A Grip on Sports: Though they always seem to roil our stomach a bit, the Seahawks ate up the Cardinals on Sunday

A GRIP ON SPORTS • The Seattle Seahawks are playing their best football of the season. That’s inarguable. But will it be enough to hold off the explosive Rams? The rejuvenated, for one week at least, 49ers? Not sure. But I am sure of one thing. It will be fun, in the “man-my-stomach-hurts” type of way.

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• Even as the Hawks were dominating fading Arizona on Sunday afternoon en route to their 30-18 victory, there was a gnawing feeling in my insides. And I hadn’t even eaten any of the playing-the-Cardinals-in-the-Valley-of-the-Sun chilis we always have.

When would Geno Smith make an ill-advised pass? When would the offensive line get ticketed two or three times in a row for holding? When would Kyler Murray scramble for 51 yards and a touchdown?

Turns out, it was all wasted worry. And stomach acid.

Smith wasn’t perfect, though he was close. With the running game on point despite Kenneth Walker III sidelined – more on that presently – Smith wasn’t asked to do a lot of work. He threw it just 30 times, mainly in the short-to-medium range. But when required, he did his job, completing 24 of his throws, including a beautiful – in the eyes of the 12s – 19-yard touchdown first-quarter connection with Jaxon Smith-Njigba that gave the Hawks the lead for good.

As for the offensive line, it was about as good as its been all season – think Abe Lucas’ health means much to the group? – for a couple reasons. One was it protected Smith well, as he was sacked just twice and hurried only occasionally. And the group did it without being tagged often with holding – again, just twice.

But that wasn’t what it did best.

Without Walker, Hawks’ offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb could have been justified in relying on Smith. Instead he turned to the line and asked its members to open holes. They did. Enough of them Zach Charbonnet, pounded his way – with one notable exception – for a career-high 134 yards on 22 carries. In all, Seattle ran for 176 on 31, a 5.7 average.

More than half-a-first-down on each handoff? Yes please. Of course, one lone run skewed the average. It was a 51-yard second-quarter blast that gave Seattle a two-touchdown lead headed into intermission.

With Lucas and rookie right guard Sataoa Laumea pulling and leading Charbonnet through a hole on the left side, the Cardinal (6-7) defense parted. Thirty yards from the endzone, the Hawks, and all of us watching at home, knew he had scored – Lucas did too, throwing his hands in the air in a TD signal.

And yet the gnawing feeling remained. After all, Murray is a magician with the ball in his hands.

Not against the Hawk defense. Not now. Not the way it is playing. Controlled aggression would be a fitting description. Flying around if you want a simpler term. But without getting out of control, crucial against a guy like Murray who can tuck and run, not stopping until he hands the ball to the back judge in the end zone. No chance of that Sunday. Not now.

Murray ran three times. He gained just 16 yards, 14 of them on one sprint. There just were no open lanes in the Leonard Williams-led rush. Neither were their many lanes to see receivers, which didn’t stop Murray from throwing two ill-advised early passes, both picked off by the Hawks. New linebacker Ernest Jones IV grabbed the first one. Safety Coby Bryant took away the second. And both led to first-half touchdowns.

In a game that both teams needed to win to open a decent-sized path to the playoffs, the Hawks defense had its GPS locked in. The Cardinals, once 6-4 and in control of the NFC West, were forced to move slowly down the field. After an opening drive that covered 70 yards in just over 3 minutes, Arizona managed just 286 yards the rest of the way. In a paltry 23 minutes with the ball, a number cut short by the two interceptions.

Seattle was in control from Jones’ pick and the ensuing one-play drive, Smith Njigba’s score. Never lost it.

Thanks to that, the 8-5 Hawks have a simple path to the playoffs. Find a way to win one of the remaining two home games – against Green Bay and then Minnesota. Win at Chicago. If that happens, the finale at the Rams could be moot. But if not, play as they did Sunday.

Then maybe we can throw away the antacids.

