The Seattle Seahawks looked to be dead in the water just a few weeks ago. Their overtime loss to the LA Rams had put their playoff odds at just 6% and they were in last place in the NFC West. What a difference two games makes. First, Seattle pulled off a huge upset against the San Francisco 49ers, then on Sunday the Seahawks beat the visiting Arizona Cardinals in convincing fashion, winning by 10 points despite being only one-point favorites.

As expected, Seattle has made another modest jump in Vinnie Iyers weekly NFL power rankings for The Sporting News. Iyer now has the Seahawks ranked 14th, up two spots from last week and up six spots from two weeks ago.

TSN on ranking Seahawks 14th

The Seahawks can be both gritty and pretty, often at the same time. Their sudden hot streak in the NFC West has them back and ready to believe again, thanks to Geno Smith and Mike Macdonalds defense.

Its a nice blurb, but in our opinion theyre two spots lower than where they should be. At a minimum they should be ranked ahead of the Cardinals, who are 12th on the list. Arizona came into Week 12 with a red-hot offense and fresh legs coming off their bye week and they still got completely shut down by Seattles newly-invigorated defense. In fact, the advanced stats suggest this has been the top defense in the NFL since Week 9, when they traded for middle linebacker Ernest Jones.

Offensively its largely the same story. The offensive line still cant protect Geno Smith, who now holds the league lead in interceptions this season. They cant run the ball to save their lives either and Ken Walker put up more yards as a receiver than as a rusher on Sunday. Nevertheless, theyre finding ways to win against the teams they need to beat, and thats all you can really ask for.