Three for three. Seahawks running game, this time Chris Carson, has a back go for more than 100 yards

Make it three consecutive weeks the Seahawks have had a running back rack up more than 100 yards. If there was any lingering doubt that Seattle has made a commitment to its rushing attack this season, there shouldn’t be now.

Chris Carson rushed for 116 yards on 19 carries — his second 100-plus yard rushing game of the season — and Mike Davis piled up 68 yards and a touchdown on 12 attempts in Sunday afternoon’s 33-31 loss to the Rams at CenturyLink Field

“We never believed that this team couldn’t run the ball,” Carson said. “That whole time we thought, given the chance, that we can make something happen. We’re starting to show people that.”

Davis scored his third rushing touchdown of the season — he had two last week and 101 yards in a win over Arizona — on Seattle’s second drive to open scoring.

After a Frank Clark interception in the red zone interrupted the Rams’ second drive, Carson and Davis split seven carries as part of a nine-play to march the Seahawks down the field. Davis took a handoff from quarterback Russell Wilson straight up the middle for a 6-yard score less than five minutes into the game.

“You can see what kind of team we are now,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said. “You know who we are. We know who we are, too. We’re just getting warmed up. That’s really important for us as we go through the middle of the season.

“There’s going to be a lot of chances for us to continue to grow and get better, and you can see the magnitude of the running game sets up the passing game, and allows us to do stuff that we want to do down the field.”

Seattle’s physicality up front led to the consistent success on the ground, Davis said.

“Up front, the offensive line (is) doing great,” he said. “They’re making the reads easy for us, and when we get to the second level we just do our thing.”

Carson averaged 6.1 yards per carry against the Rams, Davis averaged 5.7, and the Seahawks finished with 32 rushing attempts for 190 yards, and attempted just 21 passes.

“That was the big emphasis coming into this season, to get the run game going,” Carson said. “The offensive line, running backs, receivers, quarterback — we all worked hard over the offseason and training camp, so we’re starting strong.”

Carson pointed to New Orleans Saints running back combo of Mark Ingram and Alvin Kamara when discussing Seattle’s developing rushing attack.

“That’s a big thing, especially in this league, having two backs that can produce is big,” Carson said. “You see how Ingram and Kamara do it. It just keeps fresh legs. We have great backs from C.J. (Prosise), Mike, (Rashaad) Penny, all of us. So, whenever our numbers get called, we’re just trying to make a play.”

Said Davis: “That one-two punch with my man Chris, we just rotate in and just make sure that we keep each other fresh, so that whenever we come in, that guy is ready to go 100 percent.”

And Sunday, as Carson and Davis continued to churn out yards on the ground, more time and opportunities developed through the air.

“A lot of things worked today,” Wilson said. “We were physical at the point of attack, we were able to get the ball downfield and do a lot of different things. We were explosive on offense and on a lot of plays, we answered the call.”

Wilson had more time in the pocket, converting three passing touchdowns, including two on long throws to Tyler Lockett (39 yards) and David Moore (30).

“The run game is always key,” Wilson said. “You always want to be able to run the ball and be physical at the point of attack.

“Today, I thought that Coach Schottenheimer did a tremendous job calling some of the play action plays and getting us down the field and finding guys and hitting things when we had the opportunity.”

This story was originally published October 7, 2018 at 8:17 PM.