As we get further into Mike Macdonald’s tenure as the Seahawks head coach, we are starting to learn his ticks and phrasings. When he describes his ideal vision for this professional football team, he often using the term “shocking effort” when asked about what he wants them to be.

It is not just the traditional defensive minded head coach philosophy of wanting to establish the run, play strong defense, and limit turnovers, shrink the clock, flip field positioning, etc. It’s the spirit and character that he wants his players to embody that fuels it.

What he appears most interested in is fielding a ball club that will shock and awe the opposition each and every Sunday. He wants explosive plays on offense, whether they come through the air, or on the ground, and he wants to see a collective effort on defense that will overwhelm an opposing quarterback. This is what he means when he says he wants a team that plays with shocking effort.

The shocking effort we now see in throughout his defense feels different than the great Legion Of Boom defense. It’s faster on all three levels with more versatility, and the collective of defenders are molding into group of connected badasses who can do seemingly anything asked out of them. Guys who rush can cover, guys who cover can rush, and Macdonald can expose a different opponent’s offensive weakness differently week in and week out on Sundays, it now feels with them.

In terms of the shocking effort we see out of the offense, we see it led by an athletic veteran quarterback who can make everything throw with accuracy, and is unafraid of taking the kill shot with his superstar receiver at any point in the game. He plays with a young offensive line that pass blocks well, and is starting to round out together as a better run blocking unit. They added a piece to the offense at the trade deadline who can kill a defense as a receiver and runner. They have speed at running back, receiver, and tight end, and they have an offensive play caller who treats each down as an opportunity to move the chains for a first down. They, as much as the defense, have the stuff that can shock and awe opponents at any down in the ballgame.

For two Sundays in a row, we have bared witness to Seattle’s shocking effort taking down weaker opponents. They did this in Washington when pundits felt the Commanders would give it a good fight, and they did this yesterday against the Cardinals when there was a narrative that AZ would give it a strong go.

This should be a trend that continues against struggling teams, and gone should be the days of the Seahawks playing down to a weaker opponent. Mike Macdonald won’t stand for that happening. That is what my gut tells me based on what we have been seeing.

The 22-44 final score of the Seahawks dominating the Arizona Cardinals does not do this game much justice. Midway through the second quarter of the game, Seattle got ahead 0-35, and thus forced Arizona coach Jonathan Gannon into a rare decision making process of dictating that his offense needed to go for it on all four downs from there on out.

The result is that Seattle’s defense stayed on the field during this game for what felt like a century of football. In result, Seattle’s offense was twice backed up towards its own end zone after failed fourth down attempts near the goal line, and could not get out of it’s own way with fumbled center snaps between Sam Darnold and backup Olu Oluwatimi, and a tipped pass at the line of scrimmage for an interception in an inexplicable play action pass play that was called.

Some people will look at this game as an uneven one from Darnold, but nuance would show that he was barely had many opportunities in the second half to guide Seattle to more scores. Yet for the day, he was 10/12 in completions, he passed for 178 yards, a touchdown, and that funky assed interception from his own end zone when OC Klint Kubiak decided to dial a play action shot from the pocket against a strong defensive line.

The fumbled center exchange, the INT, and a second half strip sack fumble won’t make Darnold’s MVP hype rise much this week, but on the whole, I thought this was yet another solid day for the veteran passer. He impressively completed 90 percent of his passes, and the truth of the matter is that Seattle’s offense gashed a strong AZ defense on the ground for 200 yards, and he didn’t need to throw much in this one for Seattle to score points.

For as much as Seattle’s defense was yet again dominating, it was their offensive ground attack that most raised my eyebrows in a positive way on Sunday. I have been hearing all the past week that Seattle sucks at running the football.

In fact, Mina Kimes went on one of her podcasts and stated that if she were the Cardinals defensive coordinator, she would drop both safeties back in coverage and dare Seattle to run against a lighter box because they suck so much at running it. Well, I guess now maybe Kimes wants to revaluate that strategy, and assertion about Seattle’s running attack.

On Sunday, against a vaunted AZ defense that held a high scoring Dallas Cowboy offense to 17 points on Monday Night Football, Seattle’s offense ran wild, and scored 30 points. In fact, as the game wore on, it was Seattle’s offensive line and running backs took the game over as Darnold and Jaxon Smith Njigba took a backseat. That effort on the ground paired with a strong defense is most definitely a winning recipe moving forward.

I wrote about this as soon as the Seahawks made the trade for Rashid Shaheed. Shaheed’s presence in Seattle’s offense is likely going to open up their run game. Defensive coordinators will be apprehensive to load up the box to stop Seattle’s ground game when they know Seattle now has two receivers who can take the top off of a defense that isn’t playing coverage. If you play Seattle’s heavy offensive sets with two deep safeties, as Mina Kimes proposed, the ground game will then probably open up.

Arizona chose to play two deep safety looks in this game, they dared Seattle to run (as Kimes proposed), and when Mike Macdonald probably ordered Kubiak to not muck around anymore passing it in the second half, Zach Charbonnet, Ken Walker, and George Holani went off as runners. Shaheed, himself, saw action at running back once, and also ran on a jet sweep. He had two carries for 20 yards.

