Seahawks step up to now-or-never moment vs. Cardinals

SEATTLE – Pete Carroll sent the right message of win-or-else urgency Wednesday during what linebacker Bruce Irvin called a "heart-to-heart team meeting,'' exhorting his defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks to recapture their missing defensive swagger.

No better time for the tenacious, ball-hawking Seahawks to resurface with their most complete 2014 defensive performance than in Sunday's 19-3 rout of the 9-2 Arizona Cardinals. Coach Bruce Arians' NFC West-leading Cardinals entered CenturyLink Field leading the 7-4 Seahawks by three games.

Then, the Seahawks of last postseason resurfaced in answering Carroll's call for an inspired last stand with their season teetering on the brink.

"Pete just told us, 'That it's make-or-break, playoff time, basically,'' Irvin told USA TODAY Sports. "We had a heart-to-heart as a team. Guys did a great job of re-focusing and just buying in and flying around.''

The inspired Seahawks held the team that boasted the league's best record to a season-low 204 total yards. They limited running back Andre Ellington to 24 rushing yards and held quarterback Drew Stanton to just 149 passing yards with an interception.

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"Pete is really in tune with making changes before things get out of control,'' safety Earl Thomas said. "Before the night meeting, he had a team meeting with the captains of every position group. We talked about our problems and all our situations. And it turned into something beautiful.

"Then, when he talked in our night meeting, Pete said, 'The thing that was missing was our connection, our trust.' He was right on point. We played together."

That's because for the first time since they demolished the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII last February, the Seahawks resembled the ferocious, attacking defense that led the league with 39 takeaways last season. Seattle sacked Stanton three times. And by game's end, the eighth-year journeyman, who replaced Carson Palmer after the 34-year-old starter suffered a Nov. 9 season-ending knee injury, hobbled on a sore ankle as rookie Logan Thomas warmed on the sideline.

Thomas never saw the field, as quarterback Russell Wilson and running back Marshawn Lynch combined on a clock-killing drive that began with 6:53 left at the Seattle 32-yard line and ended with Wilson taking a knee at Arizona's 3.

So with five games left, including a Thanksgiving night showdown against the San Francisco 49ers, can the Seahawks become the first team since the 2005 New England Patriots to defend their title?

"There's no doubt in our mind we can do it,'' said Wilson, who passed for 211 yards and a touchdown and added 73 rushing yards. "We have the right guys to do it.

"We were talking about getting our swagger back. I think we were close. Today we got it back.''

It helped that middle linebacker Bobby Wagner returned from a five-game absence due to a turf toe injury, giving the defense 10 of their 11 starters minus only defensive tackle Brandon Mebane, lost the previous week to a season-ending torn hamstring.

"We're getting healthy at the right time,'' Wagner said. "When we're good, it looks like we're having a party out there.''

Cornerback Byron Maxwell got the party started with his second-quarter interception of Stanton that set up the third of four Steven Hauschka field goals. After DeShawn Shead's third-quarter block of Drew Butler's punt led to Hauschka's final field goal, Wilson led Seattle on its lone touchdown drive. He hit tight end Cooper Helfet on a 20-yard, catch-and-run score.

But the story of this day was Seattle's defensive resurgence that held Arizona to just 3 of 12 third-down conversions.

"It was the best feeling we've had all year – the best sense for one another, the focus, the intensity and just the feeling was really on,'' Carroll said of Seattle's defensive revival. "Kam and Richard Sherman and Mike Bennett, some of the guys really just kind of touched other guys during the week and made sure everybody was going to go.

"And it just felt like this was the first really big time together game that we've played.''

It came just in time considering a loss would have all but eliminated the Seahawks dropping them four games behind Arizona with five to play.

Follow Jim Corbett on Twitter @ByJimCorbett.