Blanchette: Group therapy works for Seahawks

SEATTLE – The week started for the Seattle Seahawks with Marshawn Lynch returning some poor fool’s lost wallet, and ended with a new team shibboleth. “Why not us?” is now “I love you, man.” This was, the Seahawks insisted, at the heart of their 19-3 victory over the big, bad Arizona Cardinals on Sunday, though it didn’t hurt that the Cardinals only sent nine guys out to block for punter Drew Butler in the third quarter, either. Also, Seattle tight end Cooper Helfet willed himself over the goal line for an actual red zone touchdown later that period. His Seahawks Ring of Honor induction is pending. On any given Sunday in the NFL, the nonsense and detritus of the what-passes-for-news cycle gives way to actual football, and even if it’s not very pretty – and this mashfest was a last-call barroom coupling if ever there was one – the conclusions are decisive. If temporary. Just three days from now the Seahawks must swap helmet paint with the San Francisco 49ers while we plop down on the couch and try to pick up the tryptophan blitz. If the scoreboard then doesn’t reflect a similar outcome for the Seahawks, all the emotional first downs amassed and hailed this day will be suitable for mocking. So the Seahawks weren’t going around trumpeting Sunday’s success as some grand statement game. OK, they were. “Statement to ourselves,” safety Kam Chancellor said. “Play for one another, no matter what.” It seems the Seahawks believe they have been accorded the shortest honeymoon of any Super Bowl champion. The parade and all that dynasty talk was nice, but then came the season, and now it’s all one big bother. If it wasn’t management trading away Percy Harvin while the team was boarding a bus for the airport it was anonymous race-baiting about whether Russell Wilson is “black enough” or a media feeding frenzy about Lynch not joining his teammates in the locker room at halftime (silly, because injured players always stay on the field, you know). Key cast members formed a conga line to the trainer’s room. Opponents actually played to, you know, win. So coach Pete Carroll did what he does best: Not concoct a new scheme, but initiate some intense kumbaya. He pulled together 10 or so of the locker room movers and shakers early last week for the equivalent of a group hug. “It was that play-for-each-other mentality that we embodied this week,” Helfet said. “The 12s are great and we love them to death, and the stadium is huge for us and the coaching staff. But at the end of the day, it’s the team and it’s playing for the guy next to you and when we’re playing as a team together, we’re unstoppable.” Well, except on third down. First, the Seahawks had to get four field goals out of their system – settling even after DeShawn Shead noticed Arizona’s Stepfan Taylor forgot to report for duty, leaving a clear lane to Butler. So completely did Shead smother the ball that the punter gave him a fat lip with his follow-through. But even if the Seahawks didn’t get into the end zone after that, Arizona’s spirit was crushed. Wilson – sacked seven times by a relentless rush – engineered one of those solo drives he seems to manage once a game and Helfet finished a 20-yard pass play with a dive past the pylon. Meanwhile, a Seattle defense revived by the return of Chancellor and Bobby Wagner (they led the team in tackles) held the Cardinals to just 204 yards. Lynch? He only managed 39 yards rushing and another 43 on catches. But he went in at halftime, and after the game welcomed inquisitors at his locker to foil the NFL access police. Rocking a dope plaid flyer’s cap, his answers ranged from “yeah” to “maybe” to “I don’t know.” He’s about those monosyllables, boss. So the news of the day was Carroll’s therapy group. Having retrofitted the offense with the Harvin swap, this move seemed aimed more at the defense, which apparently has been plagued by players trying to do the other guy’s job, or something. Instead, this team they responded with “the first really big-time together game that we’ve played,” Carroll said. Offered safety Earl Thomas, “Trust – that’s what we’ve been missing, to be totally honest.” OK. So let’s trust a Stanford guy to explain what we might be missing here. “Everybody who plays in the NFL is athletically gifted,” receiver Doug Baldwin said. “The subtle difference between what’s good and what’s great and what’s legendary is the mental side of it, and the emotional side. If you can play this game with love and trust and commitment to each other, that’s probably the hardest thing for anybody to stop.” Lynch had already left the premises. But surely he would have endorsed the message with a firm, “Yeah.” Or at least, “Maybe.”