The NFL’s best defense has hit its stride and continued to put the rest of the league on notice of such Sunday afternoon on the road.

Led by another stout performance from Earl Thomas and the Legion of Boom, the Seattle Seahawks steamrolled yet another NFC power on Sunday afternoon, grounding the high-flying Eagles 24-14 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. The victory marked Seattle’s third straight and the sixth in their last seven games, which has helped them climb back into playoff position with three games left in the regular season.

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The Hawks picked up their ninth win of the season with an all around outstanding effort, but most impressive once again was the play of the defense. After limiting consecutive opponents to just three points in each of their previous two games, the Hawks permitted two Eagles touchdowns on Sunday, but they were still as dominant as they have been all season.

Seattle limited one of the league’s most prolific offenses, which had been averaging 416.2 total yards on 73 plays per game to just 139 total yards and 45 plays, Philadelphia’s worst showing under second year coach Chip Kelly, and a key factor in the victory. Afterward, Earl, who notched a tackle and a fumble recovery in the win, lauded the effort of the entire defense in shutting down the potent and fast-paced Philly offense.

“I’m not really surprised about anything that this defense is capable of,” he said. “We’re just having the time of our life. We’re just having fun. I think I might be the most uptight guy on the defense, but even I’m kind of dancing out there. My teammates have been so important in my growth and I love everything about this journey this year.”

On Sunday, the Hawks once again got big contributions across the board to rally to their ninth victory of the season.

Seattle started the game with the football and quarterback Russell Wilson, who finished the day 22-of-37 for 263 yards passing and also gained 48 yards on 10 runs, including a 26-yard touchdown scamper, led a substantial drive into Philadelphia territory. However, on 3rd-and-5 from the Eagles 30, Wilson was sacked for a loss of four, pushing the Seahawks to the fringe of field goal range.

Not wanting to take a chance early in the contest, Hawks Coach Pete Carroll elected to trust his defense and punted. That trust paid off as the Seattle defense made short work of Philly’s first drive, which lasted just three plays and gained just six yards.

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However, the Eagles defense forced a three-and-out of their own on the second Seahawks possession and on the subsequent punt attempt, Seattle punter Jon Ryan misplayed the snap and lost the ball. It was recovered by Eagles tight end Zach Ertz, who returned it to the Hawks 14-yard-line.

The Seahawks managed to stiffen at the goal line and put Philadelphia in a 4th-and-1 situation, but Kelly opted to go for it and LeSean McCoy found a hole in Seattle’s swarming defense to pick up two yards and a first down. Two plays later, Eagles quarterback Mark Sanchez hit wide receiver Jeremy Maclin with a swing pass that Maclin took in from a yard out to give Philadelphia a 7-0 lead.

But after two unsuccessful drives to start the game, the Hawks offense answered immediately after falling behind. Wilson led a 10-play, 82-yard drive that carried into the second quarter and on the second play of the second frame, called his own number on 1st-and-10 from the Philadelphia 26 and darted through a large gap in the Eagles defense for a 26-yard scoring run to tie the game.

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For the rest of the half, both defenses stood up to the challenge in an epic battle between NFC title contenders. Philly picked up two quick first downs on their first drive after the Seattle score, but was then shut down and forced to punt. The Hawks offense went three-and-out on their subsequent drive, but the Seattle defense stepped up with a three-and-out of their own on the next Eagles drive.

After the game, Earl credited the team’s preparation for Philadelphia’s fast-paced offense and noted how understanding their roles and trusting their instincts led to success.

“It’s not thinking,” Earl said. “You just have fun. You show your passion. And then you let your eyes and your mind work for you. You don’t really try to second guess everything. You don’t get distracted by the moving pieces, because you understand clearly, what they’re trying to do to you.”

The Seahawks offense took over with 9:27 left in the half and put together a drive of more than six minutes to march into Philadelphia territory, but the Eagles sent a blitz at Wilson on 3rd-and-1 from the Philly 32, forcing the quarterback into a bad decision as he threw the ball away and it fell short of the line of scrimmage, drawing a flag for intentional grounding. That flag took Seattle out of field goal range and forced a punt.

Philadelphia gained possession with 3:09 left in the half at their own 7-yard-line, looking to put points on the board before halftime. But once more, the Seattle defense stepped up. The Eagles picked up just one first down on the drive and had to punt with 1:43 remaining after a Seahawks timeout stopped the clock.

On the ensuing possession, the Seattle offense converted two huge third downs. First, after a sack of Wilson put the Hawks in 3rd-and-13, the quarterback found Doug Baldwin for a 20-yard gain. Then after two incompletions and a delay of game penalty forced Seattle into a 3rd-and-15 with 28 seconds left, Wilson hit Paul Richardson for 20 more yards to the Philly 35. The Seahawks managed to push the ball nine more yards to the 26 and Steven Hauschka connected for a field goal from there to give the Hawks a 10-7 halftime lead.

