Today is a very good day to be a Seattle sports fan. The Seattle Mariners have swept the Angels to gain full leadership of the AL West, and the Seattle Seahawks traveled to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and pounded the dreaded Steelers significantly enough to show football pundits that perhaps their offense isn’t as anemic as the narrative was built up to be after a tough home loss to San Francisco last weekend.

A few days ago, I wrote a piece about Ken Walker and Riq Woolen that was possibly the single most critical article I have ever taken to write about individual players on this blog. While my intention wasn’t to make it a total hit job, I wanted to illustrate a number of reasons why I felt perhaps they weren’t working out in the new schemes Seattle has adopted under Mike Macdonald. I questioned K9’s ability to fit inside a primarily zone blocking scheme, and I questioned whether Woolen had the discipline needed to operate consistently in Macdonald’s complex defense.

Towards the final moments of the game yesterday against the Pittsburgh Steelers, I joked with friends that K9 must had read my blog. Of course, he did not, but I am sure he heard the criticism that was all over radio waves last week, on podcasts, and written by much bigger fish out there than what this little blog is.

Walker had himself a critically important game on Sunday in Pittsburgh. He played with purpose, and with such a decisiveness that I cannot even recall the last time I saw this out of him. Maybe his rookie year?

He didn’t dance behind blockers waiting for a big whole to open up so he could run to daylight. He didn’t look hesitant or unsure. He hit creases, violently, and for most of the day, carried Seattle’s offense on his back. A total reversal of what he showed last week against San Francisco, and in many stretches last year.

This is the type of running Seattle needs to fully see their offense open up. This is an offensive scheme that is entirely built on the run, and K9 has the type of talent at running back that he could be one of the brightest ones in this league, if he plays pissed off for greatness on a regular basis. When you have a back doing that, it opens everything on the offense up for a reliable veteran quarterback such as Sam Darnold.

Football is not a game for the hesitant. It is a sport dependent on the willingness to stare violent intentions in the face, and throw it back on the opponent. It is a blood sport with helmets and shoulder pads, and with strategy that resembles conventional warfare.

It is a game that scares soccer moms, and speaks to the inner barbarianism inside us that compels us to take muay thai classes. It is the yin to our yang.

If Ken Walker has now understood that his mission to a big free agent pay day is to trust his offensive line enough to play decisive with bad intentions on second level tacklers with regularity, he will undoubtedly seize the RB1 role in this offense over Zach Charbonnet. If both guys can bring it like this, then I think we could be looking at something special brewing in Seattle this year.

When linebackers and DBs are thinking about K9, it gives Cooper Kupp catch and run opportunities as was on display through much of the game. It also opens up tight ends, and it allows JSN to get downfield on one on one situations for deep shots such as the one that Darnold brilliantly hit him with late in the game to set up K9’s backbreaking outside toss run to the end zone that stunned Steeler Nation.

All of this happened on Sunday, in a tough road environment for Sam Darnold, who, save for a couple bad interceptions, had himself a quality day guiding the Seattle offense. It was important for him to have this type of outing, as well.

Darnold was, without a doubt, the better quarterback in Pittsburgh yesterday. He looked more poised than Aaron Rodgers did, and as the game wore on, he looked like the passer who would prove better down the stretch. He was decisive, gritty when he needed to be, and I think this is a quality game for him to further build chemistry with Kupp, and company.

As mentioned in a piece I wrote after the loss last week, this offense will likely take time to find itself this season, and in that, it will take a number of games for Darnold to find his chemistry with his receivers. In this game, he looked like he was taking encouraging steps forward with that. Now let’s build off of it, and get those two INTs out of our game.

Rodgers, however, to my eyes, from the get go, appeared old and flustered, and typically salty enough for Steeler fans to now be a bit concerned. This was from the opening series that the Steelers had the ball and he led them to a field goal score, as well.

He doesn’t move like he used to, his efforts to get outside the pocket feel more labored, and it felt like he knew he was going to be in for it all game long against Seattle’s dominating defensive tackles and quick edge rushers. He was, and by the end of the game, he looked like he wanted to retreat into a hippie yurt somewhere in central Oregon to meditate about his next appearance on the Joe Rogan Podcast.

Seattle didn’t blitz him much probably because they were without their do everything corner Devon Witherspoon, but they really didn’t need to blitz him, either. Their front four rushers did enough. You know you have something when you can dependably rush four to affect the passer. We will touch more on that in just a minute, so hold this thought in your mind a bit.

As for Riq Woolen, I thought he had himself a good bounce back game, as well. Like K9, he needed this to be a quality outing.

