Seahawks shut down soaring Eagles

The Seahawks became the first team this season to score a first-quarter touchdown on the Eagles when tight end Jimmy Graham hauled in Wilson’s 11-yard pass with 40 seconds left.

In the end, Wentz made more mistakes: a bad overthrow of a wide open Nelson Agholor early in the game, a fumble through the end zone later. Wilson is one of the hardest quarterback to stop in the league, and probably the best one at throwing on the run. The Eagles might’ve been favored, and the Seahawks might’ve been a shadow of some of their better teams of recent years, but CenturyLink Field in December is not a place where wins should be expected, regardless of what the records say. A Seattle defender was already diving at his legs when he got the handoff from Wentz, and some lovely footwork got him out of the way, allowing him to hit the hole and get to the next level.

It marked Philadelphia’s first turnover inside their opponent’s 20-yard line this season – and another example of how Sunday night’s game was so different from Philly’s other outings this year.

The win kept the Seahawks (8-4) within striking distance of the Los Angeles Rams (9-3) in the NFC West, with a critical division game against the Rams in Seattle two weeks away.

This was by far the best game for Bradley McDougald, who is filling in for Chancellor, as he had 12 tackles including a key third-down stop early in the game that was downright Chancellor-esque. Doug Baldwin was ridiculous as always, catching five passes for 84 yards. Philadelphia struggled to contain him in the first half, even on the plays where they ended up hauling him down short of the sticks.

Davis, a third-year player from SC, was a solid contributor in both the running and passing games.

Frank Clark provided some good pressure early including a third-down sack of Wentz in the first quarter. Russell Wilson hung in the pocket vs. the blitz and delivered a flawless throw to Doug Baldwin for a 48-yard gain. The move caused McLeod to hesitate and Baldwin ran right by him. Pederson should have challenged the fourth-quarter play when the brilliant Russell Wilson made a pitch to Mike Davis, who ran 17 yards after receiving what looked like a forward lateral in the fourth quarter.

Well, you can’t be flawless every game.

Wentz’s astounding accuracy, the defense’s dominance and the Eagles’ jubilant celebrations that emerged week after week for the past two months were nowhere to be found in Seattle. The Seahawks also moved into the first of the two wild-card spots.

Wentz had Agholor later in the game when the speedy wideout got behind the Seahawks’ secondary. Wentz completed 29 of 45 throws for 348 yards, with one touchdown and one interception.

You can clearly see the ball is out before Wentz crosses the plane. It rolled out of the back of the end zone, leading to a touchback and deflating the rejuvenated Eagles. In that game, the Seahawks won 42-0 thanks to three defensive scores.