Where did Russell Wilson go after his three interceptions? Right back to his neutral mind
Finally, Russell Wilson was human.
The previously almost perfect Seahawks quarterback threw three interceptions. First time it had happened in three years. It was as many as he had thrown all this season.
Also uncharacteristic: the Cardinals tricked Wilson into this final mistake. They showed an all-out blitz before the snap. Then they had their linebackers race back into coverage after it. Wilson threw a blitz-read throw quickly down the right seam—and right to dropping-off linebacker Isaiah Simmons. That play with a minute left in overtime led to Arizona’s winning field goal last Sunday night.
“They bailed out. And he just never felt him,” Seahawks offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer said of Wilson.
The QB was succinct in taking full blame for the loss.
“It’s on me,” he said.
The 37-34 defeat negated three more touchdown passes by Wilson. He tied Peyton Manning’s NFL record with 22 TD passes through the first six games of a season.
After so much he and the Seahawks aren’t used to—the early-season NFL record-setter and favorite for the league’s MVP award losing for the first time this season—Wilson got right back to where he’s most familiar. And comfortable.
Neutral.
“That’s just him,” Schottenheimer said. “He was back at it Monday morning, ready to go compete again.”
Neutral. Not too high, not too low. It’s the place from which Wilson has been a remarkable 31-8 after an in-season loss. That’s the best bounce-back record in the league in 50 years, since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger.
“After the game, he and I talked for a while. Win or lose, he and I always sit and talk,” Schottenheimer said this week.
“I don’t think it was any different (this time). ...This is a grown-ass-man’s business. I mean, it really is. I mean, it is for tough-minded individuals. And you are going to have opportunities when things happen and you get kicked in the gut, and you are like, ‘Man, that stinks. That hurts. Shoot, what are we going to do now?’
“And the guy’s amazing. He doesn’t blink.”
That’s not to say Wilson just brushed off his interceptions, the second of which came when he scrambled and DK Metcalf stopped while Wilson threw deep to only Cardinals cornerback Patrick Peterson instead.
It’s likely Wilson was angry about the last pick, which coach Pete Carroll described as his quarterback trying to do too much by forcing a throw to Tyler Lockett that wasn’t there.
“Does he get pissed? Sure, he gets pissed, OK,” Schottenheimer said. “But he doesn’t blink.
“Again, he’s amazing the way he moves his mind into that neutral mind. And I’ve seen it in great moments. And I’ve seen it in tough moments.
“Sunday night was a tough moment. Monday morning? Right back to work. Another great opponent coming in here. And he’ll be ready to go, as we all will.”
Wilson has talked often of his “neutral mind.” He constantly strives to stay there and, when events push him off that, to get back there.
It’s the skill of training one’s mind to not get too high nor too low, to be more mentally consistent and in fact resilient. He credits his unique mindset to his mental conditioning coach Trevor Moawad, the native of Lakewood. They’ve talked pretty much every day during the season since week one of his rookie season in 2012, when Wilson was taking over the most important place in the franchise.
Neutral is where Wilson and Schottenheimer say the quarterback has gotten back to before the Seahawks (5-1) host NFC West-rival San Francisco 49ers (4-3) at CenturyLink Field Sunday at 1:25 p.m.
“For me personally, where I find my clarity, to be honest with you, within is just being being neutral,” Wilson said. “Being, you know, being too high, not being too low, you know, going back through everything that I’ve gone through and checking it out and just processing. ...
“it’s the ability to be able to stay focused and stay zoned in on what the process is. And you know there’s going to be highs, there’s going to be lows throughout the season.
“But I always expect way more highs and lows.”
And, if you haven’t noticed by now, the ninth year Wilson’s been Seattle’s quarterback, neutral wins.
A win Sunday would equal the franchise’s best start after seven games at 6-1. It would tie Wilson with Manning as the NFL’s all-time winningest quarterback in a player’s first nine seasons with 92 victories.
Wilson needs five touchdown passes—something he’s already done twice in a game this season, in week two to beat New England and week three to beat Dallas—to tie Tom Brady with the most TD throws through seven games (27).
His fifth 300-yard passing game this season would send Wilson past Matt Hasselbeck for most 300-yard games in a year and in a Seahawks career (20).
Lockett caught 15 of the 20 targets Wilson had of him at Arizona, for 200 yards and three touchdowns last weekend. Wilson’s 25 touchdown passes to Lockett in the last three years are the most receiving scores in the NFL since the start of the 2018 season.
Lockett says Wilson’s always-neutral mind is perhaps the biggest reason why he is such an effective leader of his teammates.
“I think one of the things that makes people attach onto him a little bit more, it’s just the way that he thinks out of every single situation,” Lockett said this week.
“Sometimes, you know, a lot of us get so caught up in looking at what life is right now, or what the situations in the game look like right now. But the more and more you are around him, the more you start to realize that imagination is really key.”
Lockett says it’s Wilson’s ability to project his constant envisioning of imminent success, no matter the circumstance or challenge, and then his proven record at achieving that success make it such an attractive leader.
Wilson’s neutral mind and constant positivity would be less influential if not for the fact he’s won Seattle’s only Super Bowl championship, and overcome throwing the interception at the 1-yard line at the end of the next Super Bowl to become even better the last few seasons.
“The reality is, if you don’t win you’re not here. That’s kind of how that works in professional sports,” Wilson said.
“And so you start realizing that’s a little different than college because you get four years on scholarship you kind of hang in and you know that. But you’re an NFL, you got to produce.... you have to bring it every day.”
Even—and especially—immediately after you fail.
“Because if you don’t,” Wilson said, “you may be sitting at home.”
The Seahawks—really, everyone who knows Wilson—expect him to absolutely bring it Sunday against the 49ers. Yet again.
“The thing about him is, he’s the ultimate competitor,” Schottenheimer said. “He knows that he’s got to protect the football.
“And I’m quite certain that we won’t see a performance like that.”
