Hey Nick Vannett Color Rush Jersey , a win is a win. It’s been a good while since the Seattle Seahawks had to rely overwhelmingly on the defensive side of the ball to win a game, especially with the passing offense rendered toothless. Pete Carroll loves great defense and running the ball, and whether or not you agree with that philosophy, those two things were essential in Seattle toppling the Minnesota Vikings on Monday Night Football.As things stand, a win over the San Francisco 49ers and some other favorable results could mean that they’d have the #5 seed secured before Week 16. Isn’t that amazing?Let’s get to Winners and Losers. WinnersThe entire Seahawks defenseCollectively, this was the most complete showing by the Seahawks defense I’ve seen all season. Starting with the secondary - Tre Flowers and Shaquill Griffin each balled out, with Griffin in particular having one of the best games of his career. they were great both in coverage and open-field tackling. Justin Coleman had a fumble return for a touchdown, Bradley McDougald had a pivotal 4th and goal breakup. Hell, Akeem King generated pressure on a blitz up the middle on the opening series.You get to the linebackers, and Bobby Wagner was Bobby Wagner. Nine tackles, a 4th down run stop, and a pivotal blocked field goal that may or may not have been legal, but I don’t really care. The Vikings offense was so dismal that I reckon they’d have found a way to not score anyway. On the front line, Frank Clark added to his sack total, rookie Jacob Martin had the exclamation mark with a strip-sack of Kirk Cousins, Dion Jordan was very good in run defense and had at least one hurry of Cousins. Jarran Reed chased Cousins out of the pocket, Shamar Stephen had a good tackle for minimal gain on what could’ve been a big play when two Seahawks players overran a Dalvin Cook handoff. That looked like a vintage Seahawks defense, except almost everyone I mentioned just now was not even on the 2014 team. Kudos to Ken Norton Jr for an excellent gameplan and to the players for an outstanding performance.Chris Carson22 carries for 90 yards and the game-sealing touchdown. He looked fast getting around the edges, where the Vikings were decidedly weak for a normally outstanding run defense. On a night when the Seahawks passing game was struggling, Carson was churning and churning and powering his way for extra yards.Rashaad PennyI’d rather the slalom run not be a thing, but if he’s going to do it Justin Britt Color Rush Jersey , do it well! This wasn’t quite the craziness of the winding dash against the Green Bay Packers, but he had to do a ton just to get 17 exhilarating yards. He’s looking better each week, I just want to see him (and other running backs) be more involved as receivers.Tyler LockettFive catches for 42 yards doesn’t sound like much, but he also drew an (iffy) pass interference penalty, converted on a two-point try, and was the only good Seahawks receiver on the night. Also, I recommend checking out his block on Xavier Rhodes on that aforementioned Penny pitch.George FantTHEY THREW IT TO GEORGE FANT.Honorable mention to Booger McFarland for his genuine laughter. That’s what most of us were surely thinking.LosersRussell WilsonThat end-of-half interception was one of the worst plays he’s ever made. If he was uncomfortable with that sprint out and no one getting open, throw it out of the end zone. Instead he avoided a clock-draining sack by throwing an interception that was lucky not to be a pick-6 had Eric Kendricks not fallen. Overall, 10/20 for 72 yards and that turnover was simply brutal, but he made up for some of it with his best running day in a long time with 61 yards, including that 40-yard gallop late in the 4th. He has to be better against quality defenses though, because several of his worst games this season have not coincidentally been against some of the top defenses by DVOA.The other wide receivers not named Tyler LockettI hope Doug Baldwin gets healthy soon, and beyond that, the Seahawks need to improve the WR group in 2019. David Moore should’ve had a touchdown and instead couldn’t drag his second foot in-bounds at the end of the 1st half. He also had a 3rd down drop on a pretty simple pass that also required him to get YAC for a conversion. Zero catches on five targets for Moore, one catch for no yards for Jaron Brown, and no targets to any other Seattle WR all night.The All-22 will reveal more, but I suspect some of Wilson’s hesitancy to throw the ball involved “no one getting open.”End-of-half timeout managementThe Wilson interception came about in part because the Seahawks essentially had no choice but to pass. With :16 to go, they burned their last timeout after Wilson ran to the 1-yard line. No timeouts means the Vikings know you’re gonna throw it. I understand not wanting to give the Vikings the ball back late, but letting this much time elapse is not smart.Of course, the Seahawks wasted a timeout after the Penny run because they couldn’t get lined up in time. We just have to live with it.Brad Allen and his crew Let’s see, an “illegal grasp of the helmet opening” by Bobby Wagner Nazair Jones Color Rush Jersey , a penalty I don’t think I’ve ever seen called before or knew existed. The replays were inconclusive. Wagner then gets away with a clear face mask later in the drive. Germain Ifedi was wrongly flagged for an unnecessary roughness call that took the Seahawks out of FG range, then they switched it to Jordan Simmons, who did instigate some shoving but that’s a weak penalty to begin with. Even crazier is that the penalty was originally called on the Vikings.I didn’t really agree with the DPI on Xavier Rhodes on Tyler Lockett, as the ball looked uncatchable and Lockett pretty much flopped. However, Rhodes did hold the arm, so I can see why it was called. Tre Flowers’ “hold” on