An unexpected plot twist

NFL teams are allowed to improve over the course of a football season. 

In fact, it is encouraged. 

It just hasn’t happened that often in Seattle over the past seven seasons, which might explain why so many people – including me – assumed that what the Seahawks showed us over the first nine games was what we were going to see in the final eight.

Except the defense that was such a liability for the first half of the season has found not just a backbone and a bit of a snarl. The Seahawks sacked Arizona’s Kyler Murray five times on Sunday, held the Cardinals to 49 yards rushing and not only kept Arizona from reaching the end zone but scored a touchdown as safety Coby Bryant returned his third-quarter interception 69 yards for a touchdown.

This comes after a highly competent showing against San Francisco and a Week 9 performance against the Rams that was much better than the scoreline indicated. Yes, the Rams scored 26 points, winning the game in overtime, but Seattle’s defense yielded just one touchdown and 13 points in regulation.

There’s a deeper lesson here because as much as stats have helped us to understand the reasons behind what happened, they’re not nearly as accurate at telling us what will happen and that’s because they don’t account for the possibility of change. Transformation.

I would say this is true beyond sports as well. As certain as we may feel about the direction things are headed, we’re never truly sure how things are going to end. Or perhaps I’m just in a bit of a contemplative mood given the fact that I turned 50 on Monday, and while I’m not going to engage in any long-winded contemplation of landmark birthdays, I do have a couple of things I’d like to say, but only after I get through talking about the Seahawks sudden resurgence.

⚰️ Reports of Seattle’s demise greatly exaggerated ⚰️ 

Turns out that when the Seahawks stumbled into the bye having lost six of seven games, they were only mostly dead.

As Miracle Max explained, there’s a big difference between mostly dead and all dead.

All dead? Well, with all dead there’s not much you can do except rifle through the roster and start thinking about draft picks.

But mostly dead? Mostly dead is slightly alive.

With mostly dead, you can swap out the middle linebackers and channel the disruptive energy of a certain skinny-legged cornerback and not only start registering a pulse, but you might even find yourself atop the division after a pair of stirring victories.

Something has changed with the Seahawks, and while the arrival of Earnest Jones has certainly had an impact, this is about more than just swapping out the middle linebackers. The whole unit is playing better and now Rayshawn Jenkins is back and Uchenna Nwosu may not be far behind, and this season I was ready to write off just three weeks ago is vibrant and full of potential.

It is quite breathtaking actually, and a reminder that while we have gotten better as a society at diagnosing how and why teams lose football games, our post-mortem analysis should not be mistaken for expertise in what will happen next.

Teams can change. Sometimes they transform.

This sort of thing used to occur quite regularly in Seattle during the first half of Pete Carroll’s tenure as the Seahawks coach.

In 2012, were 6-5 as they entered the month of December, having just lost a game in Miami and facing the potential suspension of their two starting quarterbacks. They won their final five games in fairly overwhelming fashion and wound up 30 seconds short of playing in the NFC Championship Game.

In 2014, they were 6-4 and very much in danger of missing the. playoffs before reeling off six straight victories, all by double digits. The Seahawks yielded more than seven points only once in those final six games.

In 2015, Seattle started 2-4 and still made the playoffs in large part because it won six of its final seven games, which is one of several reasons that I think it’s incorrect to say the Seahawks never recovered from the Super Bowl loss to the Patriots. They did recover to make the playoffs the following year

I became accustomed to Seattle gathering a helacious closing kick that I would spend the next few years waiting for it to happen. It didn’t.

Now I’m not saying that I believe the Seahawks are on the brink of leading the league in scoring defense for four straight seasons as they did from 2012 through 2015.

I’m not even saying that Seattle will make the playoffs this season. This team still has issues along the offensive line, it has a hard time running the ball and two straight wins don’t necessarily mean that the Seahawks have figured everything out.

What I am saying is that Seattle’s defense has improved over the past three weeks:

It’s possible that things have changed.

🎂 Fiddy 🎂

Several months ago, my (more) significant other asked me if there was anything I wanted to do for my 50th birthday.

I said I wanted to eat lunch at Nepenthe, which I believe to be a magical restaurant located in a magical place, perched on a cliff overlooking the ocean in Big Sur. It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.

Well, I got that meal at Nepenthe on Monday. I got a lot more, starting with a rainbow we encountered on our drive down.

On Saturday night, my wife arranged a surprise dinner in Santa Cruz with my sister and four of my dearest friends, guys I’ve known since high school. On Wednesday, we’ll be driving to Yosemite where my father’s family has been convening for half a century.

I feel so very fortunate and incredibly grateful for the people I have connected with over the course of my time on this planet. That includes you, and I mean that not in a general, collective sense, but a very specific one. Thank you for reading this and supporting my work.

The people who have known me the longest know that I grew up wanting to be a sports reporter. I have gotten to do that, and the fact that you’re here means you’re helping make it possible for me to expand on that as I reach out and try my hand at some creative nonfiction.

You are one of the connections I’ve made whether it was through my reporting for the newspaper, my work on the radio or because you’re one of the people I have chatted up along the way because I am absolutely the kind of guy who starts conversations with strangers.

I am very grateful your here. You’ve helped make this life I enjoy possible. Thank you.

(Belatedly) … here are links to last week’s podcasts.

🎤 Hear me, Hear me 🎤