Marshawn Lynch will bring out the Beast in the Seahawks

The Seahawks have a big hill to climb Sunday night when they host the 49ers. With the inimitable Marshawn Lynch, expect their attitude to be in overdrive.

Last I checked, the Seahawks had about three healthy players heading into their showdown with the 49ers for the NFC West crown. Okay, okay, that’s an exaggeration. The injury picture for Seattle has improved quite a bit in the past few days. Thankfully, they have at least one player who will be at 100 percent for the contest. That would be Marshawn Lynch, a gentleman who will have a much bigger impact on the game than just what he does on the field.

Seattle signed Lynch in what has to be the most surprising move of the year. Okay, I’ll admit it,  our own Geoff Shull saw this as a strong possibility, but it hadn’t even occurred to me. In hindsight, it’s brilliant. It’s as low risk as possible, in that there is zero risk to the move. I mean, I like Travis Homer as much as the next guy. Or even this guy, who says that Homer can do it all. But you can’t play with just one running back and one fullback (yes, we see you, Nick Bellore).

Lynch is at least as good as anyone who was available, despite having been away from the game for the past 14 months. I’d say that time away actually made him a stronger candidate. He’s had zero wear on his body for the past year and has apparently stayed in playing shape, too. In his final six games with the Raiders, he averaged 4.2 yards per carry and 3.3 touchdowns along with 22.2 first downs per 100 carries. That’s significantly less than his 3.9 scores per 100 with the Seahawks, but he did manage more first downs, compared to his 20.9 in Seattle. Let’s compare Lynch’s numbers to Chris Carson. Carson averages 4.5 yards per carry, 2.8 scores and 26.0 first downs per 100 attempts.

Seems to me that Lynch is up to the job. But I don’t expect him to be the bell-cow for the Seahawks. At least not at the start of the game. Pete Carroll has already made it clear that he expects Homer to carry the load against the Niners. That being said, you don’t have a guy whose nickname is Beastmode and just put him in for five plays. I anticipate we’ll see Lynch on the field pretty early, although Homer will get plenty of reps as well.

If Lynch rips off a couple of beastly runs, you know the Seahawks will ride the hot hand. Even more than his impact with the ball in his hands, Marshawn Lynch has already had a huge impact on this game. After Carson and C.J. Prosise went down in last Sunday’s game, the atmosphere surrounding the Hawks wasn’t exactly, shall we say, peppy. That all changed less than 24 hours later when Marshawn Lynch signed up for another playoff run. The locker room is completely energized by his return – even though just a handful of the current team played with Lynch. To the younger guys on the team, a living legend has joined them.

The return of Marshawn Lynch to the Seahawks may not get us the result we want on the field. The Hawks are still dealing with a lot of injuries, and while I hate to admit it, the Niners are a pretty good team. But the possibility of BeastQuake 2.0 has 12s everywhere buzzing. If you don’t think this is big news, check out the article in the Japan Times on his return. The Seahawks got their swagger back. They completely believe they can win. That is what makes the return of Beastmode so big.