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Nate Gowdy

The Seahawks won fairly comfortably by a 27-17 margin over the New York Jets on Sunday, which you would not know if you had walked by my house at any point during the game. Nothing really felt comfortable, so there was a lot of screaming. Probably too much screaming.

Maybe it was the early start, or my anxiety about Russell Wilson’s healthy, but something about Sunday’s affair turned me into a nervous, screaming wreck. In hindsight my behavior was ludicrous. The Seahawks dominated the game, save for one drive, and controlled the action on both sides of the ball. In the moment though? I was a big ol’ ball of nerves.

When Richard Sherman was called for defensive pass interference in the third quarter on relatively clean coverage (if anything the penalty was on Jets receiver Brandon Marshall) I let out a shamefully bloodcurdling scream. When he intercepted Ryan Fitzpatrick on the next play and turned the game distinctly in Seattle’s favor, it was a different equally loud scream. Not every Seahawks game gets me to scream on back-to-back plays, and usually the ones that do aren’t decided with five minutes left on the clock.

Let’s break down the relatively fun game that felt far less fun in the moment point-by-point:

* Russell Wilson played one of the best games of his career on a sprained ankle and sprained knee. If I had suffered either of these injuries, I would have called in sick from watching Sunday’s game. Wilson dominated it. I’m not a religious man, but if anyone has the capacity to turn me, it’s Russ. Which is annoying, because how goddamn corny is that?

* Jimmy Graham’s performance this week was a goddamn miracle. I thought there was no way on earth Jimmy Graham would be useful this early in the season. He wasn’t useful on Sunday, he was the league’s best pass catching tight end. And, unlike last season when a healthy Graham was not fully integrated into the offense, his reinsertion into an improved Seahawks scheme has been seamless. A real seamless reinsertion. Good stuff.

* There are two types of Richard Sherman games. The first and most frequent involves his presence tilting the field away from him, and he gets thrown at maybe two or three times. Those are effective Richard Sherman games.

Sunday was not that type of Richard Sherman game. It was the sort of Richard Sherman game where a wide receiver exploits Sherman a few times, and then Sherman learns what he has to do to stop that receiver and wins the game for the Seahawks. Sunday was the least boring possible Richard Sherman game, and the sequence I described above was in its way a perfect Richard Sherman sequence. Watching Sherman get beat a few times is hard, but watching him bounce back and get two game-sealing interceptions made it worth it.

* The officiating on Sunday was awful. That fed into my insanity. There were a number of tight calls that went against the Seahawks including the Sherman pass interference, and a Bilal Powell non-fumble that easily could have been overturned. It gave the a whole affair a “playing the goddamn Rams feel to it,” without whatever black magic turns those Rams games into Rams wins.

* Concussions are the worst part of NFL football, granted. Grant me that premise! But! When Jets lineman Brian Winters headbutted Michael Bennett and immediately knocked himself out of the game with a concussion. Again, you’ve granted me concussions are bad. BUT! This concussion? This concussion was a valuable lesson. Never mess with Michael Bennett.

* Running back Christine Michael is so damn fast and good. There’s a lingering narrative that Marshawn Lynch’s absence from the team is something that has to be overcome. In terms of personality? Maybe, sure. In terms of on the field performance? Michael has been able to reproduce a surprisingly high amount of Lynch’s production single-handedly.

* Russell Wilson took a very dumb sack in the fourth quarter of the game that almost knocked the Seahawks out of field goal range. Except, MetLife is stadium is whose Haus? Was it Schka’s Haus? It was Schka’s Haus. Hauschka drilled a 53-yarder that wound up being crucial as the Jets would have closed to within a score on their absurd unintentional fumblerooski touchdown.

The Seahawks get a bye next week, and on the other side of it, Russell Wilson will be fully healthy. The team has been explosive without Wilson’s mobility. With it? The Seahawks have a chance to be the league’s most dominant team. That the Seahawks are 3-1 without having been at their best yet? Woo-wee, that’s good stuff…

So given that we’ve proven I was a goddamn lunatic on Sunday, can one of you text me next time I start screaming at the TV when the Seahawks are playing pretty well? Thanks kindly.