Wilson stays hot as Hawks clinch playoffs with win over Browns

Wilson entered Sunday’s game as the first quarterback in National Football League history to register at least a 138.5 quarterback rating in four consecutive games, all of which were wins for Seattle.

The Seahawks amassed 423 yards to Cleveland’s 230 and averaged 6.2 yards per play to the Browns’ 4.2. The Seahawks won 30-13.

Last week, the Cleveland Browns beat the San Francisco 49ers with a good performance by quarterback Johnny Manziel coupled with some poor plays by the 49ers.

During an appearance on 710 ESPN Monday, Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said that Lynch will not return to practice with the team this week. They punted to the Seahawks’ 27 with 16 seconds left.

Early on, Johnny Manziel was matching Wilson pass for pass, including guiding the Browns to a touchdown on the game’s opening drive to silence the 12s.

Combined with losses this week by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and NY Giants, the 9-5 Seahawks officially qualified for the playoffs, maintaining their head-to-head tie-breaker over the Minnesota Vikings for the fifth seed in the NFC.

Whereas Manziel’s receivers dropped some critical passes in this game, Wilson’s excelled. “It’s more than just us that this affects, obviously, if it is the last time”, Rivers said. That’s what I’m going to be focused on.

While Baldwin and Lockett scored the touchdowns, WR Jermaine Kearse delivered the best regular-season game of his career, catching seven balls on eight targets for 110 yards.

Then in the 2nd quarter, Baldwin caught a TD from Wilson on a 6-yard pass, capping an 8-play, 57-yard drive that put their team up 14-7. He completed 70 percent of his passes for 249 yards and three more touchdowns against the Browns with zero interceptions.

“What magnificent production. It’s clear they (Wilson and Baldwin) are working well”. With two more receiving touchdowns Sunday, Baldwin and QB Russell Wilson established an National Football League record by connecting on 10 scores over a four-game span. He’ll look to continue success next week against a Rams secondary that has been abused lately. Rice had 10 from a combo of Joe Montana and Steve Young during the 1987 season. On that play, which should have been the final one of the half, the Browns drew a face mask penalty, setting up Steve Hauschka’s 27-yard field goal. Cleveland twice settled for field goals after driving inside the Seattle 20, and Manziel was intercepted by Marcus Burley late in the fourth quarter having to force throws trying to rally. Too often Manziel failed to step into his throws, whipping the ball and leaving his receivers reaching back to make tough grabs rather than hitting them in stride as Wilson did on the day. The 29-year-old hasn’t played since rushing eight times for 42 yards November 15 in a 39-32 loss to the Arizona Cardinals.

At one time, Michael was expected to be the heir to Lynch before he was beaten out by Rawls and traded to Dallas at the end of training camp.

Cleveland was hampered by losing starting right guard John Greco on the second play of the game to injury and a run game that was mostly ineffective.

Newly signed running back Christine Michael, a third-year pro from Texas A&M, made his Seattle debut with 16 carries for 84 yards. “And we have. It’s a marvelous chemistry that takes place on teams, and you can sit back and watch it happen and get frustrated and impatient”. He finished with 43 yards on nine carries.

“You kind of have to be here to experience it, but it’s a great following”, Carroll said. He’s been through a lot since he was here before, and he recognized the opportunity. Russell Wilson is on an NFL-record unmatched roll.

Cleveland fell to 3-11. He’s got any pass rush move you could ask for. “We tried to get him down a couple of times”, Cleveland defensive lineman Xavier Cooper said. Kearse has 21 catches for 265 yards over the last five games and Lockett has 25 catches for 335 yards and five touchdowns in that time frame.

“It’s an awesome feeling”, Jackson said. “Winning games will help us get that, so we’re going to try and win games”.