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Russell Wilson, DK Metcalf, sunken Seahawks’ rallying cry: go 7-0 — starting Monday night

The one-game-at-a-time mantra still exists.

But it’s as tired as the Seahawks are desperate right now.

Pete Carroll brought up the new goal midweek.

Duane Brown and Gerald Everett talked about it.

DK Metcalf on Friday posted online, for all to see, this 3-7 team’s mindset with seven games remaining in the regular season.

Even “neutral mind” Russell Wilson is embracing these sunken Seahawks finishing 7-0 to get back into the playoffs for the ninth time in 10 seasons.

“Yeah. I embrace it. That’s what it is,” Wilson said Friday, a day before the team leaves for the D.C. area and its game Monday night at Washington (4-6).

Seahawks fans would be happy with just one win at this point.

“You’ve got to win one game at a time, but that (seven straight wins) has got to be your mentality,” Wilson said. “We are kind of in an early playoffs. It’s kind of March Madness, but you are in late November, in a way. You’ve got to win ‘em. ...

“We don’t shy away from that conversation. I know we stay focused on one moment in time, but that’s definitely a real thought process in our head: ‘Hey, listen, let’s go!’

“So, yeah, that’s definitely been a part of the conversation.”

In fact, Everett says finishing 7-0 has become something of a Seahawks rallying cry.

“For sure.,” he said Friday. “Like I said before, we know what kind of team we have, the leaders that we possess, the things that the coaches possess like the creativity that they have, so we are definitely going to keep rolling with it and we are going to try to win out. We want to get back to playing championship football and that’s what we talk about every day. It’s just a matter of time before we get back to actually doing it.”

Everett is the tight end Wilson and Seattle need to use more to be at its best. Their only connection for a touchdown this season was way back in the opener Sept. 12 at Indianapolis.

That’s the only time the Seahawks’ offense has been as consistently fast-paced and varied as first-year play caller Shane Waldron designed it to be.

“We know there is a heightened sense of urgency,” Waldron said, not just about Everett but Seattle’s entire offense and season. “We are getting to that point of the season there are not a lot of weeks left.

“We have to start clickin’, and start clickin’ fast.”

Wilson targeted Everett a season-high eight times two games ago at Green Bay, but the quarterback got shut out for the first time in his 10-year career that night by the Packers in Seattle’s 17-0 loss.

“He’s been more obvious,” Carroll said. “You see how physical he is and what an aggressive runner he is with the ball after the catch. He’s really a factor.

“Screams that we’ve got to keep going to him.”

The Seahawks better start featuring Everett, before he’s catching passes and running through tacklers for someone else again next season. He’s beyond halfway into his one-year $6 million contract he signed to come from the Rams with Waldron this offseason.

“Gerald’s been exceptional,” Wilson said. “Every time he touches the football it’s something great. He’s really spectacular.”

Seattle Seahawks tight end Gerald Everett (81) looks over at wide receiver Tyler Lockett (16) on the bench as the Arizona Cardinals close out the game in the fourth quarter of an NFL game on Sunday afternoon at Lumen Field in Seattle.
Seattle Seahawks tight end Gerald Everett (81) looks over at wide receiver Tyler Lockett (16) on the bench as the Arizona Cardinals close out the game in the fourth quarter of an NFL game on Sunday afternoon at Lumen Field in Seattle.

Since surgery

Wilson hasn’t been spectacular the last two games as the Seahawks have scored 13 points, total. He hasn’t been the same quarterback he was while making 165 consecutive starts before his surgery on the middle finger of his throwing hand Oct. 8.

He’s said the finger has not been a factor in the losses to Green Bay and Arizona the last two games. He says he’s felt capable of making every throw. But his deep passes looked firmer and more accurate last weekend against the Cardinals than they did wobbling and floating through the Wisconsin night the previous week.

Heading Saturday to Washington, 2 1/2 hours north of where he grew up in Richmond, Virginia, Wilson says he and his repaired finger feel more normal over these last two weeks. That’s since he came back in about half the time his surgeon told him he would be out.

“Every day I get better. It’s been a blessing just to go through the journey. For me to be able to get cleared in four weeks was a miracle in itself, in a way,” Wilson said Friday.

“I’m supposed to be out there, that’s just the reality. ...Every day, I just get better. I work at it every day, every morning. It’s around the clock.”

Including, he says, with his wife.

“I always pre-hab anyway. I’m consistently, every day, doing stuff,” Wilson said. “Sometimes I’m like, ‘Ciara, can you run downstairs?’ or ‘Can you help me real fast?’ Every once in a while, I’ll have Ciara help me...

“I’m just constantly working on it.”

Happy birthday

Wilson is playing Washington Monday night on his 33rd birthday.

He remembers at least one other time he’s played on his birthday: Nov. 29, 2015, a crazy shootout against Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers. It remains one of the wildest Seahawks home games Wilson’s played in his career.

And not just on the field.

Super-hot wide receiver Doug Baldwin is one of four veteran starters listed as questionable to play in Sunday’s home game against St. Louis because of injuries.
Super-hot wide receiver Doug Baldwin is one of four veteran starters listed as questionable to play in Sunday’s home game against St. Louis because of injuries.

Wilson got food poisoning the morning of that Sunday afternoon game in Seattle six years ago on his 27th birthday.

“I was dog sick,” Wilson said Friday.

“It was 2015, the season wasn’t going well. It was very similar to this (the Seahawks were 5-5 at the time). I was so sick. I was throwing up in the bathroom and, you know, what else, everywhere. It was ugly. It was bad. I literally, that morning I woke up probably around 5:30 in the morning. I literally puked like 20 something times. It was crazy. It was so bad. Nothing left in me.”

Apparently, Wilson was sick.

“I had gotten three IV’s, I think it was, before that game,” he said. “I got one or two at halftime, and I think I got one after the game.”

Yet the ill Wilson threw a career-high five touchdown passes, for his then-regular-season record 345 yards, to beat Roethlisberger. The Steelers QB threw for 465 yards, second-most by a QB against Seattle.

“It was pretty bad, but it was a good game,” Wilson said, chuckling. “We won. ...

“I’ve gone through some stuff.”

He and his desperate Seahawks are in some stuff now.

“We need everything,” Wilson said. “We need all the run game, the pass game, we need the third downs, red zones to light it up.

“We need everything. We can do it.”