Its game day and the Seattle Seahawks who were dubbed as having the easiest schedule left in the NFL have found themselves in troubled waters with a few back to back poor performances turned in by Seattle’s favorite son, Russell Wilson.

There are concerns that Russell may have been playing the past few games with an undiagnosed head injury that might have occured a few games ago in a helmet to helmet collision that appeared intentional but was never called and thus Russell was never sent into the sports medicine tent on the sidelines to be checked out.

No matter if that was or is the central cause for the Seahawks struggles to compete and to have turned in uncharacteristic performances and losses to teams that they were believed to be able to easily defeat.

Today is another one of those games that if the real Russell Wilson shows up and has recovered from what a good many believe was the source of the Seahawks woes, then the Seahawks should have an easy time of it.

Todays game day post will be more of a quarter by quarter analysis of the game, rather than a play by play analysis, which turns out to be more of a blay by splay call, that leaves our readers do their own analysis, and not that that is a bad idea, but the truth of the matter is that few ever take the time to read and collectively analyze the calmative effects or impacts of those plays.

Instead it ends up looking like a read of the transcripts of a radio station calling a football game, land the purpose of the article ends up incomplete. So far the Seahawks have managed to score a touchdown and the Jets responded with a field goal to start the game 7-3.

Seahawks Defense appears to be on the job today, brining good pressure on the Jets QB, effectively stopping the run and the Seahawks secondary is doing an exceptional job so far of stopping the Jet’s attempts to get an air game going.  It does appear that Russell might have gotten back in time to play in this game.

One of the things I’m paying close attention to is the time that the Seahawks Offense is giving Russell in this game verses the last one, to try and determine if Russell’s misfires last week were due to the time the offense was providing him or just his indecision and inaccuracy at play.

In this game I still see Russell being provided about the same amount of time to execute, and so far he seems to be executing faster and up and until a deep bomb to Metcalf, more accurate, on that play the Jets CB reeled in an interception in the end zone sending Russell and the Seahawks Offense to their sidelines to regroup.

The Seahawks defense continues to bring good pressure and it’s starting to have the desired effects, with the Jet’s QB getting more and more rattled, throwing what could have or should have been a pick 6 to Jamal Adams, and that ended the Jet’s attempt to capitolize on the Russell Wilson interception in the previous series.

I won’t say that I Think, that the Seahawks Defense is back, I will just say with confidence that they are back, in a way that we’ve not seen in several seasons,

They are playing like the legendary Legion of Boom and I believe may have the potential to exceed even the stats and contributions of that Seahawks Defensive unit.

I have maintained that the LOB is a defensive philosophy and not a collection of name marque players.  Kenny Norton along with Pete Carroll, the real master mind behind the creation and development of the LOB, along with the contributions, earl on in Pete’s arrival in the Emerald City, of Chris Richards and Dan Quinn, who need to be credited as well.

Of the three, Richards, Norton and Quin, Kenny is the only one that has managed to recreate what appears to be a defensive unit that commands the field and dominates it’s opponents offenses, like they did in 2012 thru 2015.  Ever since that time the Seahawks have been trying to replace many of the players that were lost due to career and season ending injuries, Avril, Chancellor, Earl, Sherman, Maxy, and the list never seem to stop.

Finally after 4 seasons, the Seahawks have found the combination of elite players and combined with the efforts of elite coaching staff, have succeeded in recreating the Monster that once dominated the NFL and that struck fear into the hearts of every NFL offense that faced them, The Legion of Boom, is back and is bad as ever.  A bold statement but one that I feel is well deserved and that needs to be recognized and honored for their accomplishments

The Seahawks offense is giving Russell no more time to execute in this game than they did in their game against the Giants in week 13, the difference is that today, Russell appears to have made ti to this game and has been more decisive and is executing with the time he is being provided..

While  their are still some question marks about his timing and accuracy, he is at least making decisions and executing like the Russell of old,  The Seahawks have scored two touchdowns in the first half, so far, and have scored two field goals as well, the Jet’s have scored one field goal and just missed an easy gimme 30 yard field goal try, I’m going to have to watch that one in the coaches films to see if the Seahawks didn’t deflect it. .

