SEATTLE – Surely, one can find dozens of plays that reflected the nature of the Seattle Seahawks’ dominance in their 44-13 humiliation of the visiting New Orleans Saints at Lumen Field on Sunday.
The special teams left the Saints floundering again and again. Quarterback Sam Darnold was nearly perfect statistically, and the defense continued its string of excellent outings.
But on one play midway through the second period, with the score already 28-3 in the Hawks’ favor, the offense executed a primitive expression of pure aggression and malice aforethought.
This was a collective commitment to grievous bodily harm, with absolute intent to dominate – no matter the score. It was exactly what the Seahawks have needed. Exactly the kind of play that will pay increasing dividends as the season continues.
From the Saints’ 12, Darnold ran a play-action roll to his right and flipped it to tight end Eric Saubert. Saubert caught it at the Saints 6, and was stood up by three Saints defenders.
It triggered a dramatic confrontation that resembled a PBS documentary from the African veld, where a troop of hyenas tear into a vulnerable antelope, only to have half a dozen water buffaloes come to the rescue.
Before the Saints could drag Saubert down, right tackle Abe Lucas raced downfield to blast into the pile.
Within a moment, every other offensive lineman and several others had joined the scrum and was pushing Saubert toward the goal line. On the other side, running back Kenneth Walker was trying to pull Saubert away from the hyenas.
No other play, in this thoroughly complete game, showed such intent to dominate, or the power of shared commitment to the cause.
It was a short pass completion that turned into an impromptu, but very effective, tush push. The only shortcoming was that they all fell in a pile at the 1. It led to a scoring run by Walker, though.
“I loved that play,” Saubert said. Asked what he recalled, he said: “Catching the ball and turning it upfield, getting hit and then all of a sudden all my buddies were coming up to help me out, pushing me forward. It kind of got to the point where it was out of my control.”
Was this symbolic of the new Seahawks mentality? “Yeah, that is what we expect of ourselves,” center Jalen Sundell said. “We’re trying to do that every play, striving to finish every play like that.”
Was there any special technique involved? “All I know is I just stuck my face in there and pushed as hard as I could,” Sundell said, effectively synopsizing every seminar that has ever been given on the key to offensive line success.
Coach Mike Macdonald and general manager John Schneider sent a clear message last spring when they used their first draft pick on left guard Grey Zabel: The team needed to be more physical at the line of scrimmage.
What’s been made clearer in the last two games, the physicality can’t stop at the line of scrimmage.
“We are always trying to push the pile forward,” Zabel said afterward when asked about the tidal surge that carried Saubert toward the end zone. “That’s how you play the game of football, and you’re showing it disrespect if you don’t play that way.”
The mentality reached all phases of the game for the Seahawks. Tory Horton’s franchise record 95-yard punt return was made possible by several key blocks.
Despite much of the starting secondary being out with injury, fill-ins played well.
“This was huge,” said defensive tackle Byron Murphy II. “Going into this week, we said we wanted to be a dominant team, and we showed it.”
So many good things happened on Sunday, it wasn’t limited to Lumen Field. The Rams coughed up a big lead in a loss to Philadelphia.
And the runaway win over the Saints allowed the Hawks to rest some players in the second half, to give them a head start recovering for the Thursday night division contest at Arizona. Meanwhile, the Cardinals were pushed for 60 minutes in a dramatic loss to San Francisco.
A surprise star, Horton, continued his ascension Sunday, scoring on another TD reception as well as his punt return.
The fifth-round draft pick added some colorful insight to the interview room. When asked what he saw on his scoring return: “Green grass.”
His slalom run through the entire Saints’ coverage team felt to him like a school-yard game of “sharks and minnows.”
Couldn’t ask for a better analogy for the game Sunday.
Sharks and minnows. Water buffalo and hyenas.
Whatever. The Seahawks appear to be moving up the NFL food chain.