Plenty of reasons to believe in the Seahawks down the stretch

The Seahawks are playing a game this weekend that almost everyone will be watching against an offensive juggernaut on the East Coast.

Sound familiar?

It’s December. The NFL separates the pretenders from the contenders this time of year and fans across the country are wondering whether or not they can trust their team to come through down the home stretch. While no one has a definitive answer, the Seahawks have come around to their proven football formula at exactly the right time.

There may be teams that are hotter this week (Green Bay) or teams with a longer history of contention (New England) or teams with a better marketing campaign (Dallas), but the familiar feel the Seahawks have recaptured should leave you hard pressed to find a team more worthy of trust than Seattle.

First and foremost, the defense is playing Seahawks football. It’s not coincidence that Seattle has returned to form at the same time that Byron Maxwell, Bobby Wagner, Kam Chancellor and company returned to the starting lineup. The Seahawks are back to suffocating offenses, executing in the red zone and taking the ball away – just ask Colin Kaepernick. Seems like only a year ago the football world was wondering what would happen if the best defense in the league was matched up against the best offense. I don’t think that the answer has changed.

Then there’s the run game. The Seahawks will likely surpass their rushing yardage and touchdown total from the 2013 regular season this week or next with Marshawn Lynch and Russell Wilson piling up yards on the ground.

The offense hasn’t worked as planned in 2014 and the downside (if it be labeled as such) of the growth of the ground game is reduced output from the passing game. The goal for the last four games of the season has to be to manage enough from the passing game to force teams to honor it and to take advantage of the explosive plays that are available there while steadily beating teams up on the ground.

Most importantly, the run game – much like the defense – is portable. Having a game that travels may be the difference in a critical moment.

Finally, there’s the fact that this team has been here before. The bright lights, the big games, the national audience are all very familiar to this group of Seahawks players and coaches. Starting Sunday in Philadelphia, every game that the Seahawks play will have enormous implications regarding the likelihood of hosting another playoff game at CenturyLink Field. Teams can wilt under that kind of pressure or they can become champions.

There’s no way to know for certain which way the Seahawks’ season will go, but the familiar feel of this team as it enters December is a reason for optimism.

As always, thanks for reading and feel free to join the conversation any time on Twitter @TheMichaelGrey.