Still booming: Seattle’s defence remains the class of the NFL

On Sunday night in Arizona, you kept waiting and waiting for Seattle’s tired defence to break, and then – finally – it didn’t.

On the other side of the ball, Seattle’s offence was making ineptitude look like something to aspire to.

The offence line was a shambles, skewing more towards sadness than comedy. A gimpy Russell Wilson didn’t have the burst to create yards from the chaos, left to drown in it instead. He had no time and less hope.

The Seahawks gained five first downs in four quarters of football. The result was Arizona’s offence, loaded with explosive, damaging athletes, holding possession for 66 per cent of the game.

Seattle’s defence was dealt the cruellest of hands. It was as though their offence was a hopeless little brother, totally unable to keep out of trouble, forcing the big brother to find new and excruciating ways to put up bail. But every time that’s exactly what they did, and somehow, the Seahawks left Glendale with a get-out-of-jail-free card.

Sunday night was a test of endurance, for the Hawks D as well as the viewer. The people that love a game like Sunday’s are the same ones who tell you that Zodiac is David Fincher’s best film. Count me among them.

It was a slog, but it was expertly played, a fascinating chess match between two commanding defences. The difference was that while Arizona’s D took turns picking at the carcas of the Seattle offensive line, the Seahawks defence had to keep a powerful force at bay.

Seattle’s defence didn’t produce any turnovers, but they did just about everything else. They kept the game in front of them, as they always do, almost never giving up the big play, rarely missing tackles, and avoiding blown coverages. The only big play they did give up came in overtime when Richard Sherman read JJ Nelson’s route so well that he overran it and slipped.

Seattle’s defenders came up with fourth down stops, goal-line stands and blocked field goals. Special teams got involved too, the Seahawk gunners crushing punt returners at the first point of impact. Sometimes, on special teams coverage it feels like the defensive unit is running out of control downhill, their movement so frenzied that the returner can simply sidestep with ease to evade them. Not Seattle. The Seahawks coverage makes it feel like the returner has to run uphill, and the gunners are drawn to him like menacing magnets.

The special teams unit also blocked a crucial punt deep in the fourth quarter to give Seattle life. The Seahawks had contributions from everywhere outside of the offence, seemingly staying in the game by sheer force of will.

In overtime though, it looked like it was all for naught, and then moments later it looked like it was going to be a famous victory. Then the game descended into a cosmic farce, with two chip shot field goals somehow being missed, and a tie resulted.

But, even if the scoreboard didn’t reveal it, the match had a clear winner and loser. For Seattle it was a champion’s escape – for Arizona it was an embarrassing missed opportunity.

The lesson from the game, aside from the eternal one that nothing in football, not even 28 or 24-yard field goals, can be taken for granted, is that Seattle’s defence is still as great as it’s ever been.

Earl Thomas is a visionary maniac, covering absurd amounts of ground in impossibly little time, jumping routes and passes that he knows are coming before the offence does. Billy Wagner is a freak of nature and KJ Wright has never missed a tackle in his entire life. You can show me evidence to the contrary but I’ll tell you it’s a lie.

Richard Sherman, while perhaps more mortal than three years ago, is still an imposing, dominant cornerback, and DeShawn Shead has made big plays opposite him the past two weeks.

Cliff Avril, Sunday’s most dominant player, and Michael Bennett continue to eat quarterbacks, and eat them with swagger. They are scary, scary creatures, and beautiful football players.

The defence entered the week as the best in the league by DVOA and after Sunday’s game that will only climb to better than the best. The special teams unit has climbed into the elite, and now only the offence has to catch up.

The offensive line is a debacle and it’s not getting better. It might be the single biggest flaw of any contending team. But if Wilson gets his legs back, the saloon doors act up front will become less crippling, and the offence will become more dynamic. The talent is there, with Doug Baldwin a star wideout, Tyler Lockett a wealth of potential, Jermaine Kearse prone to big plays, and Jimmy Graham rounding into form, his genius on display on the pivotal game-tying drive in overtime.

Thomas Rawls will come back soon and improve one of the league’s worst rushing units. But the offence will rest on Wilson’s health and whether he can regain his explosiveness.

Until then, the defence will give Seattle life, if only because it’s a unit that has proven time and time again that it doesn’t know how to die.