Seahawks’ win makes our days a bit brighter

• It’s both, actually. We’ve turned the corner on the calendar part and the days will start getting longer again. Yes, it’s officially winter, but who cares? It’s only a few months and spring will be here. Between now and then, we have the Hawks to follow. The hard-to-beat Hawks. The dominating Hawks. The best-team-in-the-NFL Hawks. Wasn’t it just a few weeks ago some idiots were leaving them for dead? Sure it was. I was one of those idiots. I admit it freely. The future was so dull I took off my shades. Ha. All Seattle has done since is win five consecutive games against pretty much the best the NFC has to offer. Well, that’s not all. They beat down the 49ers so badly they haven’t recovered. They’ve destroyed Arizona twice, more than likely robbing the high-flying Cardinals of any mojo for the postseason. And they’ve put the rest of the NFL on notice that, to win this season’s Super Bowl, you’ll have to get through the Seattle Seahawks first. The first step is next Sunday, because, as everyone knows, the NFL is a week-to-week league. This past week the Hawks won in dominating fashion, 35-6 over the Cardinals, the team with the best record in NFC coming in. But that doesn’t assure Seattle of anything. To get it all, the NFC West title, the week off and, more than likely, the top seed in the NFC – with all home games for the playoffs – the Hawks have to defeat the St. Louis Rams on Sunday. No biggie, right? Well, remember, the Rams are 1-0 this season against Seattle. Just saying. Was the game in St. Louis a fluke? A little bit. Remember the trick plays? I hope the Hawks do. And are ready for even more. It’s coach Jeff Fisher’s calling card, at least against Seattle. The Seahawks have to avoid the pothole that is the Rams and then the playoffs set up nicely. The bye week would allow guys like Max Unger, Russell Okung and any number of passing targets to heal up a bit – though they weren’t needed al that much yesterday. Home games allows the 12th man to witness it in person, to lend their vocal cords in support of the Hawk defense, to make life miserable for Aaron Rodgers or Tony Romo or Cam Newton or whomever is running the opposing offense. And it makes another Super Bowl all that more likely. So revel in yesterday’s rout. Replay Marshawn Lynch’s 79-yard touchdown run over and over. Laugh at Russell Wilson’s moves as he snakes his way into the end zone. And remember, the days are brighter, the nights shorter, mainly because the professional football team is winning again. And, oh ya, the calendar has turned a page.

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• WSU: The Seahawks won yesterday a bit short-handed. The Cougars didn’t let their basketball opponent, San Jose State , do the same thing. The Spartans were missing almost half their roster and turned to a football player for help. It wasn’t enough. Jacob Thorpe has the game story from WSU’s 82-53 victory. Afterward, Jacob posted videos from postgame interviews with Ernie Kent and some players . He also has a blog post on the Cougars’ holiday plans next season. … This morning Jacob continued to flood the blog, this time with his morning post .

• Gonzaga : Before Jim Meehan headed back from Seattle, he put together a post looking back at the win over Cal Poly. … The lack of team success is limiting Robert Sacre’s fun in Los Angeles these days.

• EWU: The Eastern women won their opener at a holiday tournament in Florida.

• Whitworth: The Pirates were back at home yesterday and Tom Clouse was there. He has all the particulars on their 78-64 win over Marion.

• Seahawks: If there is anything that stands out from the Hawks’ 35-6 win , I guess it would be all the smiles on the Seattle sidelines. There were a handful of things that occurred in the second half that seemed to have Pete Carroll saying ” how did that happen ?” And then he would laugh . Some of the moments were supplied by Lynch , who reportedly had a stomach ailment that kept him from playing the first quarter – and only the first quarter . ( Does it smell like something else to you folks?) Some were supplied by a defense that made life miserable for backup quarterback Ryan Lindley and the overmatched Cardinal offense. And some of them were supplied by Wilson , who made a couple of beautiful passes to Luke Willson (pictured), had key runs in key times and played an all-round superb game. … The offensive line was beat-up. We know that. But the group that played did a better job protecting Wilson than the group that was on the field the first time these teams met. … Remember, the Super Bowl will be on the same field the Hawks played on yesterday. … The Cardinals took ownership of the loss , but that doesn’t mean they liked it one bit .

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• Do you have a short work schedule this week? Me too. I will be taking Christmas off. No typing. Nothing. So you’ve been warned. Consider it my present to you. Until later ..