Seahawks rise to the occasion
RENTON, Washington — It’s December, which means it’s time for the Seattle Seahawks to get on a roll.
That’s been the formula for most of Pete Carroll’s tenure with the Seahawks, always building toward the conclusion of the regular season.
And it’s a feeling that was rekindled after Seattle’s convincing 24-10 win over the Philadelphia Eagles. What was deemed to be a challenging beginning to the final month of the season could in turn become a catalyst for yet another final push by the Seahawks that’s become so common.
“I contemplated in my head whether I wanted to say that out loud, whether I wanted to jinx it, but I do. I believe that this is the start of something that we’ve seen in the past,” Seattle wide receiver Doug Baldwin said after the victory.
“Again, like I told Russell [Wilson], whatever this is we need to capture it, we need to hold onto it and continue to push forward to get better because the truth of the matter is we still have so much left in the tank.”
Seattle’s impressive win over the Eagles was a boost the Seahawks needed. They had lost two straight at home. They were on the fringe of the NFC playoff race. The long list of key injuries suffered by the Seahawks had led some observers to no longer consider them legit contenders.
Yet those concerns were muted seeing Wilson put in another memorable performance and Seattle’s defence holding the No. 1 offence in the NFL to just 10 points.
Seattle is 25-10 in December and January regular-season games under Carroll going back to 2010. They are 20-5 in those games with Wilson at quarterback.
“It’s the fourth quarter and we have the opportunity to control everything,” Carroll said on Monday. “That’s all we could hope for. Every game we have is a championship match and we’ve got to play them all the way out and figure that you’ve got to win every one of them the week you play them.
“This was a really good test this week, this was a great test for us at home just because of the level of the play of these guys.”
Wilson has 432 yards rushing, to go along with 3,256 yards passing and 26 TD passes.
“This year? Yeah, I’ll give him this year but I’ve seen better from him in the past. I don’t want to pump him up too much,” Baldwin said of Wilson.
Giants fire coach, GM
EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey — Believing the team was spiralling out of control, the New York Giants went out of character by making two major in-season moves, firing coach Ben McAdoo and general manager Jerry Reese.
With the team reeling at 2-10 in a season where most felt it was capable of challenging for a Super Bowl, co-owners John Mara and Steve Tisch reached the decision Monday morning. It came less than a day after the Giants lost in Oakland, with quarterback Eli Manning benched and the offensively inept team performing poorly again.
Defensive co-ordinator Steve Spagnuolo will take over as interim coach for the final four games.