It's up to Wilson to save Seahawks' offense from front office's poor decisions

PHILADELPHIA – It would have been a perfect time to dial in an exceptional No. 1 receiver, but none exists for the Seattle Seahawks. An explosive change-of-pace hybrid? That wrinkle vanished when the franchise called a roster reverse, shipping Percy Harvin and his attitude out of town. So Seattle called on one of the few dynamic players it had on offense, and Russell Wilson faked a handoff and took the most naked bootleg you'll ever see, searing a path between two defensive backs for a 26-yard touchdown.

It was a stunning moment for Wilson against a run blitz, the stuff we got used to the past two seasons but haven't seen much this year. In a split second, he left a wild Philadelphia Eagles crowd mute, and breathed life into a flat-lining Seattle offense. It would ultimately be the play that turned the Seahawks around, erasing a 7-0 deficit, igniting an eventual 24-14 road win, and leaving Eagles coach Chip Kelly befuddled.

"We couldn't generate enough pressure and get him down," Kelly said. "There was a couple of times you thought you had him sacked, you could hear the crowd going crazy, we thought we had him down, then he comes out of it. We talked about it when he was scrambling. You have to plaster [his wideouts] in coverage, and that's where a lot of his big plays occurred. We didn't do a good enough job containing him. He was obviously the difference."

But in that moment, you could see something larger. All season long, Seattle has been a head-scratcher. The pieces have rarely aligned. But in that one play, you can see why. The offense has atrophied from a season ago. And with running back Marshawn Lynch's pain threshold tested regularly of late, Wilson is it. He's the guy. Philadelphia showed as much, containing Lynch and then progressively adding additional defenders to the blitz. Afterward, defensive coordinator Bill Davis spent time regretting that aggression, as it led to most of Seattle's big plays.

All of which said a lot about Wilson. While Lynch was solid and the defense was superb, this win doesn't happen without him making the necessary plays. And that's the rub – there just isn't much big-play help left in Seattle. The Seahawks' hopes in the remainder of this season will live and die with Wilson. And unlike 2013, when Harvin provided a needed talent infusion for the stretch run, there is nobody coming to the rescue in the coming weeks. Either Wilson shifts it into high gear – and Sunday's win was step toward that – or Seattle is going to hit a January wall of ice in Lambeau Field.

After all, that's what this is about. From this moment forward, it won't be good enough to just win the division or a playoff spot. It's about getting to the point that Seattle can score, win out and keep from having to go to Green Bay this postseason. That's where this Seattle offense is at. It needs to play at home. There aren't enough offensive pieces to propel it to another run. Lynch isn't healthy enough to shoulder the load as he did in 2013, and the defense can't hold the fort forever.

Of course, Seattle won't admit that. It doesn't fit with the chosen concept. Instead, players use key phrases, like tackle Russell Okung saying, "We're playing our type of ball," and safety Earl Thomas saying "We have no fear," and are "really connected now." All of which is fine. The team is gaining momentum and just beat a good NFC playoff contender in a tough environment.

But the fight will be different this year because Seattle has only some of the hallmarks of last season's Super Bowl winner. Poor personnel decisions have cut a swath through this offense. As much as wideouts like Doug Baldwin and Jermaine Kearse have stepped up, the big-play ability from last season is still lacking. And that falls on the front office. Consider: Not recognizing Golden Tate's value was a remarkable misstep, particularly after watching Tate hold down the No. 1 wideout spot in Detroit while Calvin Johnson was down. And his contract – five years and $31 million – would have been an extremely cheap price tag for a No. 1. But of course, that was when the Seahawks thought Harvin could be counted upon.

That brings us to debacle No. 2: Trading valuable draft picks for Harvin and then essentially begging someone to take him in an early season fire sale. Not only did Seattle lose quality draft picks, it created a perceived divide in the locker room over Wilson's involvement and rankled Lynch. To repeat, Harvin remaining played a big part in the Seahawks' lack of urgency in retaining Tate.

All of which led to mistake No. 3: Seattle spent a second-round pick on inconsequential wideout Paul Richardson, who was eyed as the eventual next man up behind Harvin once Tate bolted. Thus far, Richardson has delivered almost nothing. Meanwhile, multiple wideouts drafted after Richardson (such as Jarvis Landry, Allen Robinson, Martavis Bryant and Davante Adams) have all filled major roles elsewhere this season.

More than anything, those issues created a new growth curve for Seattle and Wilson in particular which isn't supposed to happen the year after you win a Super Bowl. Typically a championship signals a window being open, with the right pieces in place. It doesn't always happen that way, but Seattle surely looked to be in the right spot before the Harvin fallout tore up the team as it headed toward midseason.

That growth curve is largely why Wilson hasn't taken a monumental step forward this year. If anything, he has looked off the pace of his first two years in the league, when he was branded a game manager. Year three was supposed to be when he took a stride to step into an elite class, or something close to it. And while he has been solid, rarely has he been consistently exceptional. Sunday looked more like the latter.

"I definitely think our identity is showing up," Wilson said. "[But] there's still some more to show, to prove."

That mindset is one of Wilson's most accurate reads. Which is good, because Sunday showed it's going to be more on him than ever before. From this point on, it's not about the pieces that are missing from 2013, but the piece that remains.