Blanchette: Seahawks are in their happy place

SEATTLE – A toasty, impenetrable zen has enveloped the Seattle Seahawks, not unlike the $750 parka from REI you’re sure to find under the tree.

So Marshawn Lynch’s hernia and Thomas Rawls’ broken ankle has the club surfing Craigslist for warm bodies? No biggie. Cobble together a many-headed monster of discards, golden oldies and the odd fullback and watch them run up nearly 200 yards.

Kam Chancellor – the Drill Master, the tone-setter – is out? No problem. Plug in Kelcie McCray from the special teams and watch him lead the team in tackles.

Doug Baldwin is putting up Jerry Rice numbers. Russell Wilson is on an NFL-record unmatched roll.

So golden are the Seahawks that they can cajole coach Pete Carroll out of letting the first-half clock tick away and still not resort to a Hail Mary – instead baiting the opponent into a face-mask penalty with time expired to get them within range of a chip-shot field goal.

And they’re back in the playoffs – with two games still to play in the regular season – even though they were written off back in Week 10.

Remember, you read that here first.

“Early in the season, it was looking a little scary,” admitted linebacker K.J. Wright – and, hey, that’s a much-appreciated bone you’re tossing this way, K.J.

No handouts from Baldwin, of course.

“It’s no different than what we’ve shown the last four or five years,” he said. “We’re resilient. You can count us out and say what you want to about players, but we’re going to be consistently efficient at what we do – run the ball, stop you on defense and be explosive when we have to be.”

Well, now, at least.

But now is when it counts.

Actually there is something very different about the surge that has carried the Seahawks back into relevance – a few somethings, in fact:

Baldwin himself. Yes, the Seahawks have faced some of the softest secondaries in the NFL the past month (Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Cleveland all rank 21st or lower in pass defense), but the one-time free-agent signee is playing at a level he’s never approached. Or that few others have.

The 6-yard pass he snagged from Wilson for Seattle’s go-ahead score, floating right away from motion in a nice little wrinkle to the offense, was his 10th touchdown in the past four games – an achievement only Rice previously managed. Of maybe more significance: He has 11 touchdowns in his last six games – or as many as he caught in the previous three seasons.

“He has crazy talent, and he’s so smart,” said Wilson. “He’s playing All-Pro football.”

Wilson, too – an NFL-record five games now with three or more touchdowns and no interceptions. Though with fan Trevor Feeney winning $5,000 during a timeout for throwing 10 balls through a target in 20 seconds, Wilson was only the second most-efficient quarterback on the field.

“Russell is the guy,” said Browns defensive end Xavier Cooper, the rookie from Washington State. “He makes a lot of those guys better players than they are.”

The who-are-those-guys backfield.

Even with Lynch and his remarkable reliever, Rawls, both shelved, the Seahawks were hardly going to abandon their identity. So they signed Bryce Brown for a third time this year but also brought back Christine Michael, their one-time second-round pick who had all but played his way out of first Seattle and then two other cities with his indifferent work habits.

On Sunday, he ran for 84 yards on 16 carries and led the league in gratitude.

“As a young player, I had it in my mind that it was all about me – and it’s not,” he confessed. “It’s way bigger than me. It’s about this business, this city, the 12s, the staff, the team. I’m just a little piece in it.”

Whether the Seahawks can sustain the success piece-mealing it on the run remains to be seen, but the most glaring thing about their resurgence is that for the last month, the offense has actually played as the defense’s equal – or better. On third downs Sunday, Seattle converted a ridiculous 9 of 12.

“Seems like every time you would hear ‘punt team get ready’ on (our) sideline, you would hear a roar from their fans,” said Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel.

Offered Carroll: “The efficiency of the offense is the best it’s been since we’ve been here.”

Which has translated into efficiency in the win column – five straight now. Who would have thought you could get from 2-4 to 9-5?

Well, the Seahawks, of course.

“It’s a marvelous chemistry that takes place on teams,” said Carroll, “and you can sit back and watch it happen and get frustrated and impatient. But we keep thinking that it’s going to happen, that something good is out there for us.”

Something good is what the Seahawks have now – and zen, of course.