In Return to Dominant Form, Seahawks Stifle Eagles' Fast
PHILADELPHIA - Deep into the third quarter Sunday, deep into another suffocating performance by the most suffocating defense in the league, Richard Sherman stood near the Eagles ' sideline and gazed into the stands.
He cupped his hand to his ear once, then again, as the crowd pelted him with boos. Away from Seattle, Sherman hears this reaction a lot, and he loves it, welcomes it.
It means that he has done something good, and he and his Seahawks did a lot of good Sunday.
All week Sherman and his teammates were asked how they could contain the Eagles' fast-paced offense. The only speedy thing about Seattle's victory, which halted Philadelphia's 10-game winning streak at Lincoln Financial Field, was how quickly what had been a competitive game at halftime devolved into a rout.
Pay no heed to the final score: Seattle 24, Philadelphia 14. Consider instead how the Seahawks controlled the ball for 41 minutes 56 seconds and gashed the Eagles for 188 rushing yards and stifled an offense that had been averaging 35.3 points in four games with Mark Sanchez as starter.
After the teams opened the second half by trading touchdowns, putting Seattle in front by 17-14, the game turned on a five-play, 91-yard scoring drive that featured the many assets of quarterback Russell Wilson. His 12-yard run off a bootleg gave Seattle space to operate. His deep toss to Doug Baldwin, who drew a 44-yard pass-interference call, showcased his awareness. His 23-yard touchdown to Baldwin revealed his deft touch for placing the ball where he wanted, when he wanted, which he did quite a bit Sunday.
Among the delicious matchups on the N.F.L. schedule, few have compared to this one. Its collision of intertwined subplots could be distilled into: Could Sanchez, who played for Seattle Coach Pete Carroll at Southern California, operate Philadelphia's hyperfast offense against Seattle's league-leading defense?
The quick answer: no.
The Eagles gained 20 yards in the first quarter, 47 in the second and 64 in the third. They finished with 153.
With a limited passing game, the Seahawks depend on the legs of Marshawn Lynch, who rushed for 86 yards and also caught a 15-yard touchdown pass, and Wilson's improvisation. No quarterback in the N.F.L. thrives out of the pocket on a weekly basis more than Wilson, whose ability to prolong plays stresses even the most disciplined defenses.
Those freestyling skills extended the Seahawks' first scoring drive, when, flushed, Wilson rolled left on second-and-16 at his own 19-yard line and found Baldwin for 25 yards.
His feel for the zone-read produced their first touchdown, when he shoved the ball in Lynch's belly long enough to fake Trent Cole, then pulled it back and bolted left, where Cole would have been, for a 26-yard score.
There is a reason no team since the 2003-4 Patriots has repeated as Super Bowl champion: It's hard. Really hard.
Injuries intrude. Players defect. Egos inflate.
'They didn't understand how hard teams were going to play against them,' Warren Moon, a Hall of Fame quarterback who works as a radio analyst for the Seahawks, said last week in a telephone interview.
As much as the Seahawks stressed that they would not be afflicted by complacency or seduced by the trappings of success, not everyone could handle prosperity. Soaring profiles and endorsement deals produced jealousy and strife.
A few days after the Seahawks lost at Kansas City to fall to 6-4, after safety Earl Thomas scolded defensive linemen chewing sunflower seeds at practice for not being focused enough, about 10 of their core players gathered with Carroll, then with one another. They aired grievances, spoke of what was missing, started to trust one another again.
The last two weeks, the Seahawks allowed 368 yards and 6 points in silencing division rivals Arizona and San Francisco. In the first half Sunday, Seattle slowed the fastest offense in the league, allowing 7 points and all of 67 yards.
From the first offensive snap, when Sherman broke up a pass intended for Jeremy Maclin, the Seahawks neutralized Philadelphia's short passing game.
Their tight coverage restricted Sanchez's throwing lanes.
Their excellent tackling prevented yards after the catch.
'You can hurry up all you want, but if you can't get yards, you can't complete passes, then it's just quick three-and-outs,' Sherman said.
The one time the Eagles breached Seattle's fortress in the first half came after punter Jon Ryan dropped a snap.
Taking over at the Seahawks' 14, Philadelphia converted a fourth-and-1 and, two plays later, scored on a clever 1-yard toss to Maclin.
Since replacing the injured Nick Foles a month ago, Sanchez has revived his career after a tumultuous tenure with the Jets. But he struggled Sunday, completing 10 of 20 passes with two touchdowns and an interception, thrown in the fourth quarter just after the Eagles recovered a Lynch fumble. One person apparently not impressed was Sherman, who intercepted Sanchez in Seattle back in 2012.
'Does he look different?' Sherman said last week. 'I think he looks pretty much the same.'
So, too, do the Seahawks, as suffocating and dominant as ever.
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