schneider who made a series of decisions that have allowed Seahawks fans to once again stand united in revelry against the overwhelming amount of dismissive disrespect emanating from every part of the football world. A team that was picked as the third-worst in the entire NFL before the season began, ends week seven atop the NFC West division.
They performed this exorcism by choosing Carroll and Schneider over Wilson and Mark Rodgers. They did it by getting a massive haul in trade value despite Wilson restricting their options to just one team. They did it by turning their bevy of draft picks into what might be the best draft in franchise history. They did it by entrusting the team to a career backup quarterback, who is the new ideal embodiment of underdog, heavy emphasis on the dog.
It is safe to cheer for the Seahawks again. It is safe to cheer for the quarterback and the coach, the running back and the receivers, the offense and the defense. Your odds are steadily improving that you can express happiness to a friend or fellow fan about the team without fearing a, “yeah but Pete [insert negative trope].”
There are still some stragglers, likely licking the wounds of their prior devotion to Wilson above all, or data-driven proof of Carroll’s bad coaching decisions. Lay down your arms. Have a beer. Sit beside us as we watch the next great Seahawks story to be told.
This is not a great Seahawks team. Nobody will fear them no matter what their record says or their stats prove. We are on a journey back to being a dominant team. The players and coaches are paddling faster than anyone could have reasonably expected, getting us closer to the current that will speed us toward our destination. Grab an oar.
What we saw yesterday in Los Angeles was a checkpoint on the path to relevance. Seattle dominated Justin Herbert and the Chargers. They passed over and around them. They ran past them and through them. They stopped the run and suffocated the pass. They covered well, rushed the passer well, tackled well. They even managed to manage basic special teams operations without cataclysmic disasters.
Perhaps the best part was how various parts of the team picked each other up. Geno Smith through an unfortunate interception on the first Seahawks possession on a play that should have been called defensive pass interference. The defense bailed out the offense with a beautiful stand on 4th and inches. The offense turned that into a touchdown drive. The defense answered with an interception by Ryan Neal on 3rd down. The offense replied with another touchdown. The defense created another turnover on a strip sack by Darrell Taylor. Special teams kicked a field goal.
Seattle went from an opening drive interception to a 17-0 lead in the blink of an eye. The symbiosis did not stop there.
Both sides of the ball faced some adversity in the second quarter. The Chargers had their one legitimate touchdown drive of the day. The offense fumbled the ball on an ill-advised coaching decision to put Dee Eskridge in the backfield. Another Chargers touchdown had erased almost all of the Seahawks big lead and the offense could only manage one first down before punting again.
Los Angeles had the ball with 5 minutes and 33 seconds left in the first half, and a chance to take the lead. Instead of crumbling as the Seahawks defense has done earlier in the year once opponents started to experience success, they slammed the door shut. The Chargers did not gain a yard on that series. In fact, they lost four yards and had to punt after a three and out sparked by Coby Bryant nailing a Charger in the backfield for a loss.
The offense picked up where the defense left off, driving 73 yards for a touchdown to firmly grasp back control of the game. Proving it was no fluke, the defense forced another punt to end the half. The game was really never in doubt after that.
The next time the Chargers offense scored was with just over 3 minutes left in the game when they were down 37-16 and Seattle had switched to a prevent scheme. Even then, the Seahawks would have walked away without allowing any points on that drive if Uchenna Nwosu hadn’t flinched on 4th down, negating a Bryant interception.
Smith and the Seahawks offense played a more conservative second half, but still managed the highlight of the day when Kenneth Walker III raced around the right side for a 74-yard dagger touchdown.
This was a bounce back game for the Seahawks offensive line after struggling against the Cardinals. Smith enjoyed good protection all day. Khalil Mack was a non-factor in the pass rush. A statement like that would be unheard of in past versions of the Seahawks. My sense was that Charles Cross had a much better game than he has in recent weeks. Abe Lucas remains a dude.
Walker and DeeJay Dallas were great out of the backfield. Walker gained every yard there was to get, and often more. He ran tough inside, flashed great lateral bounce, and the extra gear needed to turn seven yard gains into seventy yard gains. Dallas got fewer totes, but sealed the game with a great run for a first down.
It was deliciously poetic to see the Seahawks two young backs, who cost Seattle one draft choice each, keying a win while the 49ers were getting their doors blown off at home after trading a boatload of draft picks for a guy who finished as their second leading rusher.
That is part of what is making this season especially delectable. Seattle does not need to win a Super Bowl for this to be a successful year. They need to demonstrate they have a talented young core they can build around knowing they have the second-most draft capital in the NFL next season and a ton of cap space while every other team in the division appears to either have a hard ceiling that is below championship caliber or little hope of improving due to dwindling draft picks and cap space.
Peruse 49ers Twitter and you will find many fans talking about how much better they would be if Carroll was their coach and Smith was their quarterback. That is wild, and finger-licking good.
Meanwhile, the Broncos continue their race to the bottom, as their draft picks rise in value for Seattle next year. We can cheer for Seattle to win guilt-free, and dance on the Broncos graves at the same time.
This is a golden era of sorts for Seahawks fans. There are no expectations, only upside.
Smith has been arguably the biggest reason for that. No player in the NFL is outperforming expectations more than Smith. He did not play his best game against the Cardinals, and had he struggled again in this game, people could rightly start to question whether he had a hot streak and was now regressing.
He started out the game uncharacteristically forcing the ball into some tight spaces, which had me concerned. But he steadied himself and made a handful of terrific passes, including a couple of touchdowns to Marquise Goodwin. The moment that stood out was when Seattle faced a 3rd and 5 at the Chargers 42 on their opening drive of the second half.
What appeared to be a free play when the Chargers jumped offsides was whistled dead and then ridiculously called a false start on the Seahawks center. It was ludicrous. Smith was livid. Meanwhile, Phil Haynes was pulled off the field due to concussion concerns, and then Seattle was forced to call a timeout because the officials did not inform Smith that the play clock was not going to be reset. Smith screamed at an official, who yelled back at him. It was now 3rd and 11, outside of field goal range. Carroll called Smith’s name once, and insistently yelled it again. Smith turned back to him and Carroll slid his open palm over his own chest to signal, “calm,” to his frustrated QB.
Smith’s body language relaxed just a bit. He understood. Returning to the huddle, Smith called the play, got everyone lined up, and then fired a laser to Tyler Lockett for 12 yards and a first down. Everything he had pushed down and out of his mind in order to execute the play exploded from every pore as he screamed at the Chargers sideline and leapt with defiant aggression. That is our quarterback.
The primal scream of the disrespected proving doubters wrong is what makes Seahawks fans the loudest in pro sports. Not only has the civil war-causing virus left our collective bodies, but we have been blessed with another team full of players who are rising together as one to crash through the walls built by others trying to put them in their place.
Who knows where this team will go from here. What we do know is they will back down from no one. They will thrill us with special plays. They will make Sundays fun again. Maybe most generously, they will bring us together again as brothers and sisters of the hawk. Nobody knows what this team is capable of. We will find out together.