The momentum of that drive carried into the locker room and after Philadelphia received the second half kickoff, K.J. Wright and ET III combined to come up with a huge play to keep it going in Seattle’s direction.

On the first play from scrimmage in the second half, the Eagles handed off to McCoy, but the All-Pro running back was met in the backfield by Wright, who stripped the ball loose. A pile up ensued, but Earl could see from his position in the defensive backfield that the ball was wedged under Wright on the ground. He flew in and pounced on it to gain possession for Seattle at the Philadelphia 19.

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Two plays later, Hawks running back Marshawn Lynch charged into the end zone from 15 yards out to stake Seattle to a 17-7 lead. Earl said afterward that the play of the Seattle offense motivated him too.

“I wasn’t really worried about [the Eagles defense]. I was so absorbed in our sideline and cheering on our offense. Seeing Marshawn do his thing, Russell scramble and make plays, Doug, Kearse and all the receivers putting in work,” Earl said. “It was just like what we do in practice, we cheer each other on. We are really connected right now, we’re in sync and it seems like when somebody makes a play, everybody makes a play.”

ET III often refers to the way his teammates inspire him and in many cases that inspiration can be tied to Wilson, Lynch, or fellow LOB members cornerback Richard Sherman and safety Kam Chancellor, but No. 29 loves and respects all of his teammates and on the ensuing kickoff, one of the more unlikely tacklers on the Seattle team came up with a huge play that nearly kept the momentum swinging in the Seahawks direction and regardless caught Earl’s attention and made him proud.

On that kickoff, Philadelphia returner Josh Huff made a few men miss and reeled off a 46-yard return. Several Seahawks made swipes at the ball during the return, which Huff bobbled repeatedly, including kicker Steven Hauschka. Hauschka got his hand on the ball and almost forced a fumble, much to the delight of Earl.

Unfortunately, Huff was ruled down by contact on the play and the call stood after Seattle’s challenge with no visual evidence available to reverse it.

The Eagles turned that sequence of events into some momentum of their own and struck quickly to draw closer. The first play of the subsequent Eagles drive got them to midfield and a third down pass interference call on Bobby Wagner gave them a fresh set of downs at the Seattle 38. Two plays later, Sanchez hit Ertz with a pass down the seam and the tight end reached the end zone and scored just before Earl could reach him from over the top.

That play was, however, a learning experience for the Hawks, as No. 29 attested to afterward.

“Of course you can get better, and the thing is, we’re going to get better together. We’re going to grow together,” he said. “We just can’t let those deep passes [happen]. Because we’re going to make it hard on any team we play. We just have to understand when [deep] shot situations come. They did a great job of catching us off guard on that deep pass.”

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Though Philly seemed right back in the game after that touchdown, down by just three, 17-14 with 12:09 remaining in the third quarter, the Seattle defense barely gave them an inch the rest of the way. Not only did the Eagles not score again, but they picked up just 31 yards on offense in the final 27 minutes of the game.

Seattle Head Coach Pete Carroll noted that the play of Philadelphia’s defense made it instrumental that the Hawks make so many plays on the defensive side of the ball. And the coach specifically mentioned Earl’s fumble recovery and the near-fumble on the following kickoff as game-changing plays that allowed the offense to feed off the defense’s energy.

“Our defense came back again for the third week in a row and is just playing the way we hoped they would play, and they really set the stage for the game,” Carroll said. “We just settled down, made a couple real nice adjustments at halftime and everybody just played really good, solid football. Of course, the big turnover to start the thing was a big boost, and almost the other one too on the kickoff which would have been really cool.”

Cooler still was the way Wilson and the Seattle offense answered Philadelphia’s score with one of their own in short order. Wilson got the drive started with his feet on a 12-yard first down run. That set up the next play, a deep ball to Baldwin. Though the ball fell incomplete, Philadelphia’s Bradley Fletcher clearly interfered with Baldwin’s ability to catch the ball and the pass interference flag moved the ball all the way from the Seahawks 21-yard-line to the Eagles 35-yard-line.

On the next series, Wilson connected with fullback Will Tukuafu for a third down conversion and on the very next play, the quarterback found Baldwin for a 23-yard touchdown to restore Seattle’s 24-14 lead.

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After taking over with 9:01 left in the third, the Eagles were quickly stifled and gained just 19 yards on the ensuing drive before punting. After the Seahawks punted, Philly managed just four yards on their next drive and went three-and-out.

