I will be honest with you. I did not watch any of this game at Met Life Stadium in New Jersey between the Seattle Seahawks and The New York Jets.

It is not because I didn’t want to watch. I really did, especially after their surprising two game win streak against divisional opponents Arizona and San Francisco.

Three weeks ago, this team felt on the ropes and heading towards the dumpster. Now, they are in first place in the NFC West and they control their own path towards winning a very tight division. Each game moving forward should be a must watch, and it pained me not to see this one.

But I had greater things going on.

I did not watch this game because I was duty bound to drive my family safely home from beautiful scenic Kamloops, British Columbia back down to Seattle, Washington, and the best time to head across the mountain highways was right around kickoff. So, I made a call, and it was the right call. I love the Seattle Seahawks but I love my Canadian Family, and my immediate family more, and I knew that by stretching out our stay up there, I was probably not even going to catch this thing on the radio driving through potential high mountain slush and low visibility conditions.

But I tried. I really did try to listen to this batshit crazy game on the radio, but I just could not decipher most of it under the loud static noise that was driving my wife towards very outward frustration, if not total insanity. She wanted to talk about bathroom fans and jujitsu classes for our son, and I just wanted to decipher if what Steve Rable was yelling about under the demonic static was a good thing or bad thing for Seattle.

As, we inched closer to Hope BC, I heard something about JSN catching a sweet 28 yard pass from Geno Smith in the third quarter that got Seattle down towards the red zone, or so I thought. Then sometime later, as we started driving through Hope, the static cleared enough that I caught Zach Charbonnet rambling in for a touchdown that put the Seahawks on top. I did fist pumps of joy, but I had not known any of the chaos that transpired up to that point.

Then a few minutes after that, we finally got finally good radio reception heading towards the Sumas Border, and I was able to hear all the dreaded passing Aaron Rodgers was able to do against the Seahawk defense that sure as shit made me wonder if I even wanted to listen any further, and then it happened. Leonard Big Cat Williams brought Rodgers down with an F You Aaron Rodgers sack, a few moments later, Rodgers missed a guy in the end zone on fourth down, and the game was over.

I missed Big Cat’s stunning history making pick six, his other sack, and all his other splash plays that kept Seattle in this one, but I heard it all talked about post game. All I got to say moving forward is to let Big Cat cook.

Leonard Big Cat Williams, in back to back weeks, has indeed cooked the Seattle Seahawks to victories, and he has been doing it in a multitude of ways as a defensive tackle collapsing pockets, a stand up end overpowering left tackles, and as a Nose Tackle who can drop into coverage to snag an interception for a record breaking 92 yard pick six return for an NFL defensive lineman. In this two game stretch, Big Cat feels like Mike Macdonald’s cheat code to gutting out stellar defensive ball, and victories.

If Leonard Williams does not receive Defensive Player Of The Week honors this Wednesday, then there is simply no justice left in this world, and we should just all walk into the Pacific Ocean to never to return to land again. Demons and Elon Musk cyborgs would control everything, mayonnaise would be our primary government controlled nutrient supplement, and all social media algorithms would involve muscle bound AI images of Kermit the Frog. It is imperative that Big Cat wins this honor this week.

Let Big Cat cook, indeed.

Yeah, I think Mike Macdonald is feeling exactly that, and is going to keep letting this big fella loose through these final five games. I sense that Macdonald knows the unicorn player he has on the defensive line. Like what he had in Baltimore last year with Justin Madubuike, I sense Macdonald finding ways within his versatile multi front scheme to make this Big Cat purr loudly atop of terrified NFL quarterbacks.

He isn’t the only one on defense primed to feast through this final stretch of the season. Linebacker Ernest Jones is enjoying newfound success since being traded to Seattle. Safety Coby Bryant is coming on, and the other safety Julian Love playing like the second best defender behind the Big Cat. There are others who, each week, you can sense coming on. I don’t need to list them because you can sense them.

As it stands right now, however bonkers this game was in New Jersey, Seattle is 7-5, and is holding onto first place in a tight division. After a rough patch of games in October and early November, things have suddenly gotten fun, and it will only be more intriguing in a tightly contested division where the bottom of the division team in San Francisco is only two games below first place.

If Seattle can find another win against Arizona next Sunday, and if they can get a win in Los Angeles against the Rams at the end of the season, those to wins alone might be enough to become division champs in Mike Macdonald’s first year coaching this team. Bitter rival San Francisco can ironically help out by battling hard against the Cardinals and Rams as they seek to salvage their season in these last remaining games.

I think that it would be really awesome if Seattle won this division this year despite the clear need to shore up their offensive line next offseason, and to build upon their overall depth. If they can steal a home win against Green Bay or Minnesota, and take care of business in Chicago against a struggling Bears team, that could be enough to put them into the double digit win column this year, too. That would be really sweet considering how rough things felt in October.

Personally, at this point, I care less about draft position next Spring, and I care more about Macdonald building a winning culture with this team he has inherited from Pete Carroll. In short, I think the best way to properly build a team up is to coach up young talent now over relying on highly drafted college players being franchise saviors. If Seattle guts out a division title, and is one and done in the playoffs, I could care less. It is more import for me to see young players finding ways to win together, and improve as players together.

I make no pretenses that Seattle is any sort of powerhouse club this year. I wouldn’t even place a bet for them to win this division even though they hold a lead.

In this game, their special teams were all but pissing away any sort of potential road win. I also don’t think Ryan Grubb calling a bunch of pass plays at the goal line, abandoning any sort of attempt to punch it in on the ground, ending the fourth quarter drive with Geno taking a fourth down sack is a great winning formula on the road, either. Most teams playing like this lose these sort of games, even against bad teams.

