Seattle Seahawks Post Best Point Differential in the NFL

When the Seattle Seahawks face a below average team, things can get very ugly very quickly.

The Seahawks have five wins by three-score margins this season. With the exception of their Week 14 victory over the Atlanta Falcons, these games are decided by halftime.

Some of their big wins feel like college football games where the rosters are extremely unequal. Except it’s still the NFL – a league designed for parity – and Seattle is still hammering its opponents with relative ease.

Add up all the games so far, and the Seahawks enter Week 15 with the best differential in the league.


NFL Point Differential Leaders

The Seattle Seahawks may be second place in the NFC West, but even the Los Angeles Rams can’t match their week-to-week dominance.
Seattle leads the NFL with a +161-point differential. This means that the Seahawks are beating their opponents by 12.4 points per game.
Their losses have been razor thin as well. Seattle lost 17-13 to the San Francisco 49ers in Week 1, fell to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 38-35 in Week 5, then lost to the Rams 21-19 in Week 11.
That means its losses are by nine total points. And when you add context, the Seahawks’ losses hold up fairly well.
Seattle’s defense was decimated by injuries when it allowed 38 points to Tampa Bay, and Sam Darnold threw four interceptions against Los Angeles, and it still came down to the wire. If Jason Myers‘ 61-yard field goal went in at the last second against the Rams, the Seahawks would be 11-2 right now.
It just goes to show how solid this team is. Seattle’s blowout wins are a credit to its roster strength and excellent coaching staff.
The lion’s share of credit has to go to the Seahawks’ defense. The unit is loaded with talent at all three levels, and Mike Macdonald adds to the dominance with intelligent schemes and pristine attention to detail.
As a result, Seattle is second in points allowed per game (17.4 PPG), and first in NFL defensive DVOA. Some garbage time points surrendered to the Tennessee Titans and the Arizona Cardinals in Week 10 have artificially inflated how many points it allows, but it is irrelevant from an efficiency standpoint.
The Seahawks defense is explosive as well. They make flash plays all the time, which is why they are second in interceptions (15) and fourth in sacks (41.0).
While this unit may not have a sweet nickname like the Legion of Boom, it is limiting opposing offenses at a similar rate.
Seattle’s offense is also holding up its end of the bargain. It is sixth in points per game (26.5 PPG) and ranks eighth in DVOA.
Darnold, despite his 11 interceptions, has guided the offense well. He is completing 68.1% of his passes for 3,162 yards and 22 touchdown passes, all of which are top six in the NFL.
The main beneficiary of his throws is wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba. JSN leads the league with 1,428 receiving yards, and he has an outside shot at finishing with 2,000 yards. If he gets to that mark or close, then he would almost certainly win the Offensive Player of the Year award.

Seahawks Jump on Teams Early

 The Seahawks don’t just grind teams down over the course of a game. They blitz teams early and don’t look back.
That is a wild statistic. Three of those were first half beatdowns, and the other came in the second half of their 37-9 win over the Falcons.
If Phillip Rivers winds up suiting up for the Indianapolis Colts this Sunday… then Seattle may have another 30-point half.

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This article was originally published on Heavy Sports

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