Stone: Seahawks play their best when it means the most

The Seattle Seahawks embrace turmoil. They welcome cacophony. The more noise – literal and figurative – the better.

In Pete Carroll’s world, it’s just another learning tool. It’s all about getting his team ready for the confrontations ahead, so that the biggest moments – like the one they face Sunday night in Arizona – don’t overwhelm them.

“There are a lot of things we do that try and create a little bit of chaos, so that we get comfortable,” Carroll said.

Creating calm out of chaos is a central tenet of Carroll’s coaching strategy, right up there with “always compete” and “every game is a championship opportunity.”

In fact, those three tentacles of Carroll’s core values are inextricably entwined, leading to a team with a nearly impeccable record when the spotlight is the brightest.

Sunday’s game with the Cardinals, which will likely determine the NFC West champion, will be their fourth in prime time this year. They have won the previous three. The Seahawks have an eight-game winning streak in games played on either Thursday, Sunday or Monday nights, and an overall 12-1 mark under Carroll. They’ve outscored opponents 332-148 in those games.

Throw in last year’s playoff surge to a Super Bowl title, and it becomes apparent that the Seahawks have internalized Carroll’s methods for conquering the spotlight – which on the surface may seem to be counterintuitive.

The bigger the hype and the buildup, the more Carroll feels they need to tone down rather than gear up. When you’ve spent so much time in the maelstrom, starting with the first day of minicamps, that task becomes second nature.

“There’s noise, music, lots of things – our guys have to learn how to shift gears well and handle the serious times, fun times, getting their butt chewed, or whatever it is,” Carroll said. “There are all kinds of things we go through that get them in the right mentality to handle a lot of things at the same time.

“I’d like us to be multidimensional as a team – not be distracted, not be confused by what’s going on outside.”

Though this showdown with the Cardinals is being billed as the Game of the Year – capitalization mandatory – it’s clear that the Seahawks are trying to turn down the volume.

“We treat each game exactly the same, a championship type of approach,” defensive end Michael Bennett said. “That’s just the way we play. I think a lot of guys take it one step above every weekend, and try to do something a little more special than they did last week.”

That might be a suitable approach for the Cardinals, who haven’t had a game of this magnitude for a while – perhaps since their Super Bowl season of 2008. As Arizona coach Bruce Arians said on Wednesday, “You don’t get to play for the (whole) thing very often.

“It’s not like Seattle’s played for it for a hundred years. I’m sure they’re embracing it also. … But you don’t change how you prepare for it. It’s still the same process.”

Richard Sherman believes the turning point in figuring out the proper mindset was the Seahawks’ comeback victory over Washington in the ’12 playoffs.

In overcoming the adversity of that game, Sherman said, the Seahawks realized that the fundamental keys to success were unchanged despite the magnitude of the moment. To use Russell Wilson’s oft-uttered cliché, paraphrased by Sherman, the field is still 100 yards long and 531/3 yards wide. “Nothing’s really different,” Sherman said.

Though the Seahawks would suffer an excruciating season-ending loss the next week in Atlanta, it was an epiphany that has fueled them ever since.

“It’s really empowering,” Sherman said. “I think it gives your team a tremendous amount of confidence knowing that they can go any place and they’ll be fine. I don’t think the stadium changes. I mean, maybe if we went on the moon and the gravity changed, it’ll be something to adapt to. But as long as the field’s the same size and the guys are able to come, we’re going to be fine.”

Ever since his USC days – where he was 7-2 in bowl games – Carroll has been trying to figure out ways to help his team seize the moment. To conquer the chaos.

“We work real hard to be comfortable in those situations,” he said.

Call it one small step for the Seahawks, one giant leap toward the Super Bowl.