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WSU: Holiday Bowl. Dec. 27. San Diego, the land of perpetual 70-degree days. Sound good? It is, for the Cougars this season. In all of their Pac-12-as-we-knew-it-years, Washington State only exceeded such a bowl destination a handful of times. A quartet of Rose Bowls. The one Alamo Bowl with Gardner Minshew’s mustache in charge. That’s it. This, the fourth Holiday Bowl appearance against a 9-3 Syracuse team coming off a win over Miami, is next in the bowl hierarchy. Greg Woods has this coverage of Sunday’s announcement, including news on who may or may not play. … Elsewhere in the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, Washington is headed to a bowl. The Huskies will face Louisville in the Sun Bowl on New Year’s Eve morning. Jedd Fisch wonders why bowl games have lost their cachet? Check the transfer portal. And the CFP. … Speaking of the latter, the committee ticked off everyone in the land of “It Just Matters More” by selecting ACC runner-up SMU over Alabama for the last at-large spot. I actually agree with the Mercury News’ Jon Wilner, who feels 11-1 Indiana should have been left home. And agree with his assessment the Alabama decision will have implications down the road. Big ones. … Who wins the CFP? Chalk says the No. 1 seed, the Oregon Ducks. I’m not so sure. … It is already time to tweak the playoff structure. … How about the bowls? Which one is best? … Back to the CFP, Oregon has some time off before meeting the Tennessee/Ohio State winner in the Rose Bowl on January 1. That’s a good thing. Or is it? … Colorado and BYU will face off in the Alamo Bowl, a swan song for some of the Buffs. … California is going bowling. The good news? It’s in California. In L.A. actually. The better news? The opponent, the Mountain West’s UNLV, will be under an interim coach. Barry Odom has already left for Purdue. Our guess he will have enticed a bunch of Rebels to join him before the Dec. 18 L.A. Bowl. … Utah’s Kyle Whittingham ended the speculation. He released a two-word statement saying “I’m back.” Now he needs to mine the portal. … With Boise State earning the CFP’s third seed, Arizona State does not get to play in the Fiesta Bowl. The Sun Devils will be in the Peach Bowl against the winner of Texas and Clemson. … Arizona is losing players not just to the portal but to the NFL as well. … Among the future Pac-12 members in the Mountain West, Boise gets to play in the Phoenix area and will meet Penn State or SMU in the Fiesta Bowl. … Colorado State is headed to Tucson for the Arizona Bowl. … San Diego State’s former defensive coordinator is now the head coach at North Dakota. … In basketball news, UCLA went to Eugene, hit a last-second banked-in 3-pointer and upset 12th-ranked Oregon 73-71. … The Washington women could not upset visiting UCLA, the nation’s top-ranked team.

Gonzaga: Three close games. One win, in the Kennel against Arizona State. The other two led to overtime losses. It’s something the Zags need to work on. Jim Meehan looks back at the latest, the 90-89 Battle in Seattle against Kentucky. … The men blew a 16-point halftime lead Saturday night. If this were a meme, then what the women did Sunday would include the phrase “hold my adult beverage” or something like that. They built a 20-point halftime edge at future Pac-12 opponent Colorado State. Then proceeded to fritter it all away, losing 74-72 in overtime. Greg Lee watched and has this story on their fourth consecutive loss. … Elsewhere in the WCC, San Diego State’s 74-57 home win over neighbor USD means a lot in the Aztecs’ eyes.

Idaho: Kaden Elliss had high-tackle games when he played in Moscow. And now he’s doing the same in the NFL. Ethan Myers tells us how many the linebacker had for the Falcons yesterday in Myers’ roundup of local players in the league. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, the Montana football season is over after the loss at South Dakota State.

Chiefs: Man, is Spokane on fire. The Chiefs won their ninth consecutive game and 10 of their last 11 on Sunday, topping the Seattle Thunderbirds 3-1 in Kent. Dave Nichols has the game story.

Seahawks: Before you start yelling “blasphemy,” hear Dave Boling out. Read his column on the “Baby Boomers” in Seattle’s secondary. Have an open mind. Of course, if you are one of the 12s who began following the team after the Super Bowl, it’s OK to do a deep dive into the Legion of Boom before raking Dave over social media’s red-hot coals. … We can pass along the game story, the always-available grades, the impressions and another column, this one from the Times’ Matt Calkins. … It was the Hawks’ most complete game in a couple months. … The playoffs, in some degree, have already started for Mike Macdonald’s team. … Michael Dickson was a true game-time decision. … We can pass along coverage from Arizona as well, where Murray is the scapegoat. … The Rams are also playing well and the 49ers picked up a needed rout.

Mariners: Inflation is awful. Just 11 years ago, the M’s signed a Yankee superstar to a free-agent contract. Robinson Cano. Ten years, $240 million. It was a huge overpayment. But guess what? It didn’t bankrupt the franchise. Probably actually made it money. That was then. Now? The M’s don’t even enter the Juan Soto sweepstakes. The Yankee star signed with the Mets. Fifteen years (fixed from earlier), $765 million.

Kraken: Another game away from Climate Pledge Arena, another win. Seattle handled the Rangers in New York.

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• It was a great win for the Hawks. Big implications. No injuries. All in all, about as good a trip to Arizona as the franchise could have hoped. If the Bills had showed up in the first quarter against the Rams, it would have been a perfect day. Until later …