A Grip on Sports: It was pretty apparent at about 9 p.m. Sunday that we had just experienced a special day in Northwest sports

A GRIP ON SPORTS • I spent a little time this morning flipping through the mental Rolodex that makes up the timeline of my long life. And was unable to come up with many better Sundays than the one we all experienced together yesterday.

•••••••

• There was that one, Aug. 12, 1979, the first Sunday of what has turned out to be an nearly 50-year marriage. It was a great day, even if it began in Palmdale, Calif., and consisted of a seven-hour drive up U.S. 395 in a 1965 Volkswagen bug that lacked air conditioning. Or, as we were to find out a few days later, working brakes.

Then there was Sept. 9 in 1984. My first Sunday as a dad. Aug. 27, 2006, the other bookend. Our first Sunday as empty nesters. Oh, and Jan. 1, 2012 comes to mind as well, as that was the first official day of retirement.

But in the sporting realm?

Feb. 2, 2014? The rout of the Broncos. The Seahawks’ lone Super Bowl title? That was a good Sunday. But, really, no others come quickly to mind.

None, as far as I can remember, featuring two games that, when the day dawned, seemed destined to end up in the “well, at least they tried hard” side of the ledger.

The Seahawks were dealing with so many secondary injuries they may have been tempted to see if Richard Sherman felt good enough to go. And the Mariners probably were wondering if Bill Caudill’s pitching arm might handle an inning or two. Both held hopes, of course, as did their fan bases, but the possibility of an 0-2 day seemed more in the offing than a 2-0 one.

Which made what happened all that sweeter.

The Seahawks started the day with a game plan that had me thinking me of former Washington State football coach Bill Doba. The old ball coach used to remind me occasionally pass defense can be played two ways. Cover the receivers like a blanket or throw a figurative one over the quarterback. No time equals no completions.

Jacksonville’s Trevor Lawrence learned the lesson through the pain of five sacks and 16 other hits. Against the Chiefs last week, Lawrence fell down on the game’s last play, got up and ran for the game-winning score. Against the Seahawks? He just fell down. A lot.

No Julian Love, Devon Witherspoon and Riq Woolen? No problem. The 20-12 victory was built on the broad shoulders of the guys up front – as most wins are. From wunderkind Byron Murphy II to old man Leonard Williams, the Seattle front made Lawrence not only flinch but ineffective much of the day.

It was a remarkable, and unexpected, performance.

And it wasn’t alone. Not even for 12 hours.

North of the Mason-Dixon Line, in the nation’s soon-to-be 51st state, the Mariners pulled out their deed to Rogers Centre and waved it in front of the Blue Jays’ hitters.

How else can you explain their impotency? Toronto led all of baseball in hitting in the regular season and came into Sunday’s American League Championship Series in the same spot during the postseason. And collected two hits. Against the M’s fifth starter, Bryce Miller, who was pitching on three days rest for the first time in his career, and three Seattle relievers.

George Springer took Miller’s first pitch of the game into the right-field stands. The other 98 thrown by Miller, Gabe Speier, Matt Brash and Andrés Muñoz? Pretty much nothing more than soft contact – if any contact at all.

And yet Springer’s swing seemed for all the world as if it would be enough. Until Kevin Gausman’s finally hung a splitter. To the wrong guy. Cal Raleigh, who’s name seems to be on the deed, lifted it to the right-field seats in the sixth inning. From there, it was the Jorge Polanco show – again. Not one big game-ending hit but two small ones – a sixth-inning RBI single and another in the eighth.

The unexpected 3-1 victory not only capped the Northwest’s best Sunday in recent memory – rain be darned – it also gave the Mariners the home-field edge as they seek their first World Series berth.

Maybe they’ll clinch it next Sunday, which would be something. But better than the double surprise thrown our way yesterday?

OK, sure. Even without a Seahawk game that day, nothing could surpass that. 

•••

WSU: With Washington State back home after its trip to face one of the SEC’s best teams over the weekend, is there a little time to rest and recuperate? Nope. The Cougars, in the midst of a schedule from hell foisted on them by the defection or animosity of the rest of Western college football, are off to face one of the ACC’s leaders, 18th-ranked Virginia, on Saturday (3:30 p.m. PDT, The CW). Greg Woods also is rest-less, forced to look back at the 24-21 loss to Ole Miss one more time. … The performance in Oxford was impressive. But not enough to move the Cougs up in this Athletic ranking. … Elsewhere in the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, Jon Wilner has his weekly Pac-12 football power rankings but this week also works in the big news from Sunday, Oregon State firing Trent Bray after the loss to Wake Forest. … John Canzano has a couple of columns on that, though the second one is a link to an interview with OSU athletic director Scott Barnes. … Stewart Mandel has a great point today. He rails about college athletics’ administrations demanding Congress change the laws to help them deal with the new financial realities all the while football coaches will be fired and paid to not coach. By the end of the year, there will probably be more than $200 million paid in buyouts. The biggest one went to Penn State’s James Franklin yesterday. … No need to think about Deion Sanders’ contract. Colorado’s win over Iowa State may just be a turning point for the season. … San Diego State has reached the halfway point of the season 5-1.

