I’ll be honest, at halftime with the Seattle Seahawks playing to a 6-6 tie with the Atlanta Falcons, I was becoming a little concerned with Seattle’s offense. At that point, their production in the last seven quarters had been one Zach Charbonnet touchdown and a whole mess of field goals. Seattle’s defense produced just as many touchdowns in that span thanks to Ernest Jones IV’s pick six against the Minnesota Vikings. In addition to the lack of scoring, there were so many drives that looked disjointed. Ill-timed penalties and plays getting stopped for a loss were far too commonplace. Look no further than the first drive of the game, where they lost yardage on all three plays and had to punt backed up against their own end zone. Things were looking pretty bleak at halftime as the doubts were starting to pile up.
Then Rashid Shaheed made his presence felt.
That huge kick return breathed life back into the Seahawks. Their defense, already playing like a group of wild banshees, kicked it up another notch and exerted even more pressure which led to more turnovers. Using these extra possessions, Seattle’s offense finally broke out of its slump scoring 24 points after the Shaheed touchdown to clip the Falcons’ wings en route to a 37-9 shellacking. It was an extremely satisfying second half that showed the immense potential of Mike Macdonald’s squad.
Seattle held serve in the division, with the Los Angeles Rams hammering the Arizona Cardinals 45-17. As long as the Seahawks keep winning, they’re in control. With the way the defense is playing, Seattle can win with a middling offense. When they play to their standard as well, like what happened in the second half against the Falcons, that’s when things get REAL fun!