Stefon Diggs? Meh. Then you had the blocked field goal controversy with Bobby Wagner.They weren’t good, and now we have to (in all likelihood) once again hear the stupid nonsense about how the Cheathawks got away with another ref-aided win on MNF. Whatever.The Monday Night Football broadcastI have a soft spot for Joe Tessitore since I’m a longtime boxing fan. Booger McFarland isn’t afraid to speak his mind and be critical of players other analysts seem to shield from criticism. He’s also capable of many terrible takes, such as thinking turning a 6-0 game to 6-3 makes it a “one possession game.” IT ALREADY IS, BOOGER! Jason Witten is a disaster up there, and so is the overall broadcast. I don’t want to listen to them be buddy-buddy in the booth, call the damn game. The Genesis halftime show is a waste of time. I listened to the pre-game show by accident and half my brain melted. And then there was this:Final NotesKirk Cousins isn’t terrible, he’s rarely great, he’s not an $84 million guaranteed quarterback. And John DeFilippo might be in over his head as offensive coordinator. Minnesota is in trouble.Everything does stick to StefonAction Green is 3-0, so I will not speak ill of the jerseys ever again.Matt Hasselbeck raised the flag, which was pretty awesome. End-of-career Hasselbeck was sad to watch, but don’t ever forget that he was one of the catalysts for Seattle’s first Super Bowl team, along with the other NFC West titles. Those days were fun too, just in a different way. I’m pretty damn excited that the Seahawks are just about on their way to the playoffs again, and potentially with room to spare. See you for Enemy Reaction on Tuesday. Over the past week plus we’ve looked through eight of the nine draft picks of the Seattle Seahawks from the 2018 NFL Draft in order to attempt to grade the most recent draft class with the benefit of a season of hindsight. So far we’ve gone through the selections of First round running back Rashaad Penny,Third round defensive end Rasheem Green, Seventh round quarterback Alex McGough 12th Fan Color Rush Jersey , Sixth round defensive end Jacob Martin, Fifth round tackle Jamarco Jones, Fifth round punter Michael Dickson,Fifth round linebacker Shaquem Griffin and Fourth round tight end Will Dissly.That leaves just one member of the 2018 Seahawks draft class left to be evaluated, and that is obviously Cornerback Tre Flowers, a sixth round selection out of Oklahoma State University. Flowers was yet another in a not short line of college safety to professional cornerback conversion projects for Pete Carroll, following in the path of players like Eric Pinkins and Mike Tyson. However, the path for Flowers has been far different than that of Pinkins and Tyson, who never successfully made the transition to cornerback in the NFL for the Seahawks. And for those who know what they are looking at and analyzing, the selection of Flowers by the Hawks did not come as a surprise, as Field Gulls own Matty F. Brown predicted back in the spring on the morning of day three of the draft. (Author’s note: Matty may well have been correct on Wyatt Teller and Ian Thomas, but we’ll never know. Thomas, a tight end, was drafted by the Carolina Panthers in the fourth round, and with their next pick the Hawks selected Will Dissly. Teller, an offensive lineman was selected by the Buffalo Bills in the fifth round, and two picks later the Seahawks drafted Jamarco Jones. So, has anybody ever seen Tony Romo and Matty F. Brown in the same room?)Flowers, as would be expected, struggled at times during his rookie season, but he also showed enough to warrant hope for the future. Add in the fact that he played much of the season as a member of an extremely young secondary Tyler Lockett Color Rush Jersey , and it is no surprise that the team struggled at times to stop opposing offenses. However, Flowers remains extremely young, as he and Shaquill Griffin team up to make a starting cornerback pair that combined is about the same age as Tom Brady. Okay, that is a bit of an exaggeration, as Brady is 41 years old, and both Griffin and Flowers are set to turn 24 later this offseason, it’s not as much of an exaggeration as one might first imagine. However, looking past just his age and his status as a conversion project, Flowers played a significant amount as a rookie in 2018. Specifically, his 903 defensive snaps were the most that any Seahawks draft pick has played on either offense or defense since Justin Britt logged 1,058 snaps as a rookie in 2014. Just to put how many snaps Flowers logged in perspective, here’s a sampling of some other recent Seahawks draft picks and how many snaps they have played since being drafted:2016 3rd Round Pick TE Nick Vannett: 890 offensive snaps2016 3rd Round Pick RB C.J. Prosise: 251 offensive snaps2016 5th Round Pick DT Quinton Jefferson: 707 defensive snaps2016 6th Round Pick C Joey Hunt: 181 offensive snaps2015 6th Round Pick LB Eric Pinkins: 5 defensive snaps2015 5th Round Pick TE Luke Willson: 2,564 offensive snaps2015 5th Round Pick CB Tye Smith: 125 defensive snaps (with the Tennessee Titans in 2017)So, that’s just a sampling of some other draft picks and how much they have contributed since being drafted. Obviously, Flowers will need to continue to show growth and development to maintain his starting role, but if he can do that and get good injury luck, there’s no reason to doubt his ability to be a long term contributor for the Seahawks.In any case, it will certainly be interesting to watch the defensive back group continue to develop in the coming seasons. The Hawks are loaded with young potential in the secondary. and after consecutive seasons of a middle of the road scoring defense it will certainly be fun to watch what Carroll can do as the league continues to move more and more towards a passing league.