GLENDALE, Arizona — The Seattle Seahawks restored all they had lost the previous week.
And then some.
Russell Wilson threw three touchdown passes. Tyler Lockett set a franchise record for the most punt-return yards in a game. And the Seahawks led 30-6.
All by halftime.
Not only did Wilson break Matt Hasselbeck’s single-season record for passing yards from 2007 before halftime. He became the first Seahawks quarterback with a 4,000-yard passing season — and the first player in NFL history with 4,000 yards passing, at least 30 touchdown passes and 500 yards rushing. Wilson’s 34 touchdown passes also set a Seahawks’ single-season record.
Oh, yes, Seattle regained its mojo, momentum and mauling way of winning. It put a 36-6 demolition on the NFC West-champion Arizona Cardinals in a stunning regular-season finale at University of Phoenix Stadium Sunday.
“When we hit on all cylinders,” linebacker Bruce Irvin said, “ain’t nobody in the world can mess with us.”
Seattle’s defense restored itself, in particular, days after linebacker K.J. Wright noted how communication and assignment errors disappear in road games. The Seahawks allowed the NFL’s No. 1 offense in yards and points just 232 yards, and one touchdown.
Head coach Pete Carroll ended his postgame message in the locker room to his roaring players by congratulating the defensive players for finishing the regular season leading the NFL in scoring defense for fourth consecutive year. It is the first time since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger that any team has done that.
The Seahawks (10-6) won for the sixth time in seven games overall and fifth consecutive time on the road. That’s timely given Seattle opens the playoffs next Sunday at 10:05 a.m. Pacific Time at NFC North-champion Minnesota (11-5), after the Vikings beat Green Bay Sunday night.
Seattle, the NFC’s sixth seed, beat the third-seeded Vikings 38-7 on Dec. 6 while not allowing a defensive touchdown.
It was a performance about as dominant as the Seahawks’ one Sunday against the Cardinals. So, yes, Seattle is feeling pretty good about the playoffs.
“We are in a very good spot right now,” wide receiver Doug Baldwin said. “This lets us know we are on the right track.”
Cardinals coach Bruce Arians pulled starting quarterback Carson Palmer at halftime of this rout. Palmer completed just 12 of 25 passes for 129 yards, a touchdown and an interception.
He also got an earful from Seahawks All-Pro cornerback Richard Sherman following one play in the third quarter. Sherman yapped at the quarterback about Cardinals receiver John Brown saying in August on Phoenix radio he didn’t think Sherman could cover him one on one. Brown had four catches on 11 targets, for 14, inconsequential yards Sunday. Sherman leaped and knocked away Palmer’s deep, third-down pass to Brown in the first quarter, the only time this game was in doubt.
When he saw Brown on the sidelines in the third quarter, Sherman yelled at Palmer — then squatted in a demonstration to looked a lot like Baldwin’s toilet-squat celebration in the end zone a few yards behind Palmer during February’s Super Bowl.
Sherman said, no, his act was to demonstrate to Palmer that Brown was sitting on the bench, as a non-factor. Officials didn’t appreciate the nuance and flagged Sherman for an unsportsmanlike penalty.
“That Brown kid said I couldn’t guard him 1 on 1. Laughable,” Sherman said.
Yes, Seattle’s swagger is intact for the postseason.
Food for thought for possible NFC-playoffs rematch against the No. 2-seed Cardinals (13-3), who hadn’t trailed by more than 10 points since the day after Halloween until Seattle showed up as a touchdown underdog Sunday. The Seahawks have outscored Arizona 71-12 in the teams’ last two games in this stadium.
That was the message Carroll wanted to reinforce by keeping Wilson in this runaway until Tarvaris Jackson finally entered with 14:13 to go.
“It’s fun,” linebacker K.J. Wright said. “We just come into another team’s house and make them be quiet.”
Wilson completed 19 of 28 passes for 197 yards. The last of his three touchdown passes was the best, to Jermaine Kearse. Wilson exquisitely placed the ball on the covered wide receiver’s hands in stride at the side boundary of the end zone late in the second quarter to make it 30-6.
Wilson also threw for TDs in the flat to tight end Chase Coffman, who’d been signed then cut earlier this season and was playing in his first Seahawks game, and to fullback Will Tukuafu. It was each receiver’s second career touchdowns.
Coffman’s score came one play after Lockett continued to show why Seattle traded up 27 picks with Washington to get to the top of the third round of May’s draft to get him. The rookie from Kansas State took a punt at the Seahawks 18, made one move left to juke a ruined Cardinal, then zapped the rest of Arizona’s punt team on a 66-yard sprint to the 8-yard line.
Sherman thought he’d been called for a block-in-the-back foul when he saw the foul at the start of the return, and he was hopping mad to the official who threw it. But it was for Arizona’s Brittan Golden grabbing Sherman’s face mask. Sherman walked off the field almost sheepishlessly, as if he’d gotten away with something.
Lockett also had a 31-yard punt return later in the half. His 139 yards on punt returns was 33 more than Charlie Rogers had Sept. 26, 1999, at Pittsburgh to set Seattle’s previous record for a game.
And Lockett should have had 22 more yards. He had a return negated by a foul on Sherman.
The 7-yard catch and rumbling run across the goal line that made it 17-6 midway through the second quarter was Tukuafu’s second career catch in his 52nd career regular-season and postseason game.
Lockett also captured the Seattle record for most all-purpose yards for a rookie (1,913) — also by halftime.
“He should be rookie of the year,” Wilson said. “Anytime he has the ball in his hands he can score. That’s exciting.”
So, for the Seahawks, is what this weekend in the desert did to restore their playoff readiness.
“We’re finding our rhythm,” Sherman said. “We’re playing exactly the way we want to.”
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