John Blanchette: Nervousness surrounds scintillating win

SEATTLE – The tweet from Earl Thomas appeared on his time line a couple minutes before 7 o’clock Sunday night, unusual enough in that there was a football game that hadn’t yet reached halftime.

The message itself reached a whole other level of gobsmackage.

“This game has been so good to me,” Thomas wrote. “No regrets. A lot is running through my mind including retirement (…) thanks for all the prayers.”

And then a follow-up:

“Kam you owe me a steak. Haha.”

The dichotomy in the tone of those two messages was a telling reflection of the hyperintense-cum-weird worldview of Seattle’s quicksilver safety, and possibly of the emotions of the 69,104 Clinksters fired up about the Seahawks’ ongoing rout of Carolina knowing all the while something bad had gone down.

And bad it is: a cracked left tibia from a violent collision with teammate Kam Chancellor, and the end of Thomas’ season.

Or not. Who can tell?

The Seahawks have been patching themselves up all fall, both from physical injury and their own figurative hard knocks. They did it again in the 40-7 humiliation of the Panthers and especially of quarterback Cam Newton, their nemesis and taunter from last year’s playoffs.

Remember his crumpling up and intentional grounding of a Seahawks fan’s “12” flag after beating Seattle 31-24?

Well, a reprise actually might have improved his quarterback rating Sunday night.

Undressing Newton on the field only added symmetry to the evening, as an apparent violation of Carolina coach Ron Rivera’s dress code left Cam camped on the bench when the Panthers first took the field – Derek Anderson getting the start at quarterback. That unflinching lash lasted all of one play – Mike Morgan picking off an Anderson’s first-down pass that deflected off the fingers of fullback Mike Tolbert. Newton returned as soon as the Seahawks cashed in for a field goal.

For every dumb rule, there’s discipline as phony.

As the evening turned out, Rivera might have had to confiscate everyone’s neckties – and belts and shoelaces – for the suicide watch on the plane ride home.

In other fashion news, Marshawn Lynch appeared on the Seattle sideline, his down-low undone by the orange frock he was wearing from Helly Hansen.

It was that kind of night: odd sideshows amid the jolly buzz around CenturyLink Field that the Seahawks’ bellyflop a week ago against Tampa Bay was the blip, the aberration that coach Pete Carroll insisted it was.

“We’re a really good team when we put it all together and do what we’re supposed to do,” said cornerback Richard Sherman.

Aside from a 55-yard bomb from Newton to Ted Ginn Jr. on the play after Thomas’ departure, the Seahawks were damned near perfect. Thomas Rawls rolled up 106 in his mini-Marshawn style. Tyler Lockett zipped 75 yards on a jet sweep (“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anybody run that fast on a football field,” said teammate Doug Baldwin). Michael Bennett returned from his knee injury to stoke the defensive fire. And a week after a season-low 245 yards (and five measly points) against the Bucs, the Seahawks rolled up 534.

But Earl went down.

Four times All-Pro, Thomas was bearing down on a Newton pass meant for Greg Olsen when he and Chancellor crashed in midair. It looked bad live, and worse on replay and everyone in the stadium knew it –though it didn’t seem to be Thomas’ first concern.

“He said, ‘That was a hell of a break by me’ – and it was,” Sherman said. “He said, ‘I read that’ – that was Earl being Earl. He wasn’t talking about the injury at all.”

But obviously he was later – in violation of the NFL rule on social media use during games, in fact. Knowing Roger Goodell, it’ll probably cost him.

Did he mean it mean it about retirement?

“When you get injured, it becomes very emotional,” Chancellor said. “Sometimes you say things you might not mean, sometimes you say things you might mean. You’ve got to let him sit back and breathe, sit back and go through his process. People are going to take it how they want to take it. It’s an emotional battle at this moment.”

For Chancellor, too.

“Man, you know I felt bad,” he said. “I was part of it –running into him – but it’s football and accidents happen. It’s hard to see your brother go down like that, someone you care about deeply, someone you came into the league with.”

In practical terms, the responsibility now falls to Steven Terrell, who replaced Thomas when a hamstring pull kept him out of the Tampa Bay game – and who was targeted deep on Newton’s TD pass.

“But there’s no replacing Earl,” Terrell admitted. “All I can do is be the best me I can be.”

So it becomes a community cause for the Seahawks and, as quarterback Russell Wilson pointed out, “he’s just one of many heartbeats back there.”

Who believes he’s owed a good cut of beef.

“I’ll get him three,” Chancellor said.