Seattle Seahawks Back in Playoff Picture with Win Over Cardinals

This was not a pretty win. But a W is a W, and the Seattle Seahawks now have seven of them to go along with their four losses.

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If the season were to end today, the Hawks would squeak into the NFC playoffs as the No. 6 seed. It’s not exactly a mirror image of last season’s No. 1 seed and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs, but it’s a start.

With the victory over the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday afternoon, a few things were clear:

1. These are two of the NFL’s best defenses.

Arizona sacked Russell Wilson seven times, held Beast Mode to 39 yards rushing, blocked a field goal, allowed one touchdown (19 total points) and only let the Seattle offense convert 38 percent of their third downs (5 for 13).

Seattle intercepted Drew Stanton once, sacked him three times, held the Arizona offense to 25 percent on third downs (3/12), only allowed 64 yards rushing/149 passing, blocked a punt and surrendered a total of three points.

2. Russell Wilson is improving.

After four weeks in a row of less than 200 yards passing, Wilson threw for 211 and the game’s only touchdown.

He hit nine different receivers and completed 17 of his 22 passes for a completion percentage of 77 percent; his previous four games, his completion percentages were 62.5, 48.5, 58.8 and 62.5. Wilson still only has one 300-yard game, but his efficiency was much improved this week.

He also used his legs effectively per the usual and led the team with 73 rushing yards.

3. Steven Hauschka is money.

The Seattle kicker is proving his worth, kicking 4 out of 5 field goals (one was blocked by 6-foot-8 DL Calais Campbell) and one extra point. Hauschka is currently the second-most accurate kicker in NFL history at a career 86.67 percent; Dan Bailey of the Dallas Cowboys is number one at 89.83 percent.