Seahawks defeat the Vikings in a game closer than it should have been
By Lee Vowell
The Seahawks defeated the Vikings on Monday to move to 10-2 and take the lead in the NFC West. But it wasn’t easy. Again.
The Seahawks just can never seem to make any game seem easy. Sure, they were down 17-10 at halftime on Monday Night Football against the Vikings in week 13. But Minnesota only had the lead because Russell Wilson hit a batted pass up instead of down and the Vikings returned the interception for a touchdown. But Seattle would overcome that and defeat Minnesota 37-30.
How did Seattle win? Well, they did it in classic Seattle fashion. That is by giving 12s a few heart issues, running the ball and playing timely defense. There was a point – for once in Seattle’s season – where the offense and defense were clicking at the same time. This was the start of the second half. Seattle turned a 17-10 halftime deficit to a 34-17 lead.
But then the fourth quarter happened and Seattle regressed to their mean and the Vikings made it a closer game than it really should have been. Minnesota lost running back Dalvin Cook in the first half and while the Seahawks didn’t get any sacks on Monday they still put pressure on Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins. And yet, it still seemed somehow to get to 34-30.
But forget the bad stuff. There were a lot of good things that happened for Seattle on Monday. The running game was amazing against the Vikings number 5 ranked rush defense. Seattle ran for 218 yards. That was 71 more yards than Minnesota had given up in any game in 2019.
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Chris Carson ran for 102 yards on 23 carries with a touchdown and no fumbles. His average of 4.4 yards-per-carry was even better because he had a few obvious runs late that the Vikings could key on. Rashaad Penny carried the ball 15 times for 74 yards and a touchdown but also had 4 catches for 33 yards and another touchdown. Every week that goes by Penny looks more and more like a good NFL running back.
Seattle’s defense played well enough to win. The Seahawks offense outscored the Vikings offense 37-23. Tre Flowers was called for an iffy pass interference call – Seattle’s only penalty of the game – but also had a great interception in the second half. And the Vikings had the ball for just 20:15 while the Seahawks held the ball for 39:45.
Next. In retrospect: Were we right about the Seahawks that needed to play well?. dark
Is Seattle a perfect football team? No. But if they can have a game or two where their offense and defense play really well for an entire game they would beat any other team in the NFL. This could be a Super Bowl team. As it is, Seattle now leads the NFC West by a half-game over the 49ers and is currently the second seed in the NFC. For a team that plays too many close games and hasn’t reached its potential, that is a grand thing for 12s. And a scary thing for everyone else in the NFC.