Seahawks’ streak fuelling push to playoffs

RENTON, Washington — After four straight weeks of playing tight, one-score games decided in the fourth quarter, Pete Carroll enjoyed spending a Monday reviewing a rare comfortable victory.

“It was a little different than the games we’ve been playing in,” Carroll said. “It was nice to see us get out ahead and hang onto it and work with the lead and play in that fashion.”

Seattle’s blowout win over San Francisco on Sunday only strengthened what is becoming another late playoff push by the Seahawks, and after a day in which they got results that helped in trying to get back to the playoffs after missing last season. Seattle is currently in command of one of the wild-card spots in the NFC and its hopes were strengthened by Carolina and Minnesota suffering losses. Seattle holds the tiebreaker over Carolina and can have that in place over Minnesota with a win at home next Monday night against the Vikings.

The only teams Seattle (7-5) could end up in wild-card contention with that it won’t face head-to-head are Washington and Philadelphia. But if the Seahawks continue winning, it won’t matter. They’ll be in the post-season.

“These are must-win games for us. Every week, we approach it like that,” Seattle left tackle Duane Brown said after the win. “We approach every week like a playoff game and that’s the kind of intensity guys came out with from kickoff on.”

Seattle’s current roll is reviving memories of 2015, when it was 4-5 after nine games. But this time, success is coming a different way. That season, the Seahawks leaned on the passing arm of quarterback Russell Wilson as he threw for 24 touchdowns and just one interception over the final seven games as Seattle went 6-1 down the stretch and made the post-season. Wilson averaged 272 yards passing and 31 pass attempts per game during that stretch.

So far, it’s been balance and efficiency that’s defined Seattle’s offensive performance during its current three-game win streak, although his overall numbers aren’t that dissimilar. Wilson has eight touchdown passes and no interceptions during the stretch, averaging about 250 yards passing. But there’s been no fall-off with Seattle’s run game of late, meaning Wilson isn’t being forced to carry the offence.

In Sunday’s 43-16 win over San Francisco, Wilson attempted just six passes in the first half. He threw for touchdowns on three of them.