The 8 best moments from what might have been the Seahawks’ season-saving win

The Seahawks pulled out a 24-13 win, finding some actual offense in the process.

The Seahawks have a win. It was a fairly convincing one too. After struggling in their first two games of the season, Seattle was able to score points and control the clock with a damn-the-torpedoes running game in a 24-13 win.

As for the Cowboys, well, at least they had Ezekiel Elliott ... and not much else.

Seattle found some offense

It really wasn’t too complicated a formula. They leaned heavily on the run, and just kept feeding and feeding Chris Carson. It worked too. By the beginning of the fourth quarter the Cowboys defense was gassed. Seattle fed Carson the rock six times on a 10-play drive for 27 yards spanning the end of the third and the start of the fourth. He finally punched it in to give the Seahawks their third touchdown of the day.

Carson had a good game, finishing with 102 yards and a touchdown on 32 carries. Seattle said they were going to stick to the run, and damned if they didn’t do exactly that. He’s the first Seahawks rusher to roll up triple digits on the ground since Dec. 2016.

But let’s be clear about something — this does not seem like it’s sustainable from week to week. Maybe when Doug Baldwin returns it’ll get better, but I’m just not convinced. Wilson is an incredible quarterback whose proclivity to avoid serious injury (nano bubbles?) is the only thing that impresses me more than his ability to throw beautiful passes to no-name receivers. Nothing we’ve seen from the Seahawks tells me that they can do this week to week with any consistency.

Just look at this 16-yard touchdown to Jamon Brown.

At least the Cowboys have Ezekiel Elliott

Because that’s their only reliable source of offensive yards. He had 127 yards on 16 carries through the middle of the fourth quarter, and paved the way for the Cowboys’ only touchdown drive of the game.

His fumble in Seahawks territory was kind of a game changer tho.

You can’t run a play action offense if you don’t have reliable receivers to throw the ball to, and Dallas does not have any. There are only so many jet sweeps you can watch go bust with Tavon Austin.

What happened to the Cowboys defense?

Coming into this game, they were a top-five unit. Opponents were averaging just 274 yards per game against them and scoring just 14.5 points, on average.

Not this week.

The pass rush failed to sack Wilson at all in the first half, despite the fact that he’d been sacked a dozen times in two games prior to this one, on pace for an NFL record. Then, they didn’t have the stamina to hold back the Seahawks running game and let a little gains turn into big ones as the game went on.

They got one sack in the game.

Doug Baldwin is mad at one of his coaches

Can you blame him? The Seahawks receiver isn’t playing today, but he’s not letting that stop him from being sour about the way this game is going. Cameras caught him jawing at an assistant coach on the sidelines during second quarter.

Rough day for offensive linemen

We know the situation with the Seahawks offensive line — they are bad! Now, Dallas is getting in on the action, but it’s happening because of injuries.

The Cowboys are already playing without all-world center Travis Frederick. Things took a turn for the worst early in the second quarter with left tackle Tyron Smith left with an injury.

Smith came back, but he wasn’t very effective. It looks more and more like that stout Cowboys offensive line is a thing of the past.

Earl Thomas’ interceptions

Who needs practice? Not Earl Thomas. After skipping two sessions this week and incurring the wrath of his team, Thomas managed to pull in an interception late in the first quarter.

And not just any run-of-the-mill pick, he got it off his ankle.

That’s Dak Prescott’s first interception of the year.

But it wasn’t going to be his last. Thomas got another one late in the fourth quarter to kill off Dallas’ last best hope of scoring again, right when the Cowboys were driving too. And this pick was beaut in its own right.

There’s that terrible roughing the passer rule

The infamous body weight rule got Clay Matthews earlier in the day. The Cowboys got tagged with it right off the bat in this one.

Tyrone Crawford charged in on Russell Wilson on third-and-5 at the Seattle 12 at the 11:17 mark in the first quarter. He hit Wilson and brought him down right as the QB was throwing it. But that’s a penalty now, landing on the QB with full body weight.

That kept the drive alive for Seattle. They managed to get it out to the 50, but on third-and-9, the Seahawks couldn’t keep the pressure off Wilson and he failed to complete the pass.

It got Seahawks DL Quinton Jefferson in the fourth quarter too. One that looked even more dubious.

Legion of Boom sort of back!

Kam Chancellor had to retire because of his neck injury, but he was in the house for Seattle’s home opener to raise the 12th man flag.