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In their biggest game of the season, Earl Thomas and the Seattle Seahawks put together their best performance of the season —on both sides of the ball— and left Arizona on Sunday night with the NFC West lead.

ET and the Legion of Boom dominated once again, holding the Arizona Cardinals to just 216 total yards in the 35-6 win, a stifling result that has become commonplace for the NFL’s top defense.

But this time, the Seattle offense also came through in a big way, with a franchise-best 596 total yards, including 21 fourth quarter points in a rout that puts the Hawks not only at the top of the NFC West, but currently at the top of the conference, one win a way from sending the road to Super Bowl XLIX through CenturyLink Field.

Earl, who finished with five tackles, noted after the game that the LOB-led defense and the Seattle offense, led by Russell Wilson and Marshawn Lynch, fed off each other all night—and out came a championship-caliber performance.

“Russ, he’s in flow right now, ‘Shawn is being who he is. When guys are just fighting for everything like that for you, it’s contagious, man. And you saw ‘Shawn do what he does, and it felt like the Saints game all over again,” ET III said, referring to the 2011 Wild Card game against New Orleans.

In that game, Lynch reeled off his now-legendary 67-yard “Beast Mode” run that helped seal the win for Seattle. On Sunday, Lynch flashed back to that with a 79-yard touchdown run that put the Seahawks up 28-6 and silenced the Arizona crowd. While celebrating in the end zone, the first player to congratulate Lynch was tackle Justin Britt, who helped clear the way on the run. The second? None other than Earl, who was not even on the field for the play.

The scoring run was vintage Lynch, and provided a gut check for Arizona late in the game. Early on however, Lynch watched from the sideline, as an upset stomach kept him out of action for the first quarter.

During that first frame, neither squad scored, and the Cardinals managed just 51 yards on their two drives. Early in the second quarter, the Hawks looked to crack the scoreboard first, but usually lights-out kicker Steven Hauschka pushed his 52-yard attempt wide-right, leaving the scored knotted at 0-0. Arizona took over near midfield and took advantage of the fantastic field position, looking to draw first blood.

From that prime position, the Cardinals marched all the way to the Seattle six-yard-line where they set up with a 1st-and-goal, but although they bent, the Seahawks defense refused to break and stonewalled the Cards from crossing the goal line. Though Arizona struck first with a 27-yard field goal to take a 3-0 lead, the result was ultimately a win for the Seattle D.

Playing from behind for a rare time during their recent stretch of dominance, it didn’t take long for Seattle to respond. After a first down run by Lynch for no gain, Wilson rolled right on 2nd-and-10 from the 20 and found his tight end Luke Willson wide-open streaking through the secondary. The Seattle QB lofted a perfect pass to Willson, who took it in stride and galloped 80 yards for the go-ahead score.

On the ensuing Arizona drive, Cardinals QB Ryan Lindley was looking for his top receiver, Larry Fitzgerald, on 3rd-and-10, but the route went right through Area 29. Earl made break for the ball and collided with the 6’3” All-Pro receiver, and the ball fell incomplete, forcing the Cards to punt.

“He’s got a lot of arm strength,” Carroll said of Lindley. “He got the ball down (field), I think they went deep on us nine times in the first half. So they went after us. Our guys did a great job on the deep end of not letting that be a factor.”

A nice scramble by Wilson on the ensuing drive set up touchdown No. 2: a six-yard scamper from Lynch that made it 14-3, Seattle. After another stop by ET and the Seattle D, the Hawks took that lead into the locker room at University of Phoenix Stadium.

The third quarter was dominated by defense and although the Hawks were held scoreless, ET and the L.O.B. forced a trio of Arizona three-and-outs to start the second half before allowing a nine-play Cardinals drive to reach field goal range. But again, Seattle defense refused to break and stifled Arizona inside the red zone. The Cards settled for another field goal, which made it a one possession game, 14-6 going into the fourth.

Early in the final frame, Wilson engineered a drive that essentially put the game out of reach. At the end of the seven-play, 79-yard drive, the firm of Wilson and Willson connected yet again, this time on a 20-yard score that sparked a fourth-quarter explosion from Seattle.

Arizona could do nothing to respond on the ensuing drive and picked up just one first down before the Hawks stifled them and forced a punt.

