The shadow of Sunday's win
Seattle's comeback changed the way we'll talk about the game against Cleveland, but it doesn't erase the way the Seahawks played for the first 55 minutes.
Jamal Adams really used his head late in Seattle’s victory, Geno Smith showed the ability to resuscitate his flat-lined offense for a game-winning drive and the rookie receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba – subject of so much enthusiasm back in August – is quietly emerging as a significant threat for a Seattle team that finds itself in first place in the NFC West.
Had the final 5 minutes of Sunday’s game gone differently, however, and the Seahawks failed to get the ball back or had they been forced to settle for a field goal and lost in overtime, the assessment of Seattle’s performance would have been much different.
The defense that was supposed to be so improved couldn’t stop the run against a team starting its backup quarterback, Smith’s tendency to turn the ball over is fast becoming a fatal flaw for the offense that was supposed to be the strength of the team and whatever home-field advantage Seattle once had seems to have almost completely evaporated.
It has always struck me as odd the degree to which the result of a game dictates how we describe what happened in it. After all, the final 5 minutes of Sunday’s game – in which the Seahawks first forced a turnover and then scored a touchdown – do not change what occurred in the preceding 55 minutes. Those 5 minutes do, however, change almost completely the meaning that we draw from those preceding 55 minutes.