SEATTLE – As a reminder, this season’s Super Bowl is in Santa Clara. Feb. 8.
Too early to book flights, but perhaps fair to start wondering if the Seahawks have what it takes to get there.
It’s barely halfway through the 2025 season, but the 7-2 Seahawks have been extremely convincing the past two weeks, with lopsided wins over Washington (38-14) last week and Arizona (44-22) on Sunday at Lumen Field.
Both were middling opponents, but the ease of dominance and margin of the Seattle wins, along with their seven victories in the last eight games, have most analysts continually raising the Hawks in their power rankings.
I’m with them, because the Hawks have displayed top-shelf talent and solid schemes through the season – just not always through entire games.
The big thing is that it’s there to tap into, and it’s rare. Both sides of the ball.
And beyond that, this team is playing with a sort of aggressiveness and competitive hunger that used to be called “killer instinct.” It comes from the nature of the team’s leaders, and it’s contagious. Sometimes it sustains itself, and that’s what separates the elite teams.
We’ve seen this here, obviously, in seasons past.
They came into this one against the Cardinals rated No. 5 in the NFL in scoring offense and scoring defense. So, they’re already among the statistical elite. And, nobody in the NFC has a better record than the Hawks’ 7-2 mark.
Sunday’s game gave a couple good examples how this team is growing.
Early in the season, linebacker Tyrice Knight was losing playing time to the emergent Drake Thomas, but with Ernest Jones IV sidelined with injury, Knight was back in the lineup.
Sunday, he twice forced Jacoby Brissett fumbles on sacks, which were recovered by DeMarcus Lawrence and returned for touchdowns. Both times. Almost identical situations and results.
“Both those were pressures we haven’t run before,” coach Mike Macdonald said. Good coaching and scheming allows teams to unleash new wrinkles that teams hadn’t previously seen.
Lawrence simplified it as an example of his personal defensive philosophy: “See ball, get ball.”
Macdonald said Knight was given a game ball for his efforts, but also his positive attitude and preparedness to get back into the lineup.
Macdonald also gave a game ball to running backs coach Kennedy Polamalu, having seen the backs pick up a season-high 198 yards rushing. The ground game had been an off-season focus, but the Seattle run production had been inconsistent much of the season.
Late in the second half, Seattle put together a pair of long drives relying solely on the run game. Exactly what Macdonald was looking for.
These had been weaknesses. They’ve been identified and fixed. Another sign of a team on the rise.
Macdonald had stressed the importance of the team getting off to good starts in games.
The team has responded spectacularly.
Against the Commanders, they were up 31-7 at halftime. Sunday, it was 38-7 at half against the Cardinals. In both instances, they were obviously the real deal.
But not so much in the second half Sunday, as the Cards outscored them 15-6 after intermission.
“It was a little funky in the second half,” Macdonald said.
The game was already well in hand, so no damage was done.
Worrisome, amid all the optimism, was quarterback Sam Darnold’s two lost fumbles and interception.
Receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who had a string of four 100-plus-yard receiving games going, finished with five catches and 93 yards.
More important than his statistical output was the togetherness he sees developing in the locker room, pointing to “the culture in the building.”
“What we’re building here, we have something special and we want to keep it going,” JSN said.
Lawrence added his opinion: “The sky’s the limit.”
The Seahawks will get better indication of their upper limits next week, when they travel to Los Angeles to face the division co-leader Rams, also 7-2.
A red-hot first half won’t be enough to close the deal against the Rams.