The Seattle Seahawks scored an ugly win last night at home over the Houston Texans. The victory improves their record to 5-2, helping them keep pace in an incredibly-crowded NFC playoff race.

Despite the convincing win against a team that came in with the best scoring defense in the league, Seattle’s reputation continues to suffer from the ever-present east coast media bias.

Just observe the most-recent batch of NFL power rankings from ESPN, which has the Seahawks down one spot from last week to No. 9. Their blurbs this week are about unsung standouts, so we got no explanation for the drop.

“As the third receiver in an offense that rarely has three of them on the field at the same time, Horton has had to make the most of limited opportunities. And he has. He has caught only nine passes on 18 targets for 113 yards through seven games, but he has turned three of those receptions into touchdowns.”

If you’re wondering how it happened, the primary culprit is an inexplicable massive jump for the Los Angeles Rams, who rose seven spots somehow after beating a Jacksonville Jaguars team that looked like they never bothered to get off the plane to London. LA is now ranked fifth in the league.

The Kansas City Chiefs rose two spots from No. 9 to No. 7, which is fair enough – but it comes at the expsense of a Seahawks team that can’t seem to get any respect from the national media no matter what they do.

To be fair, it was a pretty sloppy win – including four turnovers from Seattle’s offense, one of which turned into a strip-sack touchdown for the Texans defense.

Then again, if not for that score Seattle would have held Houston out of the end zone entirely up until the final minutes of the fourth quarter. The Seahawks were positively dominant at the line of scrimmage and got sensational performances from Ernest Jones and Ty Okada on the back end.

Considering they did it without two of their crucial secondary starters and a major piece of their edge rush rotation, this game was evidence that at full strength Seattle could very well have the best defense in the NFL this season.

That alone should be enough to land the Seahawks in the top five of any respectable power rankings, but it is what it is. The disrespect makes big wins like this that much more satisfying.

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Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba is hoping to keep his hot streak going against the Houston Texans in Week 7’s edition of Monday Night Football.

Smith-Njigba, a third-year pro out of Ohio State, has four consecutive games of over 100 yards receiving. Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald is excited about what has transpired from Smith-Njigba this season.

“People are going to focus on him, but when you play complementary ball on one side of the ball, if you’re able to run, throw it, action, do the whole thing, it’s very hard to take one player out of the game when the ball can go anywhere. He’s taking advantage of his opportunities. We’re doing a great job of getting him open, and Sam’s got a lot of confidence in him, too. So, a lot of positives,” Macdonald said.

Smith-Njigba has emerged into one of the league’s best wide receivers and that’s reflected from the work he has been putting in at practice. Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold is loving what he’s getting from Smith-Njigba.

“Yeah, his consistency has been amazing, just the way he’s come to work every single day, the way that he practices every single day. That’s a testament to the way he works and the standard that him and really Coop [WR Cooper Kupp] and a lot of the guys kind of set the standard in that room. They never waiver from it,” Darnold said.

The work put in during the offseason and weekly during practice is what helps earn Darnold’s trust.

“I feel like every single day in practice we’re continuing to earn that trust together and grow that confidence with each other. It’s just continuing,” Darnold said.

If Smith-Njigba can continue to practice and play at the same level he’s been at, the Seahawks should have a chance to win a lot of games during the season, taking them into the playoffs for the first time in three years.

Smith-Njigba and the Seahawks are back in action tonight against the Texans. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. PT. Fans can watch the game on ESPN or stream it on the ESPN app.

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