• Here are the rest of the (current, old and future) Pac-12 football games this week, listed chronologically. All this week are on Saturday unless noted. The schedule below also includes any game in which mining news about turned out to be nearly impossible.

– San Jose State at Utah State (Friday, 6 p.m., CBS Sports Network): The Spartans and Aggies both will be looking for a bounce-back win.

– North Carolina at Cal (Friday, ESPN): There is no wonder why, at the beginning of the season, ESPN wanted this game on a Friday night. Now? It seems a little odd.

– Washington at Michigan (9 a.m., Fox): The Huskies will be coming off a 38-19 home win against Rutgers. The Wolverines? They were embarrassed up front by USC.

– Arizona at Houston (9, FS1): The Wildcats’ first half of the season has been a little better than expected.

– Texas State at Marshall (12:30 p.m., ESPN+): The Bobcats need a win to keep their bowl hopes alive.

– No. 7 Texas Tech at Arizona State (1, Fox): It’s unknown whether the Sun Devils will have their quarterback back against the Big 12 leaders.

– No. 8 Oregon at Rutgers (3:30, Big Ten Network): The loss to now-No. 3 Indiana dropped the Ducks in the polls. But not out of the top 10. And they should stay there if they take care of business in New Jersey.

– Maryland at UCLA (4, FS1): No matter what happens the rest of the year, the Bruins have righted the ship. And athletic director Martin Jarmond, who caved in the hull himself, wants everyone to know he’s responsible for the patch job. More than the new coaches or the players.

– Hawaii at Colorado State (4, Mountain West Network): How much did the in over Fresno State calm the waters for CSU?

– No. 20 USC at No. 13 Notre Dame (4:30, NBC): There is a possibility this is the last time for a while these rivals will play. Even though both schools want the series to continue. It’s about money folks.  

– No. 23 Utah at No. 15 BYU (5, Fox): One OK thing about the Pac-12 breaking apart? It allowed these two rivals to play every year in a conference matchup. The Holy War is one of the best rivalries in the nation. The Utes come in off a big win over Arizona State and the Cougars after surviving in Tucson.

– Lafayette at Oregon State (7, The CW): Our buddy – or “bubba” in his parlance – Robb Akey will make his interim head coaching debut against an FCS team. Could the Beavers pick up their first win of the season after seven losses?

– Florida State at Stanford (7:30, ESPN): That the Cardinal are unranked comes as no surprise. That the Seminoles aren’t either probably does to those who watched their season-opening win over Alabama and then left the country for a month.

EWU: Former Eagle teammates Cooper Kupp (Seahawks) and Kendrick Bourne (49ers) are once-again NFC West rivals. Both had huge days yesterday, with Kupp scoring his first Seattle touchdown and Bourne leading San Francisco in receiving. That’s why Colton Clark led his look at local players in the NFL with their performances. … Elsewhere in the (current and future) Big Sky, Montana State played well against Idaho State. … UC Davis finally showed its best self against Northern Arizona. … Cal Poly played a great first half in Missoula. But there are two halves in every game.

Zephyr: On a rainy Sunday afternoon at ONE Spokane Stadium, the host Zephyr topped Dallas Trinity FC 2-0 to strengthen their hold on the top spot of the USL Super League table.

Mariners: We linked a few stories above, but of course there are more to send your way. Miller’s performance. Raleigh’s drive. The significance of the win. The Blue Jays’ thoughts. And more, including the choice of Logan Gilbert as the start today.

Seahawks: We start our links with Dave Boling’s column on the masterful performance of the defensive front seven (and Jaxson Smith-Njigba). … There are also stories concerning the game itself, the games within the game and, of course, grades. … Instant reactions too. … Remember how I said no one would feel sorry for the Hawks and all their injuries? That’s because everyone is hit by them at some time. The 49ers suffered another major blow as linebacker and defensive leader Fred Warner saw his season end with a knee injury in their loss to Tampa Bay.

Storm: This is a key offseason for the WNBA. The collective bargaining agreement expires and has to be renewed. Plus there are the issues between the players and the commissioner that has to be either ironed out or a change made.

Wheelchair racing: Susannah Scaroni won the Chicago Marathon on Sunday, giving her two of the three main marathon titles of the year. Madison McCord has more on Scaroni, the Tekoa native, as she sets her sights on winning in New York next month.

•••       

• Before you type out that email to me that says something to the effect “you dummy, if the Mariners win the World Series, it would be an even better day,” don’t. Yes it would. But it would also not be a Sunday. MLB doesn’t want its championship to ever go up against the NFL’s day. So there are no Sunday World Series games. Until later …