A GRIP ON SPORTS • There was a funeral about eight weeks ago in Seattle. The Seahawks’ playoff hopes were put to rest. Dirt was tossed, a eulogy read. All premature, as it turns out. Read on.

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• The zombies of the NFL? Well, if that’s the case, then the Hawks are the fastest-moving pack of the living dead anyone has ever seen. At one point this season Seattle was 2-4. The defense was being gashed, the quarterback was in danger of being broken in two and the coaching – especially the offensive coordinator – was being questioned. How did that work out? Well, they’ve won seven of their past eight. The defense has tightened up, the offense has begun to look like Usain Bolt. They have clinched another playoff spot. Lightning in a beer mug or just the outgrowth of hard work and a devotion to principles? Or, to strike a more negative note – which is out job here under the contract I signed with the printer’s devil when I retired – all about the schedule? In the eight games that have seen the Hawks rise from the grave, they have played the 49ers twice, the Cowboys, the Steelers, the Vikings, the Ravens and, yesterday, the Browns. At least two of those teams qualify as “woeful” and two more are in the “injury-riddled” category. The Vikings are a playoff contender, as are the Steelers. But that’s it. No matter how 12-colored your glasses are, you have to acknowledge the one Super Bowl contender the Hawks have faced since the 2-4 start, Arizona, came into Seattle and won 39-32. OK, a case can be made this isn’t the same Seattle team. That, at that point (mid-November), the defense was still shuffling a bit like the cast of “The Walking Dead.” And the offense, despite scoring at will that day, wasn’t purring as it is now, despite the loss of Marshawn Lynch and Lynch 2.0, Thomas Rawls. It’s an understandable argument. But is it valid? We probably won’t know until the playoffs. The Rams come to Seattle on Sunday and, though they are the Hawks’ Rick Grimes, they aren’t a playoff team – again. The regular season ends in Arizona and who know how many plays the Cardinals will risk Carson Palmer in that one. So we will have to wait until January 9 or 10 to ultimately know if the Hawks can climb all the way back. But this we do know. On Oct. 19, only a few of the faithful still were clinging to hope. The season was slipping away. The Panthers left the Emerald City undefeated, the Hawks were left with a 2-4 mark and little hope. Eight games later, Carolina is still perfect. And Seattle has nearly been. If we are all lucky, the two will meet again in about a month. With something a bit more important at stake.

• Is Russell Wilson elite? Who cares? All that matters is he’s playing about as well as you could ask right now. He’s accurate, decisive, determined. Heck, he wasn’t perfect yesterday – two deep throws to Tyler Lockett were underthrown, possibly costing the Hawks at least one more score – but he’s about as close as an NFL quarterback can be. He’s also developed a bond with Doug Baldwin that is reminiscent of Joe Montana and Dwight Clark or Tom Brady and ... ah heck, just pick a name. Defensive domination has its own special place in Hawks’ fans heart, but the way the offense is playing right now sure makes the games fun to watch.

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• WSU: The Cougar women traveled to the Midwest and handled Kansas, 66-53, in their final non-conference game. ... The Times’ Stefanie Loh examines the dearth of white receivers – and running backs and defensive backs – in football through the prism of Kyle Sweet’s recruitment. ... Has Oregon fallen down in developing quarterbacks? Mark Helfrich doesn’t think so.

• Gonzaga: It seems like only the day-before-yesterday the Zags were playing non-conference games. Oh, it was. Tonight, Gonzaga hosts Pepperdine in a student-deprived Kennel as the WCC schedule opens for the first time before Christmas. Jim Meehan has an advance of the way-too-early conference kickoff. ... Saint Mary’s turned some heads with its pre-conference play.

• EWU: The Eagles defeated Denver on the road 74-58 yesterday. The interesting stat: 72 of the points were scored by three players, Felix Von Hofe (a career-high 28), Venky Jois (26) and Austin McBroom (18).

• Preps: Gonzaga Prep football coach Dave McKenna was named the state’s coach of the year before the Seahawks’ game yesterday.

• Seahawks: We will start with John Blanchette’s column, which sums up the place the Hawks are in right now. The visual equivalent: A tropical beach with a tub of ice-cold Diet Coke next to the lounge chair (I’m projecting here). ... There are other columns as well, of course, from Art Thiel, Larry Stone, Dave Boling, John McGrath and Matt Calkins. ... The 30-13 final didn’t seem to reflect the workmanlike way the Hawks dominated Cleveland. ... Baldwin wasn’t the only receiver to have a nice day. So did Jermaine Kearse. ... Russell Okung was the latest Hawk to limp off, courtesy of a sore calf.

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• The countdown has begun. Christmas comes before the weekend. Maybe it’s time I put the Halloween decorations away, huh? Until later ...

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