SEATTLE -- The Seahawks' postgame celebration was making its way from the field to the locker room Sunday night when tight end Eric Saubert wrapped his arm around Jason Myers.
Seattle's kicker had just set the franchise's single-game record with six field goals, the last of which came from 56 yards in the final minute to lift the Seahawks to an 18-16 win against the Indianapolis Colts at Lumen Field. With Myers accounting for every point the Seahawks scored, they became the first team in the NFL this season to win without a touchdown.
"He's the man," Saubert said. "Absolute beast. Professional. Great teammate. Great person. Great kicker."
The reverence was well-deserved given the way Myers saved Seattle Sunday.
Instead of falling a game behind in the NFC West standings -- not to mention suffering the ignominy of losing at home to 44-year-old Philip Rivers in his first game in five years -- the Seahawks kept pace with the Los Angeles Rams. They'll host their division rival Thursday night (8:15 ET, Prime Video) in a battle of 11-3 teams, with sole possession of first place on the line.
No other NFC team has more than 10 wins, which means the rematch with Los Angeles -- which beat Seattle last month at So-Fi Stadium -- could go a long way toward determining the conference's No. 1 seed.
Even if they don't secure a first-round bye and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs, the Seahawks have the makings of a Super Bowl contender: an elite defense, an explosive passing attack and strong special teams.
But among the Seahawks' flaws that look significant enough to potentially derail a deep playoff run is their tendency to sleepwalk out of the gates on offense, something they did again Sunday as they managed all of 80 yards and six points over the first two quarters.
"We've got to improve, be better, start faster," coach Mike Macdonald said. "We'll look at our openers here. Couple games where our openers weren't hitting as well as we want. We'll look at it. But we want to start fast."
This marked the fourth time in the past five weeks in which the Seahawks' offense -- which ranks sixth in scoring at 25.9 points per game -- failed to score 10 points in the first half. That has been the case in the past three of their four straight wins, which came over the Minnesota Vikings, Atlanta Falcons and Colts -- teams quarterbacked by Max Brosmer, Kirk Cousins and the recently unretired Rivers.
They couldn't get away with it last month against Stafford and the Rams, nor will they have an easy time doing so when they close out the regular season against Brock Purdy and the San Francisco 49ers (10-4).
"We've just got to start faster as an offense," quarterback Sam Darnold said. "We've got to finish in the red zone. I feel like it's becoming a theme now these [past] few weeks and we've got to get it figured out. I feel like our defense is playing really, really good football. We've got to step it up a little bit as an offense, and that starts with me."
Philip Rivers makes his return and throws a touchdown, but the Colts fall in the final minute on a field goal.
Darnold (22-of-36, 217 yards) did not put the ball in harm's way Sunday, which has been his Achilles' heel while leading the NFL with 16 turnovers. He was sacked only once, though it came on third down in the second quarter. The Seahawks managed 3 rushing yards in the first half in large part because they ran it only nine times, as Indianapolis controlled the clock for over 19 minutes. One drop and two offensive penalties also held Seattle's offense back early on.
Darnold missed a would-be touchdown pass to Rashid Shaheed in the end zone late in the fourth quarter, which forced Seattle to settle for Myers' fifth field goal and a 15-13 lead. But after the Colts answered with their own field goal to go back on top, Seattle took over with no timeouts left and 42 seconds on the clock, and Darnold found Shaheed twice to set up Myers' winner.
The Seahawks would have preferred to have their backups close out a stress-free victory like they have so many times this season, especially with the quick turnaround to their biggest game of the season. Five of their wins have come by at least 22 points. This was only the second time they've won by scoring the go-ahead points with under 10 minutes to go in the fourth quarter.
Macdonald found a silver lining in Seattle getting another taste of what it takes to finish off a narrow victory.
"It's great to win by multiple scores and put games away in the fourth quarter," he said. "We'll take those every time. But this is the NFL, and these teams are really, really good. I'm just proud that we fought and found a way to win this tight game. This is what it's going to be like from here on out."
Actually, it'll likely get harder.
Which is why the Seahawks' offense needs to figure out in a hurry how to start faster.