The Seahawks’ win over Patriots wasn’t perfect, but it was impressive

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – This wasn’t a perfect night for Seattle.

The Seahawks’ defense didn’t force a single punt in the second half. Their offense had the ball inside the New England 10 yard line four times, and scored a touchdown on only one of those drives.

Seattle had an extra point that was blocked, a replay challenge that the team lost, and everyone is still puzzled by Seattle’s decision to go for two points after taking a seven-point lead with 4 minutes, 24 seconds left.

But the Seahawks won. In spite of all that – or maybe because of it – the Seahawks notched their most significant regular-season win in years, which is really saying something when you consider how many games this team has won.

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Not because it came against the team that beat Seattle in the Super Bowl two seasons ago or that it was cinched with a goal-line stand in which the Patriots ran four plays from at or inside the Seattle 2 without scoring.

This game was important because it came against the one team in this league that was considered great.

“We played about the best team that you can put out there,” coach Pete Carroll said. “That’s a great football team. They’ve got everything going for them. They have one of the best quarterbacks to ever play, one of the best coaches to ever coach.”

The Patriots were also coming off a bye and were playing at home, while Seattle was traveling across the country after beating Buffalo in a Monday night game that wasn’t decided until the final minute.

“We had a nice little night against all that,” Carroll said.

Actually, it was a lot better than that.

This was Tom Brady. On the road.

This was Kam Chancellor playing for the first time in four weeks and defending tight end Rob Gronkowski in the end zone on the Patriots’ make-or-break play, which turned out to be the very situation that the Seahawks rehearsed on the final play during Friday’s practice.

This was Russell Wilson throwing for a career-high 348 yards, including three touchdowns, and catching Bill Belichick’s defense on its heels with his last-minute touchdown drive to end the first half, culminating in an 18-yard touchdown pass to Doug Baldwin on a play when so many people assumed he would spike the ball to stop the clock.

There will be no talk of Seattle’s window closing this week. No complaints about the amount of money that has not been spent on the offensive line.

This week Seattle will be buzzing about rookie running back C.J. Prosise, who led the team in rushing yards, receptions and receiving yards while also remembering that Michael Bennett, Thomas Rawls and Mike Morgan all should be back soon injuries.

Yet even without those three starters, the Seahawks stayed step for step with the Patriots in an incredibly entertaining game with seven lead changes. It wasn’t a reminder of how good Seattle can be so much as demonstrative of how formidable they remain.

“It’s the kind of accomplishment that you put in the back of your mind,” Carroll said, “where you know what you did, and you get just a little bit better because you played a really good team and you got it done on the road in this kind of setting with all of this stuff that is built up about this game.”

It wouldn’t be a Seahawks’ game without a few head-scratching moments, from the way Seattle used its timeouts in the second half to the fact that the Seahawks had 12 men on the field for what was going to be the decisive play of the game, putting New England at the Seattle 1.

It wasn’t perfect. But on the road in November against the best team in football it was enough to result in Seattle’s most impressive victory in years.

“When it’s over, now you can look back and say that was a hell of a football team that you played,” Carroll said.

Actually, it was a hell of a football team that Seattle beat.

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