Don’t look now, but the Seahawks have a winning record for the first time this season.
The two-time NFC champions, who have been two games below .500 this season, improved to 6-5 with Sunday’s 39-30 win over the Steelers.
It was the first time the Seahawks have beaten a team with a winning record and also the first time they’ve beaten a team with an offense ranked in the top half of the league.
Richard Sherman’s kept a low profile this season. He resurfaced on Sunday, however. He held Antonio Brown to six catches for 51 yards, tame numbers for Brown, and kept him out of the end zone. He also intercepted his first pass of the season.
The Seahawks have lost twice at home this season, but their vaunted home-field advantage at CenturyLink field remained impenetrable against AFC teams. They haven’t suffered an interconference loss at Seattle since 2011.
Are the Seahawks once again a team to be feared around the NFL?
Not yet.
The Seahawks’ win over the Steelers, which featured seven lead changes, might have been wildly entertaining in front of a national TV audience. But that’s not how the Seahawks have won games during their era of dominance.
Absolutely great game. Huge win for the Seahawks. Don’t see Seattle win shootouts often (ever).
— Danny Kelly (@FieldGulls) November 30, 2015
They won six in a row the finish the 2014 regular season, and the highest combined score in those games was 41. These aren’t the smashmouth Seahawks of 2013 and 2014. They’re fourth in the NFL with 324.8 yards allowed per game, but after yielding 142 yards to the soon-to-be-benched Colin Kaepernick and the 49ers in Week 7 and 220 yards to the Tony Romo-less Cowboys in Week 8, they’ve allowed 451 (and 39 points) to the Cardinals in Week 10, 306 to the 49ers in Week 11 and 538 to the Steelers. All three of those games were at home.
The Seahawks had the good fortune of facing the league’s 30-ranked pass defense Sunday. Russell Wilson threw a career-high five touchdown passes and 345 yards, which is a regular-season career high. Doug Baldwin caught three of those touchdowns and Jermaine Kearse caught two, but neither of those receivers will scare competent secondaries. Jimmy Graham scared opposing defenses, at least when he was in New Orleans, but he suffered a season-ending knee injury Sunday.
Last time @DougBaldwinJr had 3 touchdowns in a game “was little league and I was a running back.” #PITvsSEA
— Seattle Seahawks (@Seahawks) November 30, 2015
Seattle’s offense carried the defense Sunday, but it couldn’t two weeks earlier in a 39-32 loss to the NFC West-leading Cardinals and it will be hard-pressed to do it Sunday at Minnesota against another division leader.
The Vikings’ pass defense ranks fourth in the NFL and hasn’t allowed a 300-yard passing game this season despite facing the likes of Philip Rivers and Aaron Rodgers.
Rodgers and the Packers did beat the Vikings (8-3) two weeks ago in Minnesota, but that’s the Vikings’ only loss in their last seven games. Adrian Peterson ran for 158 yards and two touchdowns Sunday against a Falcons defense that’s allowing just 3.7 yards per carry. The Vikings’ 20-10 win helped the Seahawks climb into the No. 6 seed in the NFC playoff picture.
Since they’re three games behind the Cardinals in the NFC West, the wild-card route is the Seahawks’ most likely path to a third straight Super Bowl. That means an overwhelming majority of 12th Man patrons will be watching Seahawks playoff games on TV if the Seahawks do make the playoffs.
The Seahawks can put themselves in a better position to make the playoffs with a win Sunday. Their only road wins this season have come in the aforementioned games against the Cowboys and 49ers. The Vikings would be the strongest opponent the Seahawks have beaten on the road this season.
It would be the kind of win that would restore their swagger.