But Seattle still stayed resolved enough to find a win mostly thanks to Big Cat and a few other key vets. Objectively speaking, that is pretty interesting, is it not?

I find it interesting in terms of the personality that this team feels to be forming in this second halve of the season. They have an interesting mix of young talented players finding reasons to believe in themselves, and they are led by a few savvy veterans like Geno Smith and Big Cat Williams who are smart enough and talented enough to find ways to win ball games.

I am not saying that they will be a dangerous team in January. I am just saying that if they find ways to continue to stack wins while maybe not playing wholly ideal football, win perhaps three out of these last five games (or more), they might be sneaky dangerous to contend with come playoffs, if they do get in.

I am genuinely very interested in seeing what comes out of these final five games. I am neither getting my hopes up too high, nor am I bracing for disappointment. I am just interested to see what comes out of this last month of ball.

I have a broader outlook for this club now with these new coaches, schemes, whatnots. I see the blemishes, can sense the roster needs, but holy smokes am I ever excited about the trends on defense. I am also jazzed up about the fact that there seems to be enough gritty fight on both sides of the ball for me to think that maybe we aren’t too far off from seeing something special being built up here again right around the corner.

So, I am just really pretty damn excited about all of that. There is good stuff emerging with this team. They can now hang their hat on being a scrappy defensive team, and that is something.

I am no longer looking at this team from the prism of a fan of Pete Carroll, desperately hoping during the past couple years this organization back on track after trading away Russell Wilson, and feeling the anxiety of watching defensive collapses. I am now looking at this team from the lens of a fan of Seattle Seahawks who increasingly believes that John Schneider made the right call on hiring Mike Macdonald.

One thing that I enjoyed after this game was finally catching Macdonald’s press conference and seeing the rawness of a new coach who knew his overall squad had not played ideal ball, but still gutted out a win. He looked like a dude who just watched his eight year old kid walk across the street while some crazed douche bag in a Honda Civic floored it a block away and narrowly missed the child as he was trying to make an amber light. It was a look of both abject horror and elation.

He addressed the wild nature of this game with all the special team screw ups right away. It is safe to assume that he fully intends to have these issues cleaned up before kickoff happens in the desert lands of Arizona next Sunday.

I like how Mike quickly addresses the issues on everyone’s mind in these pressers. I see this as important in his coaching style that he is outward about all the warts.

Not to be constantly comparing him to Carroll, but it is hard for me not to notice the differences in their personalities and style. Too often, I would sense from Carroll a need to push back on close victories, saying that he didn’t mind winning close down to the wire games. I think he did that to maintain positive confidence in his locker room, but sometimes, I just wanted him to say “wow, that was fucking crazy but I am really glad we got this W anyways.” With Macdonald, I get the sense that he is more annoyed with screw ups, and will be more outward in saying that they gotta clean up a bunch of stuff, but that it is good to get a win regardless.

Outside of these overall thoughts, I can’t remark on many things about this game because I did not catch most of it, but I will say that it was cool seeing in the highlights rookie tight AJ Barner making another nice touchdown play for himself. It was even more enjoyable seeing rookie guard Sataoa Laumea (who was making his first start) springing Zach Charbonnet on a block that created the touchdown run that got the team its go ahead points to pull out the come from behind win.

For as much crap as John Schneider has been getting from fans a month ago (me included), it is vindicating and encouraging to see rookies from this draft class contributing down this stretch of games. If Laumea can grow enough to settle down the right guard position in December, that could be critically huge for this team in the future. If Barner proves a quality tight end, and Tyrice Knight continues trending towards being a plus starting linebacker, and Byron Murphy continues to make splashes as a defensive tackle, this will have been another really solid draft for Schneider. I am rooting for all of this to happen.

As much as I am currently living to see Big Cat play, Julian Love, Ernest Jones, JSN, and DK, and others, seeing rookies contribute positively is the most exciting thing for me about this club right now. Again, my gaze upon this team is much further out than these five remaining games, and it is critically important that we see rookies stepping in and playing well, if not perfectly well, and I think we are getting enough of it now.

Hopefully the injuries to Michael Dickson and DK Metcalf are not serious. Hopefully this team continues to stack wins, and find more gritty ways to win together.

There is not a game in this final stretch run that is a gimme, not even that game in Chicago against the struggling Bears. If Seattle proved anything yesterday, they showed us that even against a bad team, we can expect it to be a tough out, especially if one phase of their team doesn’t show up ready to compete. None of us should feel absolute certain they can hold this lead in this division after this one. Yet, at the same time, I think it is okay to dream a bit more about playoff football for them this year.

In a way, I find that liberating as a fan. Sometimes you just want to see a loved one jump on a board, paddle out beyond the reef, and get up onto it surfing back to shore before a twenty foot great white takes off their leg. I know this sounds dark, but football is not for the queazy.

But I am just happy to continue to take whatever this wild and wacky season brings. Football is fun, and Seattle is finding fun ways to win lately.

They aren’t perfect. They aren’t a powerhouse. This offense still does things that make me want to throw sand into my eyes so that I don’t see all the drop back passing that Ryan Grubb continues to be obsessed about.

But I like their resolve.

I dig it.

I can live with it while feeling like Mike Macdonald does not want to live this way as the coach of the Seattle Seahawks, and they will continue growing towards being the complete team that he envisions. Right now, I am just enjoying their fight led by Big Cat and others. It’s fun.

Lastly, let me leave you with this fun fact of joy I saw after the game on the internet. Observe this bit of history made yesterday, and enjoy it.

Suck it, Aaron Rodgers.

Go Hawks!