That was a Championship performance.

This is how the Seahawks rose to dominance last season. Not every game was a blowout by half-time. Many contests were close after two quarters. They were well contested.

Working things out, exerting your physicality, breaking things open, dominating. That’s the mark of a winner. That’s what the Seahawks are.

And that second half performance today was as dominating as you could hope for.

Don’t underestimate how it was achieved either. This looks like a more measured, organised Cardinals team than a year ago.

You just gave them a good thrashing after half-time. You did it with your backup quarterback dealing in a way many starting quarterbacks can only dream of. You did it minus your most experienced running back, your starting right guard, a starting safety, and with Nick Emmanwori on a significant pitch-count.

To be able to do this today is a serious flex. We just watched the best team in the NFL. We just saw the best coached team in the NFL.

There are so many positives to dig into that I’ll probably miss some out. Apologies if so — but here are some highlights:

— Obviously Drew Lock was absolutely fantastic. He didn’t just manage the game like you hope from most backups. He threw complex, difficult passes. He flashed big-time throws into tight windows. He made things happen. This was a performance that could well get him a starting gig somewhere next season.

— Jaxon Smith-Njigba is a superstar and it’s offensive that he isn’t one of the true faces of the league. You should be bored of seeing him in commercials by now. Fix that, NFL world. He is an inevitable, dynamic, game-changing force.

— The defense just smothered the Cardinals and gave up a measly XXX yards. While the rest of the league seems to be working out their defense, the Seahawks are showing they are still #1.

— Julian Love’s interception was remarkable. He is one of the most under-appreciated players in the league.

— Brian Fleury is two games into his play-calling career and I couldn’t be more impressed. I’m going to come back to the sequence before half-time in a bit. What he has done in these two challenging games in difficult circumstances is about as encouraging as anything in the early stages of this season.

— Emmanuel Wilson running all over the Cardinals in the second half. Souls were taken as the Seahawks exerted their total dominance to run out the clock. This is why I watch this f***ing sport. For that fourth quarter, where you show who the real top dogs are and kick some f***ing arse up front. This is what I want my teams to look like. Exactly this. We are living the f***ing dream right now. Sorry for my language.

It’s also a timely reminder not to lose yourself in the first half which I saw a few doing in the comments. Especially on the sequence before half-time where the Seahawks were stopped on the goal-line. I had no issue with anything there.

Firstly, if you kick the field goal you then have to kick-off, with a minute left, giving the Cardinals decent field position. You could go in at half-time down by four points. There was loads of time left — and they had timeouts.

The worst case scenario of being stopped as you run the football means the Cardinals get it back on their goal-line, have to march 99-yards to score a touchdown and +50 to get a field goal. They are naturally going to be conservative because of the field position.

That was exactly the right thing to do. They didn’t execute because the Cardinals did a great job. Kudos to them. They are allowed to make plays too.

You then stopped them, knowing you’d get the ball back, and then would receive the kick-off in the second half.

This was true game management. The Seahawks figured things out to dominate in the second half. This will have to happen again in future games, so let’s just embrace that now.