In one game, Seattle showed the league multiple ways that they can hit you with the run. How fun.

I believe what we saw out of Seattle’s run game yesterday is just the beginning of things we will most likely see from their offense during these final eight games. Seattle has always been committed to running the ball this year, but now I think we will see significantly more production on the ground catching up to that dedication of running it.

If defensive coordinators decide to load the box in order to stop the run, and dare Darnold to throw, he now has Shaheed with JSN to kill defenses deep with. So the question moving forward is what does a defensive play caller choose to try to limit and take away, and what do they choose to potentially be beaten with in result. This is why the Shaheed trade mattered for Seattle.

The Sam Darnold Jaxon Smith Njigba Connection has been a fun storyline to the Seahawks this year, but I think we start seeing the run game now catch up to it. This is one of my predictions for this team moving forward this year.

If defenses load the box against Seattle, they have too much fire power to torch them for it. I would rather play two high coverage against this offense, and hope my linebackers and defensive linemen do their jobs stopping Ken Walker, and company than watch Sam Darnold throw easy layup touchdowns to Tory Horton against me. I would rather choose death by a thousand paper cuts with the run game than instant evisceration with the deep ball.

My other prediction is that Seattle’s defense going to continue becoming the talk of the entire league. They have been playing without pro bowl safety Julian Love for weeks, and their secondary feels formidable. They played without their best linebacker in Ernest Jones yesterday, and Drake Thomas and Tyrice Knight played like pro bowlers in his place. The defensive line was without stud defensive tackle Jarran Reed, yet you couldn’t notice much of a difference. The Seattle Seahawks are showing the prowess of their defensive depth chart, and it is a glorious sight to behold.

Tyrice Knight, in particular, in place of Ernest Jones, might be my player of the entire game. He created not one, but two sack fumbles on Jacoby Brissett that were scoop and score touchdowns for edge rusher DeMarcus Lawerence. Okay, let us process that for a moment.

DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW RARE AND INSANE THAT IS?!

In all my years of watching football, of playing Madden while my family sleeps, I have never, ever, seen such a thing occur.

This. Just. Does. Not. Happen.

Yet it was beyond a thing of glory that it did in this game.

By the time that second sack fumble by Knight turned scoop and score by Lawrence happened in the first half, this game was over. There was no way AZ was coming back, yet Gannon kept insisting that Brissett keep throwing on fourth down. What else could he do as a coach?

It was valiant effort from Brissett that he held in strong against Seattle’s dominating pass rush, but my God, man, this poor soul of a journeyman was sacked five times, and he completed only fifty percent of his passes. With every missed pass or deflected pass, the clock of this game that was long over with before halftime painfully stopped. My goodness was that ever annoying to watch, but I get why Gannon would continue going for it on fourth downs.

Brissett was too savvy and strong in the pocket to look like the confused and wounded animals that CJ Stroud and Jayden Daniels were against this defense in recent weeks, but he also showed us why he’s always been a journeyman player. He doesn’t move that well, and hangs onto the ball too long. Because of that, we got a second half of football out of his that showed toughness and unflinching grit, but also saw his limitations.

If the Cardinals ever do find a quality franchise quarterback to replace Kyler Murray, they will be a very dangerous team with all the talent they have been drafting in recent years. The gritty tough guy play of Brissett showed us that, and I suspect they will be a team giving other teams fits as they battle forward this season. I will root for them when they play San Francisco next weekend, and I do not think that game with be a gimme for the 49ers.

But for them against the Seahawks this Sunday, it was just not a thing to be. Seattle is legitimately riding high right now, and this likely won’t be their last beat down victory we see out of them this season.

Game balls go to Knight for being the second coming of Mike Singletary in place of Ernest Jones, Jason Myers for kicking three field goals and breaking a franchise record of field goals made, reserve cornerback Nehemiah Pritchett for one of the best touchdown preventing four down pass breakups I’ve ever seen, Shaheed for providing a sneak peak spark on special teams and on the offense, and all the Seahawk running backs for being badass and awesome.

Special nods to Darnold for being ultra efficient again, Cooper Kupp for making a splashy run after catch play, and JSN for continuing to be JSN, and Leonard Williams for continuing to be Leonard Williams, and Riq Woolen for continuing to turn the corner towards being a special cornerback again.

Extra special nod for safety hybrid player Nick Emmanwori for being my new favorite member of the Seahawk defense. It is an incredibly exciting thought to think that he is just scratching the surface of what he will be for this franchise. Right now, he feels like the team’s biggest cheat code on that side of the ball.

Next week, the 7-2 Seahawks will travel to LA to face the 7-2 Rams. Both teams look and feel like clubs that can make deep playoff runs.

I will not be surprised if Seattle does not win that game, but I will also not be surprised they pull off a win, either. They are playing that good right now, and it is fun to watch, and next week’s game against the Rams should be a really good one. Objectively, as a fan of football, I am looking forward to this matchup.

Go Hawks!