“We got our mojo back”: Russell Wilson, Seahawks dominate Vikings, 38-7

Richard Sherman was standing over fallen wide receiver Stefon Diggs in the end zone with his hands on his hips. Sherman was glaring at him after an incomplete pass.

Earl Thomas was salsa dancing after his return of an interception.

“Oh, that was my guitar,” the All-Pro free safety said later, smiling and strumming an air one at his locker.

Seattle Seahawks special-teamers Eric Pinkins and Mike Morgan were taunting the booing, hissing Minneso fans behind the end zone after throttling a kickoff returner.

Doug Baldwin was kissing his index finger and pointing it triumphantly to the fittingly gray Minnesota sky.

And all that was just in the first half.

“We were having a good time,” said Sherman, the All-Pro cornerback, following Seattle’s, 38-7, annihilation of the Vikings on Sunday. “When we are at our best, we are enjoying one another. And that’s what we were doing today.

“I mean, we play like this, you see what happened.”

Yes, the defending NFC champion Seahawks’ swagger is back — and the NFC North leaders got the ugly brunt of it:. Three touchdown passes, plus one rushing, by a rampaging Russell Wilson, and a swarming Seahawks defense that absolutely dominated league rushing leader Adrian Peterson and the Vikings at TCF Bank Stadium.

The 31-point game wasn’t even that close.

The Seahawks (7-5) had 433 total yards to 125 for Minnesota (8-4), which was missing four defensive starters because of injury. Seattle’s edge in yards rushing against the NFL’s top-ranked running game: 173-31. Its bulge in first downs: 25-9.

“It felt like the Super Bowl game again, the one against Denver,” Thomas said. “Just attack mode.”

Great memory. This was the Seahawks’ largest margin of victory since that 43-8 win over the Broncos for the NFL title in February 2014.

Undrafted rookie Thomas Rawls continued to fill injured Marshawn Lynch’s lead-back role exquisitely. He bulled for 101 yards on 19 carries for his fourth triple-digit rushing day.

And the Seahawks won their third consecutive game to strengthen their hold on a wild-card playoff spot — while holding Peterson to 18 yards on eight carries.

Yes, Thomas Rawls out-gained Adrian Peterson, 101-18. That’s how decisive this Seahawks’ victory was.

“We are playing the guy who leads the league in rushing — and he only had 18 yards. That definitely speaks volumes,” Seattle All-Pro middle linebacker Bobby Wagner said over the blaring bass of rap music in the visitors’ locker room.

“When the defense is playing the way we play and the offense is playing the way they are playing right now, there’s really not a team that can beat us.”

Certainly not Peterson and the Vikings. Peterson spent the last 8 minutes of the third-worst rushing day of his career hidden on the sideline under a parka.

Wilson continued his brilliant stretch, coinciding with that of his offensive line, which has suddenly transformed from woeful to wonderful. Wilson completed 21 of 27 passes for 274 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions and a 146.0 passer rating.

In the consecutive wins over San Francisco, Pittsburgh and Minnesota, Wilson has completed 66 of 86 passes (76.7 percent) for 879 yards, 11 touchdowns and no interceptions. That’s a three-game passer rating of 148.2.

A perfect rating is 158.3.

“We’re playing up to our standard,” Wilson said of the two-time defending NFC champions, who are 13-2 in December in the last three seasons.

Baldwin went beyond that about his quarterback.

“He’s playing out of his mind,” Baldwin said.

Baldwin has five touchdowns in the last two games.

“We got our mojo back during the week, during practice,” Baldwin said, alluding to what coach Pete Carroll only described as a changed “tempo” and freshness that was a first in his Seattle regime.

Wilson called the week of preparation “phenomenal.”

Then he played that way. Wilson had his first rushing touchdown since January’s NFC title game on an 8-yard run in the second quarter. That made it 14-0 for the Seahawks. And the rout was on. Very on.

Wilson threw 5 yards on an easy rollout and flip pass to Fred Jackson to make it 28-0 early in the third quarter. The quarterback appeared to make it 35-0 with a 53-yard touchdown run later in the quarter, but officials called tight end Luke Willson for holding 10 yards downfield.

As Carroll was berating the officials so much that he threw his headset along the sideline, Wilson went to his 53-yard TD Plan B: an exquisitely thrown ball to Baldwin on a post route.

The quarterback changed the protection and route to beat a Vikings’ blitz for which Seattle had been waiting. After Baldwin crossed the goal line to make it 35-0, Carroll was smiling so broadly you could see the gum in his mouth from the press box. Next to his coach, Sherman was tapping his wrist as if wearing a watch.

Minnesota’s only score came on the ensuing kickoff. Cordarrelle Patterson ran it back 101 yards. He spent the final 30 yards doing a Deion Sanders-like hand-behind-the-helmet, then with the ball in the air and some high-stepping.

Patterson appeared to be the only man in this state not knowing or caring that the home team was down, 35-7.

His return was only 5 yards fewer than the Vikings had in total offense through 3 1/2 quarters.

It got so good for Seattle — and so bad for Minnesota — that the Vikings had a first-and-38 midway through the third quarter.

Minutes earlier, Peterson had spiked the ball in anger following a screen pass to nowhere. He got devoured by three Seahawks while Minnesota’s blockers stood nearby, watching the mauling.

“Frustration, man,” Seahawks linebacker K.J. Wright said after his game-high 10 tackles. “He (Peterson) was frustrated because we didn’t let him get anything.

“Man, this defense is capable of anything.”

The Seahawks’ offense continued to right what was so wrong over the first seven games. It converted six of its first seven third downs and nine for 13 in all. Seattle is 24 for 40 on third downs in the last three games. That rate of 60 percent is a turnaround from 37 percent at the start of November.

Wilson completed 11 of his first 13 passes as the Seahawks scored touchdowns on their first two trips into the red zone.

They were 3 for 4 on scoring TDs inside the 20. Seattle is 9 for its last 11 in scoring touchdowns in the red zone, after being dead last in the league at 27 percent well into October,

Does this romping through the Upper Midwest prove a point that the Seahawks — after all their issues and a 2-4 start — are ready for another late-season march into the playoffs?

“You tell me,” Sherman said, grinning after Seattle’s fifth win in six games.

“Once we get in a rhythm we know we’re a hard team to beat. We know we have a championship pedigree. We’ve been there.

“We know what we are capable of.”

So, does this mean the champs are back?

“I think this has been a few weeks that we’ve been feeling (it),” Sherman said. “Our confidence, sticking with our style, just the basic principles of what we expect. … This is the feeling you are looking for. We have a chance.”

Wright laughed when asked if the Seahawks are back, then said: “We never went anywhere.”

This story was originally published December 6, 2015 at 9:47 PM with the headline "“We got our mojo back”: Russell Wilson, Seahawks dominate Vikings, 38-7."