The subsequent Seattle possession began inauspiciously when Britt was tagged with a false start, setting the Hawks up 1st-and-15 from the 21. But on the first official play of the drive, Lynch made his mark on the evening in a memorable way as he blasted through the Arizona defense, fought off several would-be tacklers and kept on going 79 yards to pay dirt.

The eye-popping play caused Earl to run all the way out to the end zone without his helmet and celebrate with his team.

On the next Arizona drive, the L.O.B. drove another nail into the coffin. Lindley was looking for a connection with Michael Floyd down the right side of the field, but Richard Sherman jumped the route and took his fourth interception of the year 53 yards the other direction to the Arizona 40.

Motivated by the stout play of their defense, the Seattle offense finished the job, going 40 yards in seven plays, capped by a five-yard scramble for the score by Wilson to make it a 29-point game.

Wilson finished the night 20-of-31 for 339 yards and two score through the air while also adding up 88 yards on six runs, including the game’s final touchdown. It was part of another dominant day from the Seahawks offense racked up four plays of 49 yards or more.

On the other end, the LOB continued to dominate, allowing just two plays of 20 yards or more by the Cardinals —a 32-yard pass and a 24-yard pass. Arizona managed just 29 rushing yards and Lindley completed just 18 of 44 attempts.

A big part of shutting down both phases of the Arizona offensive attack was Earl, who once again simply refused to let a Cardinal player get past him. All game long, No. 29 patrolled the deep middle of the field, not letting any of Lindley’s bombs drop. Any time one of the linebackers or cornerbacks let his man make a catch on the run, Earl was there to bring him down.

On five of the Cardinals’ nine plays of 12 or more yards, No. 29 was in on the tackle. He was second only to Bobby Wagner with the five combined tackles. For the last several weeks Earl has raved about the chemistry of the whole team, not just the defense, and he believes that their communication has been key to their success.

“We know who we are as a team and we know what we have to do, we own our roles and we have fun doing it,” No. 29 said. “I think the communication was on point. Everything that the coaches went over this week, we saw it and we recognized it, and it was just pure, pure fun out there.”

In addition to his downfield options being taken away for most of the game, Lindley was also sacked four times by a Seattle front seven that is peaking at the right time. Carroll said the Legion of Boom’s ability to keep Arizona from executing their big plays led to everything else falling into place for the defense, and ultimately, the offense.

“To not give up a touchdown tonight is an excellent job by the guys on defense…That’s a phenomenal night, and (the Cardinals) wanted to run it. And to keep them out of the endzone, it was great stuff. A lot of guys played their tails off again,” Carroll said. “The thing I’m most proud of, we talked about it, what we did last week is nice and all, but can you do it again? To continue to play like this at this kind of level gives us real confidence going into the last football game with a chance to put a lot of this stuff at stake with the division and all. We can do it again.”

Carroll also noted in his postgame press conference that Sunday’s game was “about as much fun as you can have playing NFL football in the regular season.”

NEXT UP

Earl and the Seahawks (11-4) wrap up the 2014 regular season with one more divisional showdown against St. Louis Rams (6-9).

The Hawks will be out for some revenge after falling 28-26 to the Rams in St. Louis in October. ET had six tackles in that game, but the Rams used a clever fake punt return to help snatch a victory in the close contest.

It’s an important game for Seattle, who with a win, Seattle would clinch the NFC West title, the top overall seed in the NFC, home-field advantage through the playoffs and a first-round bye, all for the second consecutive season. A loss, on the other hand, would push Seattle down to at least the three seed in the NFC if not further depending on the outcome of several other games to be played Sunday, most notably Arizona’s showdown with the 49ers.

Kickoff of the regular season finale from CenturyLink Field is scheduled for 1:25 p.m. PST and the game will air on FOX.

RELATED LINKS

• Seahawks throttle Cardinals to move atop NFC West (ESPN, December 21, 2014)
• Earl Thomas postgame interview (Seahawks.com, December 21, 2014)
• Pete Carroll postgame press conference (Seahawks.com, December 21, 2014)
• Seahawks players gush over Lynch’s run (Seattle Times, December 21, 2014)
• Seattle dominating NFC once again (USA Today, December 22, 2014)