Seahawks get back to their yard work | SEAHAWKS TRAINING CAMP 2015

Published 12:41 pm Friday, July 31, 2015

So close.

One yard from a second title. One play from another majestic parade through the streets of Seattle. One more step to a matching trophy in the VMAC’s glass case.

It still stuns, it still stings and it’s still confusing nearly six months later.

The Seahawks return to camp today (July 31)and get back to work to figure out how to get that one more yard and bring the Lombardi trophy back to Renton where it belongs.

And to hear the team tell it, they’ve put the loss behind them and are ready to move forward with another season of Seahawks football.

“Right at the outset of that, the aftermath of the game, it was important to recognize that everybody’s going to deal with this individually and on their own and we wanted to respect that,” Coach Pete Carroll said during the team’s minicamp in June. “So we have done that and everybody’s brought everybody back to the point where we’re thrilled with what we did this offseason.

“We’re ready to go,” he said.

For the star quarterback who has led the team to two Super Bowls in his first three seasons, the loss was a “heartbreaker,” but will not define the team’s upcoming season as the Seahawks try to return to a third straight Super Bowl, this one on Feb. 7, 2016 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., home of the San Francisco 49ers.

“In terms of the Super Bowl loss, I think it’s a motivating factor for sure, but I don’t think it’s the ultimate one,” said Russell Wilson in June, adding that his team is full of “ultimate competitor(s)” who go out each week with a mentality to “dominate.”

And dominate is exactly what the Seahawks did for most of the 2014 season. Blasting out of the gate with an opening day win over the Green Bay Packers, the 2014 Seahawks went 12-4, won their division, secured the No. 1 seed in the playoffs and then faced down the Packers again in the NFC champ-ionship game, rallying from the largest-ever halftime deficit, the Seahawks rallied for 15 points in the final frame to tie the game. Then, in overtime, the hawks won the coin toss and drove 87 yards in six plays, capped by a pair of long completions, the last of which was a game-winning 30-yard strike to Jermaine Kearse.

It capped another year of excellence for the Hawks and its budding dynasty. Seattle finished the 2014 season with the top-ranked defense in football – again – the top rushing game and the ninth-ranked overall offense.

It’s been an excellent run for Carroll and the Seahawks. The team has now won nine of its last 10 regular season games and 32 of

its last 40. The team has advanced to the divisional round of the playoffs in four of Carroll’s five years with the team.

As in the past, the 2014 Sea-hawks were led by their defense and the secondary corps known collectively as the Legion of Boom. With superstar Richard Sherman leading the way, the LOB helped the Seahawks to be the league’s highest-scoring defense for the third consecutive year and became only the fourth team in NFL history to lead the league in fewest points and yards allowed in back to back seasons, the first since the 1985-86 Monsters of the Midway Bears teams.

This year will see some changes in the Legion, however, with Byron Maxwell leaving the Seahawks for the Philadelphia Eagles and former Eagles cornerback Cary Williams taking his place.

On the other side of the ball, Wilson continued to develop as one of the premier passers in the league and Marshawn Lynch again established his dominance in the backfield.

On their own both Wilson and Lynch are major threats, Lynch with his legs and sheer willpower and Wilson with his right arm and scrambler’s legs. Between Lynch’s 1,306 yards and Wilson’s career-high 849 yards on the ground, the pair combined for more rushing yards than 27 other teams. TEAMS. And that’s before Robert Turbin’s gritty performances are factored in.

Known as “Beastmode,” Lynch has a way of shaking off or simply running over opposing defenders, giving him more 100-yard rushing games and more rushing yards since 2011 than any other running back in the game. Last year, Lynch set a career-high with 17 touchdowns, including a league-leading 13 on the ground.

Meanwhile, when he wasn’t running past opposing defense, “danger Russ” Wilson continued his run up the record boards. So far, Wilson has 36 regular season wins, the most ever for a quarterback in his first three years and his 42 wins in the regular season and postseason combined best all other third-year players by at least six games and he has the fourth-highest passer rating in the league since 2012.

He led five game-winning drives last season alone and his 15 fourth-quarter comebacks rank first in the NFL since 2012.

And this year, with new tight end Jimmy Graham coming on board from the New Orleans Saints and second-round draft pick Tyler Lockett coming on board, Wilson has even more targets to choose from.

Wilson this summer said Graham looks “unbelievable” and said Lockett :looks great.”

As the team prepares to go back at it for the 2015 season, Carroll is once again stressing his “All about the ball” philosophy with the club and is relying on his veterans to help acclimate the new guys to the team’s culture.

“Our big thing is about coming back with the right attitude about making this a great team,” the coach said. “The way our guys have worked and the dedication they’ve demonstrated and the camaraderie they’ve demonstrated makes me think we’re ready to have a great training camp.”

“The things that happened before we need to leave behind and move forward and we’ve done that,” he said.

The Seahawks are now back to work on that one more yard.

Go Hawks.