As the game progresses, it appears that Russell is regaining some of the confidence that he lost over he past few games, and with that his accuracy and timing. Although on the deep threats he is still not back at a 100 percent, and that little bit thats missing, is making it more difficult on his targets to connect with, and more concerning is the potential for their defenders to find their way to Russell’s passes instead,

If I were to try and assess, where Russell is in his recover from the effects of the head blow, if that is in fact what he’s been contending with, and it does appear more and more like that has been the case. He has regained some ground in the way of recovery but still has a little ways to go to find his way back to being DangeRuss again.

The Officials appear to have concerned themselves with the struggles of the Jets offensive woes in this one and are starring to call some pretty ticky tack penalties to keep it interesting and competitive, and the Jet’s are taking advantage of everything they are given. The Seahawks defense just needs to stay on the throttle and punish the Jets offense on each and every ;play.

The Seahawks Defense has held the Jets to 2 field goal attempts in the 2nd quarter and both of them have been easy 30 yard attempts, and both have been missed hooking to the left and I’m sure have done a lot to strip their kicker of his dignity and self confidence, regardless of why he is missing like he is.

The Seahawks Offense on the other hand has scored on their field goal and extra point attempts.

I think this is a good time to give Meyers, the Seahawks leg man, some praises for his game this year. I don’t want to speak too soon, but thus far he has come through for us when we needed him to the most, and his consistency has given his teammates and his fans good reason to trust that he will continue to get it done when he’s called upon,

Russell continues to improve as the game progresses, in close range his accuracy and timing is back better than ever, There is still the matter of the deep threat, and to Metcalf and Lockett that is a critical situation for Russell to regain his mastery of that aspect of their game.

For the remainder of this game, I would be content to see Russell stick to whats working for him, and that is the running game and short to medium range passing game.  While I was praising Meyers, he missed an extra point attempt following a Chris Carson running touch down,  We’ll forgive him, interestingly enough it hooked left just as the Jet’s kickers attempts have.

The Score Seahawks 23 and he Jets have been held to 3 points thus far, the Jets find time for a field goal attempt with 7 seconds left on the halftime clock, and yet again the Jets miss their attempt hooking left.  There is no wind to speak of in the stadium, the turf is wet, it’s Seattle, Washington, and it’s December, but there is not enough “wet” to be effecting any other aspects of the game.

The players footing has been good, no slip and slide stuff going on. The QB’s haven’t had any noticable trouble holding on to the ball, and outside of timing issues with both QB’s the flight of the balls have been smooth, and were the timing and accuracy just a little more precision on Russell’s part, this game would be even more humiliating and embarrassing for the Jets than it has been through the 1st half. d

I have not let Russell’s 1st half performance result in any overconfidence going into the Second Half of this matchup.

While historically the Seahawks are stronger in the 2nd half than they are in the 1st half. But this season, its been difficult to rely on past performances and stats replicating themselves from game to game with any kind of reliable consistency.

The Seahawks recieve to start the 2nd Half and in the 1st series, Russell again appears to be back on his game in close, but when he attempts distance plays he’s off just a smidge.  The Seahawks do manage to convert on their 1st series of the 2nd half,  with a combination of run and pass plays.

The key has been trying keep the yardage manageable. On a 3rd and 8 Russell struggles but manages to get rid of the ball with a deep pass to Lockett who is flagged for defensive holding penalty and the Seahawks are given a deserved 1st and 10 and another series of downs.  If not predictable, perhaps coincidentally the Seahawks are going to the ground with Carlos who is struggling in the 2nd half and has left the Seahawks 3rd and 8 on the last two series, and twice now Russell has benefited from holding penalties involving Lockett that have both resulted in 1st downs for the Seahawks.

Chris Carson replaces Hyde in the Seahawks final series of their 1st possession of the 2nd haff and on the ground and in the air, Russell and Carson put the Seahawks knocking on the door of another Touchdown, where Russell finds Will Dissly open and able to reel in his pass and rough and tumble his way into the endzone for a Seahawks TD and Meyers seals the deal with an extra point through the uprights.

The Seahawks go up 30 to 3 to start the 2nd  half.  Seahawks Special Teams have uncharacteristically struggled a bit in harnessing the Jets no kick offs in the 1st half, in the Second half, if the 1st Jets possession is any indicator, they appear to have made some adjustments at half time and are stopping the Jets cold and forcing them to punt it away having been pushed all the way back into their own endzone.