On the whole, I thought all the defensive backs shined in coverage, and it appears that perhaps Seattle’s depth at cornerback is better than folks were anticipating with Spoon being out. This, in my mind, might be one of the more sneakier encouragements to come out of this game.

Josh Jobe continues to be one of the best kept secrets in the league at cornerback, and Shaq Griffin held in admirably, as well, as did newcomer Derion Kendrick (who was a late addition waiver claim from the Rams). Kendrick, in particular, seems to have picked the complexities of the Macdonald defense up fast, and if this is so, he gives Seattle a depth at corner to where Seattle see an opportunity for decent mid season trade, potentially.

Could the Raiders come sniffing around Riq Woolen with Jakobi Meyers on the table who has requested a trade out of Sin City? Would Miami come calling about Riq offering Jaylen Waddle in exchange?

Even though Cooper Kupp had himself a quality bounce back game in Pittsburgh, demonstrating his intended role in this offense, do we trust him to hold up for an entire season, or does Seattle look for opportunities to add a veteran receiver from another team who fits what Seattle wants to do, offensively?

I think these are interesting questions to keep in mind as we get further into games and it is better revealed to us what these Seattle Seahawks are this year. Right now, even though I loved what Kupp did in this game, what JSN continues to do, and what rookie Tory Horton showed, I still wonder if this offense is one receiver away from really getting to where I think Kubiak and Macdonald want it to go this year.

I know this is just two games into the season, and we still don’t totally know what we have in the Seahawks right now, but here is the Big Positive Thought that I have brewing.

I believe the Mike Macdonald defense is getting pretty legitimate in Seattle, right now, this season. Not legitimate in the “yeah, pretty good” sorta way, but in the legitimate “holy shit, I do not want to see my quarterback play against that” sorta way.

Last week against the 49ers, Brock Purdy was hurried and flustered much like Aaron Rodgers just was. Had Woolen not made a couple critical mistakes in coverage late in the fourth quarter, I think Seattle would have walked away with a win despite their offense not doing much. In fact, part of the problem against the 49ers was that Klint Kubiak kept a pretty safe dialed back approach to the offense with Darnold, and it wasn’t until points were needed late, that we really saw the passing opening up more downfield with Darnold delivering.

Sam Darnold, even with the Jets, has always been a good downfield passer, and this week, on the road in a very tough environment in Pittsburgh, Kubiak opened up the offense more, and allowed Darnold to push it downfield against a pretty good Steelers defense. It wasn’t perfect with that one bad INT intended for Cooper Kupp, in particular, but got multiple players involved, and it made the offense more of a scoring threat, and generally, Sam delivered.

There will be a host of games on this schedule where Seattle will not be playing defenses that are nearly as good as they have played in back to back weeks, and there will be offenses who won’t be as good, either. As Kubiak’s offense starts to settle in more, I think there are likely going to be games this season where Seattle could look pretty dominant as a young football team, barring significant injuries.

Will that be enough to win the division?

Maybe, the season is long, and I think there are still question marks as to how healthy Matt Stafford can stay with the Rams, how healthy the 49ers can be, and how real the Cardinals are.

I do not want to get ahead of my skis with the Seahawks right now, but I will say that I feel much better about them winning ball games when I know that they have a defense that can consistently pressure the quarterback by playing a two shell defense, and also stop the run with those backend looks. Seattle has a lot more talent up front than I think they are being recognized as having, and their backend looks like they are being coached at a very high level.

Coaching matters in the NFL, and it matters more than any other team sport, in my view. I think Mike Macdonald is a really, really good football coach, and people are eventually going to start seeing that more and more the further we get into games this year.

In this game, in Pittsburgh, Aaron Rodgers saw it. You could tell, from the get go, that he could see it, and he wasn’t feeling easy about it, either.

And DK Metcalf couldn’t do jack shit it with it, as well. He was largely shut down, and from a fan perspective, for a guy who wanted out of Seattle for supposed greener pastures, that was quite a delightful watch. Have fun being expensive and mid in Pittsburgh where fans won’t likely be as forgiving as they are out here.

I had a feeling heading into this game that Seattle would play Pittsburgh pretty tough, and maybe sneak out a quality win on the road. I didn’t necessarily see this level of ass kicking, though.

I dig it, and while I am sure some will say that this final 31-17 score on the road is deceiving with that botched kickoff return by the Steelers that gave Seattle seven extra points, Seattle’s offense still managed to score 24 points in this one, and might have managed more if not for a missed field goal and a dump fourth and one play in the red zone that led to Darnold’s second INT. Things to clean up, for sure, but damn..

Gimme more K9, and for the love of everything good in the world, please keep Robbie Ouzts on the field in front of him. We can do good things with that, I think.

Go Hawks.