After one of his worst games, Russell Wilson stays his winning course. ‘I trust my plan’
In the aftermath of a game among the worst of his otherwise best career, Russell Wilson has been talking to his Seahawks teammates.
Like a farmer.
“Anytime you want to be great anything, there’s always going to be there’s always going to be a little bit of rain.,” Wilson said this week. “Sometimes the rain’s OK, because it allows the harvest, you know. It allows great things to happen.”
It figuratively poured on Wilson last weekend in Buffalo.
He committed four turnovers. He threw two interceptions. He lost two fumbles while getting sacked five times. The Bills scored off each of his turnovers and beat Seattle 44-34.
Wilson has committed seven turnovers in the Seahawks’ two losses this season. Those have come in the last three games.
Not that Wilson is looking back.
“The reality is, the Seattle Seahawks are 6-2,” he said in the moments after his first-place team’s loss last weekend. “We are still in a good position, the driver’s seat to continue to win and continue to lead (the NFC West), just try to find a way to make something special happen.
“It’s a long journey.”
Once again, Wilson’s self-proclaimed “neutral mind” is particularly useful this week.
Mr. “#NoTime2Sleep” has no time for woe.
The Seahawks are flying to Los Angeles to play all-world defensive lineman Aaron Donald and the division-rival Rams (5-3) Sunday. It’s a large-opportunity game, for both teams.
A bounce-back win for the Seahawks would put them back up by multiple games on L.A., and potentially the Cardinals (5-3), atop the division with seven games left in the regular season.
Arizona on Sunday is hosting those same Bills (7-2) that just zoomed past Seattle. The Cardinals and Seahawks then play in Seattle Thursday night.
A Rams win Sunday puts them in first place. It would be the first time the Seahawks haven’t been atop the West this season.
A division title means home playoff games, instead road ones. The Seahawks have lost their last five road divisional playoff games.
This team with its defense on an NFL-record pace allowing yards is even more simply dependent than usual on Wilson.
When he’s perfect, or nearly so, they win. They outgun everyone with the league’s number-one-ranked passing game and its highest-scoring offense.
When he makes mistakes and turns the ball over, they lose.
Of all the numbers, trends and red flags around the Seahawks—particularly that battered, last-ranked defense—they believe this one applies most this week: Wilson is 32-8 in his career following an in-season loss. That’s the league’s best such record in the last 50 years, since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger.
The one time Wilson’s been in this rebound situation this season, last month after Seattle’s overtime loss at Arizona, Wilson and the Seahawks took a 30-7 lead in the fourth quarter on the banged-up 49ers. Seattle won 37-27. He completed 27 of 37 passes for 261 yards and four more touchdown passes. That gave Wilson 26, one short of Tom Brady’s NFL record for most through seven games of a season.
Yet another bounce-back win Sunday would put Wilson above Brady for the most wins, regular season and playoffs, in league history over the first nine years of a career (Wilson has 101). A win also would send Wilson past Peyton Manning for the most regular-season victories in the first nine seasons (Wilson has 92).
To those teammates with whom Wilson’s been talking rain this week, those wins-records aren’t accidents. They see their quarterback as uniquely focused for Sunday’s task against Donald and the Rams.
“He’s just the ultimate competitor. I think that’s just where it starts,” Pro Bowl veteran left tackle Duane Brown said.
“You know, after last week, we sat on the plane (from Buffalo) just going over film for a large portion of the flight back. Just pointing out different stuff.
“His mentality is just—it’s just different. It’s different from most, you know? He’s committed to excellence. He’s committed to winning. He hates to lose.
“REALLY hates to lose.”
Brown is 35. He’s been in the NFL 13 years. The former Houston Texan has seen many quarterbacks handle a lot of losses.
“It’s kind of hard to function, normally, after a loss like we had (in Buffalo),” Brown said. “I’ve been a part of some of the losses here and just his mentality, his refocus going into the week, he just turns it up a notch, you know what I mean? He’s always on top of everything. But after that kind of loss, everything just kind of gets heightened a little bit more.
“So, we’re excited. We’re excited to chance to go back and compete again.”
That—on top of his NFL-record pace of touchdown passes, his sidearm throws from his knees and the last-second completions to DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett to win games this season—is what Wilson provides the Seahawks: belief.
No matter the injuries, turnovers and negativity. No matter that Ethan Pocic has a concussion and the devastating Donald is about to be frothing at the mouth to test Seattle’s backup center Kyle Fuller, who has never started an NFL game at that position.
No matter. These Seahawks have come to believe their quarterback will rise above all that, and win.
Again.
“That’s just kind of what I’ve always believed,” Wilson said. “I’m a person that writes out goals, writes out missions. Try to keep it simple, but also try to have a plan every day. Just stay focused on the task.
“I truly believe staying the course is the best flow, best order of action, every day.
“I trust my plan. I trust how I prepare.”
