Seahawks prove they’re far more than a one-man team

On the same day that Russell Wilson set an NFL record, the Seahawks proved they’re far more than just the guys that hang out with Number Three.

There was a certain weird karma at play Sunday in Philadelphia. On a day that Russell Wilson achieved something no other quarterback in NFL history had ever accomplished, he also played one of his worst games of the season. Happily for the 12s, the Seahawks defense came to the rescue and won the game.

Normally, I’d be concerned if the Hawks prime mover has a bad game. There’s no way to characterize the performance of Russell Wilson this Sunday as anything other than bad. He completed just 52 percent of his passes, threw only one touchdown, threw his third pick of the year. Add it all up and Wilson got his second-worst passer rating of the year, 75.4.

Now throw in that he was sacked six times, the Seattle offense was forced to punt seven times, and they only converted five of 14 times on third down. Add the underthrown balls to DK Metcalf and others, and you have a strong case for Wilson’s worst game of the year.

Okay, calm down, 12s. I know it sounds like I’m running our guy down. Far from it. Despite having one of his worst days, Wilson led the Seahawks on three scoring drives. Okay, one of those drives amounted to two incomplete passes and Rashaad Penny’s 58-yard audition for the starting job. Wilson did drop that ridiculous bomb into Malik Turner’s hands, though. The point is that Wilson may not have played well, but he did enough so that for once, someone else could win the game for Seattle.

The fact that the team did just that, won the game as a team, is an amazingly good development. In nearly every instance this year, it would have been so easy to just write that Russell Wilson was the game MVP. The win against the Eagles was the first time that DangeRuss wasn’t a serious candidate. Instead, there were at least half a dozen candidates. In the game that Wilson became the first quarterback in NFL history to post a winning record in each of his first eight seasons, his team won the clinching contest for him.

For once, Russell Wilson didn’t rescue the Hawks. And for the first time this year, he didn’t have to. For the first time this year, the Seahawks proved they could win when their MVP candidate wasn’t at his best, or even close to it. Wilson will bounce back with more spectacular games, no doubt. He’s done it over and over. The difference is, now his teammates have proved the Seahawks are far more than a one-man team.