Seahawks punish Lions, look like 6-1 team they should be

The Seahawks made those predictions of a Lions win look absolutely silly today. If they’d played with this scheme all year, they’d have two more wins under their belts.

The Seahawks were three point underdogs coming into their game at Detroit today. Point spreads are designed to split the public betting, not predict the winner. Regardless, plenty of experts picked the Lions to win. Frankly, I didn’t understand that as Detroit has been a model of inconsistency all season. The Seahawks were a bad matchup for them in several areas. And if Seattle had run this offense in the first two games, they’d almost certainly be 6-1.

First, today’s game. Russell Wilson was nearly flawless, going 14-17 for 248 yards and three touchdowns. Today was his third straight game with three touchdown passes. He’s on pace for 37 on the year, which would be a career high. As you can read in more detail here, Wilson was the conductor of a great team effort on offense.

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Chris Carson came up big again. Going into the game, Detroit’s Kerryon Johnson got all the hype. I get it, Johnson is dangerous, explosive, all those fun buzzwords that writers and commentators like to toss around. Maybe if the Lions had given him more than eight carries, we’d have seen more than 22 yards from him on the ground. He was dangerous enough as he added 69 yards on six catches.

But Carson is the story here. The second year stud had his third 100 yard rushing performance in four games. He isn’t particularly flashy, and isn’t likely to break off a huge run. What he is, is a specialist at running with bad intentions. Other than the rare occasion in which he’ll hurdle a defender just to make him look foolish, he runs through all attempted tackles.

Carson’s runs force defenses to respect the Seahawks ground game on every play. When backup Mike Davis comes in, there’s no difference in effort. Defenders know they have to hit Carson or Davis early. And that creates easy play action opportunities for Mr. Wilson. Which leads to days like today.

The Seahawks season could be so very different

Now let’s talk about the first two games of the season. Maybe the problem was the absence of master run blocker D.J. Fluker. Maybe it was because Pete Carroll “just wanted to try some things” in that bizarre third quarter in Chicago, when Seattle called zero running plays. Regardless, the Seahawks ran the ball in those two games like kids eat liver – rarely and with extreme distaste.

All I know is, Seattle figured it out in game three and hasn’t returned to the “let’s have Russ throw a lot and maybe get killed” days. The Seahawks totaled 176 yards on 42 carries today. Wilson only attempted 17 passes. Since those first two atrocious games, the Seahawks are averaging just under 21 passing attempts per game, and averaging almost 37 carries.

Seattle averaged a bit over 27 passing plays and 33.5 running plays in 2012, Wilson’s rookie season. The passing attempts steadily climbed, but the balance still held. At least until 2016 when the Hawks couldn’t find a healthy running back within ten miles of camp. Now it looks like Carroll is finally fulfilling his promise to get those 100 carries back. And then some.

Seattle looks like a team that can do more than just make the playoffs now. Yes, they have a tough run coming up, starting with the Los Angeles Chargers at home. But they’re playing much more like a 6-1 team than one just a game over .500. It’s a shame we can’t have Ant-Man take Pete through the Quantum Realm and change that bit of history. Who am I kidding; we all know he’d have to go back to February 1st, 2015.  I’ll take the way the Hawks are playing now.