Russell Wilson: Let’s treat every quarter like the fourth quarter

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The Seahawks won four games thanks to fourth quarter comebacks during the 2019 season and that continued a trend that has been in place throughout quarterback Russell Wilson‘s time in Seattle.

Wilson has led 21 fourth quarter comebacks over the course of his career and many of them have seen the team put the game on his shoulders after spending much of the first three quarters doing other things offensively. Some outside the team have used that history as cause to call for the Seahawks to put more on Wilson earlier in games in order to avoid the need for comebacks.

The quarterback sounds like he’s on board for such a shift. He noted on Thursday that the team is 57-0 since 2012 when up by at least four points at halftime and said he’d be up for treating the first 45 minutes of games like the final 15 minutes.

“Getting ahead is a key thing,” Wilson said, via Joe Fann of NBCSportsNorthwest.com. “I do believe in finishing strong. We’ve won a lot of games in the fourth quarter and been able to do some fun things in the fourth quarter. Let’s treat every quarter like it’s the fourth quarter. That’s my mentality. . . . I want to be able to make plays and give us a chance to win. That doesn’t mean just me chucking it around, but I feel like the more times I have the ball in my hands, the more things that can happen. I think the defense worries about that, too.”

Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll said earlier this year that they want Wilson “to have more opportunity to be the factor of the game and control the game.” He noted that doesn’t mean they’ll be throwing the ball all the time, but cutting down on drama while continuing to win would be welcome any way that the Seahawks can make it happen.