Seahawks pin hopes on Wilson
Russell Wilson has never carried this much of the load for the Seattle Seahawks to be successful.
They have been stretches in previous seasons where Wilson is the reason Seattle would have offensive success.
But it’s never lasted for an entire season such as this where Wilson is the primary offensive reason why Seattle has playoff hopes going into today’s regular-season finale against Arizona.
Seattle (9-6) needs a victory and an Atlanta loss to extend its playoff streak to six straight years. The Cardinals (7-8) would like to see the Seahawks joining them in cleaning out their lockers come Monday.
“This season there has been a lot to it and guys have been making a lot of great plays and doing a lot of special things,” Wilson said. “That’s not me, that’s the other guys making plays.”
Wilson’s season is not easy to define. He has been among the best in certain games, yet has forgettable mistakes no quarterback with his experience should make.
He will join the rare fraternity of quarterbacks leading their team in rushing for a season, yet is second in the NFL with 32 touchdown passes, including a league-record 18 in the fourth quarter.
Seattle has scored 36 offensive touchdowns this season — Wilson is responsible for 35 of those running or passing. The Seahawks have just one rushing TD, J.D. McKissic, by someone other than Wilson.
Of Seattle’s total offensive yards this season, Wilson is responsible for 81.6 per cent of those.
That doesn’t mean he has always played well. The past three weeks are a perfect example when Wilson went from being in the MVP conversation to some of his more forgettable performances.
Last week against Dallas, Wilson threw two touchdowns and didn’t commit a turnover, but was hesitant with his throws, finished with just 93 yards passing and Seattle’s offence lagged.
Wilson knows he must be better this week against an opponent that’s caused Seattle issues in the past and has been playing spectacular defence for the past two months.
The Cardinals are allowing just 268 yards per game since Week 10 and are coming off their first shutout in 25 years.
“I think the guys started playing together longer,” Arizona coach Bruce Arians said. “Every year, you bring in some new guys and this time, it took us a little bit longer to get going.”
Arizona’s Larry Fitzgerald has already posted his fifth career 100-catch season. He’s second in the NFL with 101 receptions entering the regular-season finale.
He needs one catch today to have 211 straight games with a reception, tying Tony Gonzalez for the secondlongest streak in league history.
Even at 34 and in his 14th season, Fitzgerald has not slowed down.
“He’s going to go down as a Hall of Famer, but I really can’t say enough about the man because I mean he’s old as dirt and he’s still playing at an extremely high level,” Seattle’s Doug Baldwin joked.
“He’s just a professional.”