Baldwin-to-Wilson highlights Seahawks’ win over Eagles, 26-15

SEATTLE – Better get right to it: What if Russell Wilson had dropped that tricky touchdown pass from his Seattle Seahawks teammate, Doug Baldwin?

“He’d have never heard the end of it,” said the man who’s usually on the receiving end of Wilson’s passes. “Never ever.”

Not that the 15-yard Baldwin-to-Wilson score was the turning point of Seattle’s 26-15 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday at CenturyLink Field –though it did put the Seahawks firmly in control. There were other plays, big and small that had set the tone.

For instance, C.J. Prosise’s 72-yard touchdown run four minutes into the game – the longest run by a Seahawks back in the Clink. Or the Wilson-to-Jimmy Graham touchdown pass that required great escapes by both the quarterback and tight end. Or the 57-yard Eagles TD pass that was wiped out when rookie receiver Nelson Agholor improperly lined up off the line of scrimmage and drew a flag.

Interceptions by Richard Sherman – his 30th in a brilliant career – and Kam Chancellor played big, too.

But the day’s centerpiece was the handoff to Baldwin and his toss to Wilson streaking toward the end zone just because of the timing – it made the score 23-7 – and the exchange of roles.

“I was talking to him, saying we can switch jobs if he wants,” joked Wilson, who caught a touchdown pass on a similar play in his college days at Wisconsin. “It may not be pretty, but we can switch jobs.”

That isn’t likely – but Baldwin’s been lobbying.

“I’ve been begging for that play for the last two or three weeks,” he said. “They doubted my arm ability, doubted I could make that throw. So I’m glad I could prove them wrong.”

In fact, Wilson said the Seahawks have “been trying to call that for the past four or five years, literally. We’ve called it several times and then it wasn’t the right (defensive) look. Fortunately, we got the right look today.”

It could be said that the whole day was the right look for the Seahawks.

They revived a running game that hadn’t had a 100-yard day since a Week 3 win over San Francisco – triggered by the pretty Prosise run but carried through by the return of rugged Thomas Rawls, who had 57 yards in his first game back from a broken fibula. They made life tough on Philadelphia’s fine rookie quarterback Carson Wentz, who not only threw the two picks but had Cliff Avril and Bobby Wagner in his face much of the day. And they popped some big plays – the Graham touchdown, two deep balls to Baldwin and another to Tyler Lockett – before grinding things out at the end. The result was a season-high 439 yards – a 7.1 per-play average – against what’s been the NFL’s most efficient defense.

The Seahawks also got coach Pete Carroll his 100th NFL regular-season victory – making him the 39th coach in history to reach that milestone.

“It means he’s old, first and foremost,” cracked Baldwin.

“But it’s a huge accomplishment for him, and knowing how dedicated he is to his job and coaching, it means a lot to us as players to provide that to him and be a part of that. It’s an emotional thing, for sure.”

If the outcome was in little doubt late, it quite likely swung early on the Eagles’ wiped-out TD – a third-down play by tight end Zach Ertz erased by the illegal formation flag on Agholor. The Eagles trailed just 13-7 at the time and wound up having to punt.

“They said I wasn’t on the ball, and I thought I covered the line as well as I should have,” Agholor said. “But I should have checked, because the No. 1 thing is that you always have to check with the ref.”

With the victory, Seattle moved to 7-2-1 and a three-game lead over Arizona in the NFC West.