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MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

The news of Detroit’s come-from-behind victory over the Oakland Raiders cast a pall over an otherwise fantastic day for the Seattle Seahawks. A potential playoff run—which seemed so real after Seattle’s 38-14 thrashing of the Chicago Bears—now hangs by the barest of threads. One more Detroit victory or one more Seattle loss will ensure that the Seahawks will be on the outside looking in come January.

If this happens, it would be tempting to look back on the 2011 season and focus on the games that got away. High on the list would be the fourth quarter collapse against the Washington Redskins. Only slightly less frustrating in retrospect was Seattle’s 6-3 loss to the Cleveland Browns two months ago. Had Seattle won those two games, they would be 9-5 and in the thick of the playoff hunt. Now they will likely miss the playoffs because they were unable to win games like these.

But forget the Redskins and Browns games for just a minute. Look at what just happened: the team that two months ago couldn’t muster more than a single field goal in Cleveland just waltzed right into Soldier Field and beat the hell out of the Chicago Bears. At 10am! Seattle has won a couple of 10am starts over the years; when’s the last time they won one by 24 points?

Clearly these are not your father’s Seahawks. They aren’t even the same Seahawks that took the field in San Francisco on September 11. They are much, MUCH better.

This team has grown so much over the season it’s hard to believe how bad they were in September. Brandon Browner looked lost in his first few games as an NFL starter. Now he had six interceptions and two touchdowns to his name. Marshawn Lynch has gone from plugging behind a mediocre offensive line to setting team records and breaking the 1,000 yard barrier. Tarvaris Jackson, while still wildly inconsistent, kept the offense moving on a day in which the running game was mostly stymied. The team that didn’t know how to win a few short months ago has become the team that can find several ways to win.

As a whole, this team is better than the one that shocked the world last January. Their nucleus of young, developing talent is playing up to its potential. They have become, in the words of Tim Ryan, the team that “nobody wants to play.” That makes this season a success regardless of whether they make the playoffs.

Pete Carroll inherited an aging franchise that was a grim shadow of the Holmgren teams of the past and he took a sledgehammer to it. He jettisoned popular yet declining veterans like Matt Hasselbeck and Lofa Tatupu. He thrust unproven players like Browner and Richard Sherman into the starting lineup and vowed that he would live with their mistakes. The early results were fairly predictable, but the real question was always how they would play with a few games under their belts. Would the game slow down for them? Would they develop into the foundation of a team that Carroll and John Schneider could build on and continue to improve?

By any measure, the Seattle Seahawks have proven themselves more than up to the challenge. This team is playing better and with more success than this town has seen in years. There is no guarantee that they will continue to succeed. It’s easier to make a bad team good than it is to make a good team great, or make a great team a Super Bowl contender. Every step along the path to success is harder than the one before it. But the 2011 season was all about taking that first step. The Seahawks have not only done so, they have exceeded virtually everyone’s expectations. They did what they needed to do this year. Mission accomplished.

(And if they DO manage to sneak into the playoffs this year? Watch out, NFL….)

Random Thoughts on Week Fifteen

• Seattle’s 2011 draft could easily be the best ever in terms of late round picks and undrafted free agents. When you consider that half of the defensive secondary was picked on Day Three of the draft, not to mention what UDFA’s like Browner and Doug Baldwin have accomplished, John Schneider should run away with Executive of the Year honors. (He won’t—he works in Southern Alaska after all—but he should.)

• Excellent job by Seattle’s special teams of either kicking away from Devin Hester or making sure he couldn’t do anything with the ball all game long. The game was close enough for most of the way that one bad punt or kick return could have shifted momentum back in Chicago’s favor, but Steven Hauschka and Jon Ryan made sure that didn’t happen.

• Tarvaris Jackson continues to be the world’s most bi-polar football player. One moment he’s holding onto the ball in the end zone too long and giving up a fumble, the next moment he’s putting the offense on his shoulders and leading the team to two second half touchdown drives. If Jackson could consistently play up to the level of his talent, he would be a Pro Bowl quarterback.

• Congratulations to Marshawn Lynch for breaking Shaun Alexander’s record of consecutive games with a touchdown and for becoming the team’s first 1,000 yard rusher since Alexander in 2005. Skittles for everybody!