I have no doubt that if the Seahawks continue to dominate as they have in the 1st half and have stepped it up a few notches in the second half, so far anyways, and they finish this game with what would be considered a blowout score, that the majority of the Spirts media commendation will dismiss the accomplishments of the Seahawks in this game and dismiss it out of hand, explaining that the Jets were never supposed to win this game or even be in it

I would say that unless the Seahawks can decimate the Jets with a score in this game, that has not been achieved by any other team the Jets have faced this season they will get little recognition for their accomplishments in this game, with the press saying it was an easy win for the Seahawks against a substandard. Jets team who haven’t won a game all season long, ignoring the fact that the Jets have been involved in a number of highly competitive teams, with very close scores that could have just as easily ended in thier favor.

I won’t do that to the Seahawks or to Pete Carroll, Russell Wilson, or Kenny Norton, who have worked long and hard to arrive at the place they are today in this game.  The Seahawks are a complete team at long last, and provided that Russell continues to progress in what to me appears to be the impact of a head blow and concussion, albeit undiagnosed, that negatively effected his judgement and slowed his thought processing, and responses under any kind of pressure in following games.

while I waits to be seen if he can fully recover, his faculties, in regards to his deep threat timing and accuracy,, his arm is still as capable as ever, being able to easily launch 80 plus yard bombs, and his timing is off by a few strides of his targeted receivers.  If Shotty is going to send those plays in, Russell needs to be sure that he leads the targets and doesn’t trail them or place the football where the defenders can lay their hands on it.

We’re in the 4th quarter, Seahawks on their 1st possession, are sticking to their same game plan, run, run, pass to get a 1st down if its there and if not, they punt it away and let the Seahawks Defense eat some more. While the Seahawks defense has done an incredible job today, there have have been too many missed opportunities for interceptions of passes under pressure, and deflected passes that the Seahawks have traditionally been able to snatch up and that have historically translated into added points to the Seahawks scoreboard.

Todays game has answered a number of questions, regarding the solidification of the Seahawks Offense and Defense, both of which have delivered encouraging performances, that would reinforce perceptions that they have finally synced as separate and collective units  The Seahawks Special Teams, has been a central key in the growth and solidification of the Seahawks as a complete team this season where players from both offense and defense merge to make up the Special Teams unit.

The 4th Quarter in this matchup appears to have been turned over to the Seahawks backup players, which is a good thing, they work every bit as hard, if not harder than the starters do and seldom get the opportunity to play in life games. Geno Smith shows that his skills are still in tact, but also shows why we don’t want to lose Russell and have to depend on Geno to get the job done.

Its in the details, with Geno, knowing when its time to let go of the ball on a handoff, dropping the ball withon a snap, that the Seahawks fortunately recovered, in one series. The /Seahawks Offensive front line, when manned by 2nd string players, does not deliver the consistent time that their starting line does not only in time for their QB to execute or create the RB’s need to move the ball on the ground.

The Seahawks backup players do put up 3 points on field goal attempt, coming up a running play short of adding another TD to the Seahawks score. The Seahawks do move the numbers on the scoreboard to 40, with a little more than 5 minutes left on the clock.

The Seahawks are not sending ut as many backups on their defensive unit.. The clock strikes zero and it’s in the books, the Seahawks go 9-5, to tie the Rams for 1st in the NFC West. If and its still a big if, the Seahawks have in fact found themselves, as they head into their final games of the season, and they manage to perform as anticipated, they do face the Rams again and that game could very well decide 1st place in the NFC West, and will likely result in an additional Wild Card matchup no matter the winner of that matchup.

Next week the Seahawks fly east to play the Washington’s, in what many believe will be an walk in the ;park for the Seahawks and the Seahawks would prove to be the dumbest team in all of the NFL  if the buy into that mindset.

The Seahawks are the statistically superior team, when they are on their gagmen when they are not, a good college team could whip their ass on any given Sunday, it’s critical that the Seahawks learn everything hey can about themselves that they can from todays performances, and that they approach every single game they play, as though it was a championship game, with no tomorrows or second chances, because in this season that could very well be the case