SEATTLE — Life in the NFL is moving on quickly.

So even if Seattle is buzzing in the middle of a four-game win streak and back-to-back wins by 20+ points, Mike Macdonald and his staff are preparing for a huge game next weekend.

A matchup with the Rams, also 7-2 on the season, for first place in the NFC West.

Before getting into the Rams matchup later this week, Macdonald had updates on his team following the 44-22 win over Arizona Sunday.

Injury Updates:

The Seahawks lost starting center Jalen Sundell to a knee injury during the game, and will be without him for what sounds like several games.

“It’s going to be multiple weeks, and I’d say IR (injured reserve) is under consideration with it. Not season-ending as of (Monday). He’s tough as crap, we’ll see how it goes, but hopefully, we’ll get him back.”

An injured reserve designation would mean at least a four-week absence. Macdonald praised Sundell’s backup, Olu Oluwatimi, and expressed confidence in Olu’s ability to shoulder the burden while also getting other players like Christian Haynes and Bryce Cabeldue up to speed if needed.

“Really excited for Olu (Oluwatimi), talking about staying ready, and then when this opportunity presented itself, he played some really good football for us, and he was really a catalyst behind a lot of those runs.”

Will the Seahawks get any stars back for the Rams game? Maybe. Regarding Ernest Jones IV and Tory Horton making it back, Macdonald said, “It’s too early to know. We’re probably going to stick to a similar schedule as we did last week. We’ve got to play it day by day with those guys, but I’d say all three are hoping to play.”

Woolen, Emmanwori, and Pritchett stand out in secondary

One of the more remarkable things about the way the Seahawks have been playing is how they’ve done it while battling injuries to major contributors. We mentioned the injuries to Jones IV, Sundell, and Horton. But remember, the Seahawks were also missing Julian Love and Josh Jobe in the secondary.

Yet, they still were dominant. The defense scored twice and the secondary broke up several passes that could have meant a different type of game.

Macdonald was asked about Riq Woolen, Nick Emmanwori, and Nehemiah Pritchett stepping up with big plays Sunday.

On Woolen:

“Just like we said going into the game, he has stacked for about a month now. He’s stacked a lot of great practices, all the preparation, and all the steps. When you watch our practice, he’s been incredibly productive in practice, making plays on the ball, and you’re seeing that on tape. The way he finished plays in the past game yesterday was great.”

When Macdonald was asked what Riq has done to turn things on over that last month or so, he said, “It’s a process, brother. It’s just the incremental gains every day. (He’s) just been going to do the reps with the attention to detail, the preparation, the extra ball drills, and all those things that make the ball come to life on Sunday.”

On Emmanwori:

“Had a great game. We’re moving him from two different spots right now, and thinking about maybe another spot. There’s attention to detail on those things. It’s easy to call a lot of the things that we’re putting him into because you have a lot of confidence in him being able to execute those things, and there’s room for improvement. I haven’t talked to him since we watched the tape, but it’s interesting to hear what he thinks about a couple of those plays where I think he can play a little bit better. To me right now, it’s a marginal game thing with Nick. How can I just keep chiseling away at my game like with Drake, so I can just be that more decisive, that more anticipatory, play ahead of play is a little bit more, and then his talent will come to life.”

On Pritchett breaking up a potential touchdown for Arizona in the end zone:

“We showed the TV copy to the guys multiple times. The body control and awareness, I’ve never really seen a play like that before. I know I sure as heck can’t do that, I can barely run from here to that door over there. He’s playing with confidence. Nehemiah (Pritchett) played his best game as a Seahawk (on Sunday), and we expect that from him moving forward. It’s on tape now. That play probably ultimately sealed the win for us, because otherwise if they make that touchdown, it’s down to a two-score game with, 20 minutes to go or something. That was a big-time play.”

So, after a dominant win, what’s left to clean up?

The Seahawks look like the hottest team in the NFL, a legit contender.

But the only way they can turn from contender to champion is by constantly improving.

That won’t be a problem under Macdonald. Meticulous and as hard-working as they come. Mike made it perfectly clear what he was working on immediately with his team.

“We had the lull there in the third quarter, which we need to learn from. The ball has been in jeopardy too often, offensively, and that’s something we need to focus on moving forward. And tell you what, the guys responded in really tough situations. We knew this game, it seems like based on the score you’d think that it’s like a whatever in the second half, but that was not the case. Arizona did a great job coming back, fighting, and making it a couple-score game, so we had to close it out there in the fourth, and the guys responded, and did a great job,” Macdonald said.

“This is the second time against Arizona that they’ve gone down the field and scored on us. We’re looking at those things, what we’re calling, how we’re playing it, how we’re rotating our guys. Offensively, your style of play cannot change and that’s not happening, but we just have that understanding and what we call and how we call the game will obviously change when the game starts to wane and you’re going up against the clock. Yesterday, definitely in the third quarter, we weren’t just trying to run the clock out. We were trying to move the ball.”

The Seahawks will look for sole possession of first place in the NFC with a 1:05 p.m. showdown in L.A. against the Rams at SoFi Stadium.