Another Hawks punt gave the Eagles possession at their own 20 to start the fourth quarter, but Sanchez was sacked by Michael Bennett on the first play of the ensuing drive and Philadelphia again went three-and-out. Wilson followed by leading another drive into Eagles territory, but Seattle’s attempt to put the game was short-circuited by a Lynch fumble.

However, on Philadelphia’s first play of the ensuing drive, the Legion of Boom came up big as Tharold Simon picked off Sanchez, handing the ball right back to the Seattle offense.

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The Eagles got one more chance to claw back into the game with 7:38 remaining after a Seahawks three-and-out. But after picking up a first down, Sanchez was sacked on consecutive plays, setting up 3rd-and-19 from the Philly 18. He found Maclin with a pass, but the Seattle defense kept the Philadelphia speedster in front of them and his gain of eight yards was well short of the first down. The Eagles elected to punt and never got the ball back as the Hawks offense chewed up the final four minutes of the game and closed out the win.

Among all the things Seattle accomplished in their victory, Earl was impressed most by the play of the team’s young players like Simon, whose interception was the first of his career, Jordan Hill and Marcus Burley, who each had sacks on that final Philadelphia drive, and Christine Michael, who had six carries for 32 yards in the win. All four players are in their second NFL season.

“It’s always good during the season when young guys step up, especially when guys go down,” Earl said. “You saw Burley come in the game, Christine Michael, he was so in the zone at one point, he kind of waved Marshawn to stay back. That takes balls. But that’s the thing about this team, everybody is unique. Everybody understands what they bring to the table.”

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With wins in six of their last seven contests, the Seahawks (9-4) are building momentum. They still sit a game behind the Arizona Cardinals (10-3) for the top spot in the NFC West, and instead hold the first of two NFC wild card spots, but over the last three weeks, against three playoff contenders with records above .500 for the season, the Hawks have been at their dominant best, particularly on defense, allowing just 20 total points in those games.

Earl agreed afterward that Seattle is once again starting to hit its stride, as they did during last year’s Super Bowl run and in his mind, it all comes down to the bond they’ve built as teammates.

“When you watch us play, [it’s] love over fear,” he said. “I think when you guys kind of get by themselves and get distracted, anything can creep in. But we’re so close. We’re so connected. Even in walkthrough yesterday, we were playing basketball afterward, Coach Carroll included, I beat him in one-on-one. This team is so different from everything that’s going on around this league. I think that’s why we’re having so much success, cause we take a different approach.”

NEXT UP

After consecutive dominant road wins, the Hawks head back to their house to host the stumbling San Francisco 49ers (7-6) at CenturyLink Field next Sunday.

The Seahawks ruled the last meeting between the two teams, a 19-3 blowout at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara on Thanksgiving night. That sent the Niners into a tailspin and they lost again this past Sunday, 24-13 to the lowly Oakland Raiders.

Between the recent dominance by the Legion Of Boom and San Francisco’s struggles, the Seahawks will likely be heavy favorites in Seattle on Sunday, and that’s what the Hawks expect, but that won’t stop them from preparing to make sure they do so.

“We expect to dominate every time we step out,” Earl said. “I think when you don’t prepare, or you have a lack of focus, that’s when stuff can creep in, but we expect to do that every time we play.”

Kickoff from CenturyLink Field is slated for 1:25 p.m. PST. on Sunday and the game will be broadcast on FOX.

RELATED LINKS

  • Earl Thomas postgame press conference (Seahawks.com, Dec. 7, 2014)
  • Seattle is having fun, living in the moment (Seattle Times, Dec. 8, 2014)
  • Carroll knows defense is playing well, now can it be consistent (Seattle Times, Dec. 8, 2014)
  • Defensive dominance, effectiveness spark Seahawks (Seattle Times, Dec. 7, 2014)
  • Earl Thomas fumble recovery leads to Lynch TD (Seattle Times, Dec. 7, 2014)
  • Revived Seahawks humble high-flying Eagles (Tacoma News-Tribune, Dec. 8, 2014)
  • Sense inside Seahawks locker room: We are back (Tacoma News-Tribune, Dec. 7, 2014)
  • Dominant Seahawks defense re-writing team history (Tacoma News-Tribune, Dec. 8, 2014)
  • Seattle again leaning on its defense for success (Associated Press, Dec. 7, 2014)
  • Legion Of Boom resurgence leading surging Seahawks (USA Today, Dec. 7, 2014)
  • Seahawks defense dominates dynamic Eagles offense (ESPN, Dec. 7, 2014)
  • Seahawks defense too fast for fast-paced Eagles (ESPN, Dec. 7, 2014)