Six road games down and the Seahawks have matched a franchise mark for road victories. Seattle is 5-1 on the road, 4-0 at home, and have six games left to play this season. If Seattle can win their remaining home games they will earn home field throughout the playoffs.

With some end-of-your-seat, nail-biting types of games in four of the last five weeks, this was the game some fans had been waiting for: a nice relaxing second half where the opposing team is never really in the game.

What a difference one season makes.

Was it really just last season that the Seahawks lost to this Atlanta Falcons team to miss out on a trip to the NFC Championship? At no point in the Seahawks 33-10 victory did the Falcons resemble the team from last season.

The Falcons offense scored only one touchdown and it needed 35 penalty yards along with four downs on the goal line to make it happen.

Seattle got their first touchdown thanks to some trickery. About 10 minutes into the second quarter, Russell Wilson pitched it to Marshawn Lynch. Sweeping to the right side, Lynch passes the ball back to Wilson who then airs it out to Jermaine Kearse in the end zone for the touchdown.

With a 13-3 lead, the Seahawks didn’t need to score again. Regardless, they tacked on 10 more points before halftime, including a touchdown pass to Golden Tate who had the catch of the game. His one-handed grab in the back of the end zone left only one second on the clock.

Tate has his best game of the season as a receiver with six catches for 106 yards. His 46-yard catch and run in the second quarter set up a field goal. His 32-yard punt return set up the catch at the end of the half.

What I’m trying to say is Golden Tate had an incredible second quarter, and he even had a 23-yard catch at the 2-yard line taken away after a Falcons challenge.

Last year, the Falcons led by 20 at the half, this year was the Seahawks turn. The difference was Seattle didn’t give up their lead—they added to it.

The second half was nearly all Marshawn Lynch. Seattle fed him the ball; he ate up the clock and scored a 1-yard touchdown.

It was all Lynch until rookie running back Christine Michael came in for the team’s final drive and ran for 33 yards. In just one series, Michael would’ve been the leading rusher had he played for the Falcons.
In total, the Seahawks racked up more than 200 yards on the ground. Wilson added 287 yards passing, the two previously mentioned touchdown passes and no interceptions.

All the talk to this point has been about the offense. The defense played a major role in securing this win.

Going up against an Atlanta team ranked last in the league in rushing helped get the defense back on track. After giving up 200 yards rushing the last two games, Steven Jackson was held to 11 yards on nine attempts.

Coming into the game, Matt Ryan had more interceptions over a two-game period than at any other point in his career. The Seahawks nearly picked him off at least two times, but that was as close as they came.

The only turnover of the game came in the fourth quarter when Walter Thurmond stripped Harry Douglas at the end of a 31-yard catch and run. It was Atlanta’s longest play of the game.

The second-longest play was the Falcons fifth play of the game: a 20-yard pass to Roddy White. Thanks to Brandon Browner (who left the game with an injured groin) and Byron Maxwell – White never caught another pass.

As the game finished up with another Seattle road win, we had another week of hearing chants of SEA-HAWKS ring out throughout an opposing team’s stadium.

Next week, Seattle faces another team that does not complete a lot of long pass plays. The Minnesota Vikings are near the bottom of the NFL when it comes to yards per attempt.

However, the Vikings are toward the top when it comes to rushing yards per attempt. With Adrian Peterson coming to town, we will see if the defense can show off a dominant performance against the run for two weeks in a row.

If you’d like to RSVP for our postgame Military Appreciation Day party next Sunday, please do so via our website or on our Facebook page.

Finally, I wanted to remind folks to please vote for the Seahawks game against the Vikings in the AFN Fan’s Choice Game of the Week. If Seattle finishes first, it will guarantee the Military Appreciation Day game will air live overseas.