Seattle Surge

When the Las Vegas sportsbooks made the Philadelphia Eagles a six-point favorite heading into Sunday’s game at Seattle, the oddsmakers might have overlooked the history of December.

This is Russell Wilson’s month, and once again the Seahawks quarterback proved it in a 24-10 upset win. It was a statement on a national stage, and one Seattle players hope can launch yet another playoff push.

“I contemplated in my head whether I wanted to say it out loud, whether I wanted to jinx it, but I do. I believe that this is the start of something that we’ve seen in the past,” receiver Doug Baldwin said. “We’re looking forward to capturing what we had tonight and using this to make a run.”

Baldwin relayed the same message directly to Wilson privately after the game, but the quarterback likely doesn’t need the reminder.

Wilson knows how much December games matter, and his performance Sunday night in a head-to-head matchup with Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz may have altered the MVP race heading into the final month of the season.

It wasn’t that Wentz, who looked like the front-runner for the award through 12 weeks, was bad against the Seahawks – he threw for 328 yards, with one touchdown, one interception and one red-zone fumble. He just wasn’t nearly as special as Wilson.

Wilson threw for 227 yards against the Eagles, and his three touchdown passes Sunday night boosted his career December resume to 46 touchdowns (with just 15 interceptions) since 2012. The Seahawks improved to 18-5 in December games during Wilson’s tenure.

You always want to have this constant progression,” Wilson said. “The key is, can we get better fundamentally, can we get better as a team, can get better with our chemistry? … We’ve done that for five or six straight years, and we’ve continued to work that way and have that mentality. We’re in the right spot.”

The win kept the Seahawks (8-4) within one game of the Los Angeles Rams (9-3) in the NFC West, with a critical division game against the Rams in Seattle in two weeks. Seattle also now holds the first of two NFC wild-card spots.

With the loss, the 10-2 Eagles remain in control of the NFC East, but they to the No. 2 seed in the NFC behind the Vikings, who beat the Falcons earlier on Sunday.

Seahawks players knew the Vegas line and felt disrespected.

The six-point spread for the Eagles was the largest a visiting team has been favored in Seattle by since 2011, before the arrival of Wilson and the birth of the Legion of Boom secondary. Offensive players said they had heard Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz wanted to play Cover 0 – an all-out blitz that leaves defensive backs in single coverage without help – against their receivers. Defensive players believed they were being dismissed after losing cornerback Richard Sherman, safety Kam Chancellor and defensive end Cliff Avril to injuries.