SEATTLE — In a back corner of the locker room, Patrick O’Connell summoned the courage to tell the truth. Yes, he admitted, there was anxiety all week. Despite the Seattle Seahawks’ unbothered exterior, he worried the problem might erupt into something embarrassing Saturday night.
But this wasn’t about Sam Darnold and his oblique injury. O’Connell had a much smaller crisis.
The reserve linebacker — the man who would escort Rashid Shaheed into the end zone on the game’s opening kickoff — was antsy about a potential celebration. The Seahawks believed they could spring Shaheed for a game-breaking return against the San Francisco 49ers. Special teams coordinator Jay Harbaugh preached it, and the players believed it so much that they teased O’Connell, laughing and pleading with him not to mess up Shaheed’s celebration this time.
In December, after Shaheed returned a kick 100 yards against Atlanta, O’Connell’s exuberance ruined the moment. As Shaheed began his end zone dance, his teammate took flight and knocked him off his rhythm. While the noise around the Seahawks concentrated on Darnold’s left side, O’Connell fixated on that detail.
They were going to block perfectly. Shaheed was going to break free. O’Connell was going to let the man finish his touchdown celly.
“This week, especially, we knew that we could take advantage,” O’Connell said. “So this time, I wasn’t trying to get in the way too much.”
As a group, the Seahawks are so new to playoff pressure that you wondered how they would respond to Darnold’s injury scare. Then they went out and demolished the 49ers, 41-6, at Lumen Field. They turned their NFC divisional-round game into a proclamation: A dominant team now hovers over this wide-open field.
Can any of the remaining squads still win the Super Bowl? Sure. But the Seahawks should be considered the clear favorite. They’ve transformed into the most complete team in the NFL, and they needed only one quarter Saturday to show that (and build a 17-0 lead). Against the undermanned 49ers, the Seahawks gave a performance that serves as a tribute to what they’ve become.
“When we play our style of play, games can look like this often,” middle linebacker Ernest Jones IV said.
The Seahawks (15-3) have won nine games by double digits this season. They won eight of those by at least two touchdowns. They lead the NFL in point differential. They scored the third-most points per game and allowed the fewest. Their special teams have climbed from very good to electric since the midseason trade for Shaheed.
Now they’ve added the intangible of resilience. They survived Darnold’s aches by doing what great teams do: playing so well around their quarterback that he could relax into the game. Darnold looked fine, and if he felt any discomfort, the competition didn’t tax him any further. He threw just 17 passes. For every snap he played, the Seahawks had the lead. He exited the game with 9:13 remaining and watched backup Drew Lock finish the blowout.
Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald handled the most anxious moment of the season like an algebra equation.
“Let’s work the problem,” Macdonald said of Darnold’s questionable availability the last few days. “Let’s figure it out.”
The anxiety lasted for 13 seconds. That’s the time it took for Shaheed to glide those 95 yards to start the game. By the time he reached the end zone, the Seahawks had all the clarity needed. They were ready for this stage. The 49ers, battered yet persistent, couldn’t call on grit to get them through this time. They were left to wonder whether the game would’ve been different if they had been healthy.
“Landslide,” cornerback Deommodore Lenoir tried to predict. “To have those guys back, it’s going to be a totally different game. But, I mean, we can’t make no excuses.”
San Francisco left tackle Trent Williams was more realistic, but he also downplayed the Seahawks’ dominance: “There’s a lot that we’re up against, not just Seattle.”
It was a feat for the 49ers to advance to the divisional round despite their hard luck. At full strength, it may have been an incredible rubber match. But do all those what-ifs amount to five touchdowns? In their last two games against San Francisco, the Seahawks allowed nine points, three measly field goals. Kyle Shanahan, the offensive mastermind, may never be so outmatched.
The Seahawks are playing to a higher standard now. It wasn’t just about beating the 49ers. They’re on a mission to reach their peak. After struggling to run the ball most of the regular season, they’ve surpassed 160 rushing yards for four straight games. Kenneth Walker III amassed 116 yards and three touchdowns Saturday. Jaxon Smith-Njigba, their All-Pro wide receiver, caught just three passes for 19 yards. It didn’t matter. He still scored a touchdown and folded into a game plan that didn’t ask much of him. The few times Darnold had to throw, he focused on Cooper Kupp. Six weeks ago, the offense could only wish for this kind of balance.
“We’re the real deal,” Smith-Njigba said of his team. “I believe it’s our culture, what we’ve built from the ground up. We’ve got a great mix of young players and veteran players. We built this thing, and we want to take care of it. We want to protect it. And we know what’s at stake.”
The Seahawks return to the NFC Championship Game for the first time in 11 years. This team is very different from the group that featured Marshawn Lynch, Russell Wilson and the Legion of Boom. Those Seahawks thrived off force and personality. This version is defined by cunning and restraint.
They have crazy eyes, all of them. They don’t seem that intimidating on the surface. The next thing you know, they’re making the 49ers seem like a finesse team and pounding them until they reach their breaking point. Midway through the third quarter, San Francisco experienced a meltdown, with Lenoir headbutting Smith-Njigba and Williams grabbing Jones by the face mask. The score was 27-6 then. The Seahawks didn’t retaliate. They just added two more touchdowns to a surgical performance that started with Shaheed sprinting into the end zone.
O’Connell ran alongside, took a shove from a 49er and disappeared from the frame, just as he planned. As usual, every Seahawk did his job.
