A few things jumped out at me after watching the game again.
-Arizona was DEFINITELY trying to win this game for most of the first half. Palmer threw far more than David Johnson ran. Palmer actually played very well outside of one bad throw (the one that Shead tipped away from Lane). Palmer's line only looks bad because of some clutch tipped balls, some clutch PDs, and some unclutch drops (and of course, the controversial INT). The TD to Fitzgerald was a combination of good anticipation and Shead being flatfooted, but it showed what Palmer could do when nobody was screwing up. If the Hawks face Palmer again this season they shouldn't relax, Palmer was very close to having a very good first half.
-This is what "lucky + good" looks like for Seattle. When Seattle plays sharp and gets even just a little luck to go their way they can destroy any team anywhere.
-The key moment of this game in my opinion was a play that I initially thought little of, though credit to Troy Aikman for seeing it live. It's 2nd and 10 and Arizona has the ball down 17-6. There is definitely some urgency on Arizona's part as they can smell the game slipping away from them. Palmer throws to a wide open David Johnson for what would have been a sure 1st down, and given what Johnson is capable of in the open field, it had the potential to be a massive big play and help get AZ back in the game. But fortunately for us, the ball never gets there
since it hits Cliff Avril right in the facemask. And if not for a heads up play by Palmer to bat the airborne deflection down, it could have been picked by DeShawn Shead who as it happened was in the area on a corner blitz. Arizona would punt after a failed 3rd down, and within two minutes Seattle expanded their lead by an additional two touchdowns.
-Only a few minutes later, Arizona now down 30-6, they had 2 minutes to work with and plenty of timeouts. Facing 3rd and short, Palmer threw to a wide open receiver on an uncovered receiver screen. It would have easily picked up the first down. Except the ball never got there, because Avril had batted it down, again.
-Overall, there were a ridiculous number of drops, batted balls, and passes defensed for Arizona's pass offense. One of them negated a TD in the 4th quarter that would have cost Seattle the scoring defense crown. Several others negated crucial 1st down conversions. Seattle also batted three balls at the LOS (Irvin had the other). All of this is very nice, but also extremely unsustainable. This was like a bottom 5% type of game for AZ in terms of pass breakups, tipped balls, and drops. Palmer looked pretty comfortable but couldn't connect due to it being a game of inches that broke against him in spectacular fashion. So while the defense played very well, it also got very lucky. I am just a teeny tiny bit concerned about the Hawks secondary being over-confident in a rematch, because they won't likely catch these kinds of breaks again in a potential NFCCG showdown.
-Russell Wilson was fantastic, but actually missed a couple of open receivers including two for long TDs. As good as he was, he was very close to being even better.
-Russell was PUMPED after his TD to Kearse.
-Overall the OL protection was decent considering the circumstances. The run blocking however, was pretty bad. It felt like about 40% of the runs either went nowhere or were TFLs. There was only one clear hole to run through all game and
Christine Michael turned it into a 45 yard gain. Bryce Brown's TD run was well blocked too, so credit for that. But to me the success of the running game had almost everything to do with our RBs creating plays and maximizing yardage. Wilson's excellence in the passing game also took the pressure off the run game which is very important for backs like Brown and Michael.
-Sherman was aware of the scoring defense crown being in play before the game and had been tracking scores for KC and CIncy throughout. There were several cuts to the Seahawks sideline for players like Sherman and Earl cheering on the backups just before Shead's pick saved the day.
-Palmer worked Sherman back in week 10, it was the worst game of Sherman's life. But Sherman looked fired up in this game and Palmer rarely targeted him.
-Tyler Lockett was unstoppable, and if not for a questionable holding call on Sherman that wiped out Lockett's first big return, Lockett may have actually produced roughly as many yards for Seattle as Wilson did. Why did Arians keep kicking it to him? We all know how Pete Carroll can get 'hormonal' with his red challenge flag. I think Arians gets a bit hormonal too when an opposing player makes him look bad.
-The run defense was masterful again just as they have been all year. All season long I could scarcely believe there was a better run D in the league. So it's fitting that Seattle ended up with the #1 run D after this game.
-Shead and Lane had some mistakes at times, but they look much more comfortable than they did earlier in the year, IMO. McCray is also starting to look comfortable. Anyone still pissed about sending a 5th for McCray anymore? I get why some people thought it was an overpay initially, but in retrospect I think he's been worth the price and then some.
Overall, this was a very good game for Seattle but also a game where they caught some breaks, so as fans I think we should try to avoid being too confident in the afterglow of it. If just a few plays had barely gone differently this could have been a much tighter game. That said, I do think Seattle is the best team in the NFL by a good margin despite their 10-6 record, and this game was an awesome exclamation point to prove it.
