THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: Seahawks defense finally speaks up with its play

This time, no explanation about gobs of all that yardage allowed was necessary.

Or that it was JUST a 10-point victory.

Or that maybe they’ll be better when some players get back on the field.

Nope, this time the Seahawks just smashed up everything in the neighborhood, and left both victims and witnesses to hang around and describe what happened.

Here was your verdict from middle linebacker Bobby Wagner: “I just felt like we needed to stop talking and let our play show.

“I felt like we were a lot more aggressive.”

Oh, yeah!

Just ask 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, who was beaten, bruised, sacked and knocked around — until he was finally led limping away for good after three miserable quarters and San Francisco at the bottom of a 30-7 well.

If anyone tells you that, hey, backup QB Nick Mullens came on and dinged the Seahawks for a bunch of yards and points in the fourth quarter…

Just laugh.

The Hawks’ 37-27 pummeling of the 49ers on Sunday afternoon at CenturyLink Field was not anywhere CLOSE to what that final score suggests.

INSTEAD, what this beatdown actually did was…

First, reduce the NFC West chase simply to the Seahawks (6-1) and Arizona (5-2).

The Rams and 49ers – both losers this weekend -- are officially toast.

Second, make national pundits sit up and realize that this is a Seattle team that just could be playing on the final day of the 2020-21 season.

You know, in that bowl with all the Roman numerals.

And finally, it allowed so-called experts to ditch that notion — the one supposedly set in stone — that the Hawks are a defenseless, one-dimensional bunch who can go only as far as Russell Wilson can drag them.

Ain’t necessarily so.

The Hawks have given up boatloads of yards and far too many points so far this year, but have been saved — in the conventional wisdom — by the old Pete Carroll magic of creating and capitalizing on turnovers.

They’d led the NFL in points off turnovers entering what was considered a true Sunday showdown — then got touchdowns off an interception (by backup safety D.J. Reed) and another after a fumble on a violent collision when the 49ers’ Dante Pettis was nearly broken in half on a kickoff return.

Pettis, and several other beat-up 49ers, likely didn’t enjoy those complimentary beverages on their flight home.

The main point in all that battering is that we tend to think San Francisco owns the league’s real gang of ruffians, and that the Hawks would be fighting to stay upright in this critical matchup.

Yet it played out just the opposite.

THERE was hope, remember, that some of Seattle’s most important defenders could return from sick bay for this war with the 49ers.

But Jamal Adams, who is SO crucial to what the Hawks want to do on defense, turned out to need at least another week to heal a strained groin.

Left corner Shaquill Griffin couldn’t quite get clearance to return from his concussion issues, while nickel back Ugo Amadi had to sit with a leg problem.

Even pass rusher Carlos Dunlap, acquired last week from Cincinnati, was the victim of COVID-19 safety protocols and forced to miss Sunday’s fun.

That was the (partial) casualty list for a defense yielding an average of roughly 490 yards per game — on pace to smash the NFL record for squishiness.

Instead of simply trying to outscore the 49ers, though, the Seahawks got back to their old habit of knocking heads — and making every hit count.

Wagner was everywhere, quite often in Garoppolo’s face, while virtual newcomers like rush end Alton Robinson and weakside linebacker Jordyn Brooks seemed to have made massive strides.

Reed and Adams’ caddy, super backup Ryan Neal, whacked receivers often and hard.

DARE WE say it?

This looked like a REAL Seahawks defense — with even more help on the way.

Meantime, it was business as usual on the other side of the ball, with Wilson throwing his routine four TD pass.

Two of them — yawn — went to DK Metcalf, who checked in with 12 catches for 161 yards (and no hint that anyone on the planet can handle him in single coverage).

You don’t need me to tell you this was the Seahawks’ best, and most encouraging, game of the year, and also the one that finally made you think…

This could be a very special team.

Perhaps a Super Bowl team.

Nothing’s a given in the wacky NFL, of course, but I’ll just take a flier and say you can now count the number of teams who have the Hawks truly outclassed on the fingers of one hand.

Assuming that you would need any fingers at all.

Email: scameron@cdapress.com

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. “Moments, Memories and Madness,” his reminiscences from several decades as a sports journalist, runs each Sunday.

Steve also writes Zags Tracker, a commentary on Gonzaga basketball, once per month during the offseason.