If you thought, as did Pete Carroll, that Russell Wilson was trying a little too hard in Arizona, wait until the game against the contemptible, foul and dastardly scalawags from San Francisco Sunday. Wilson's clench might crack molars.

"No, I don't think so at all," the Seahawks coach said airily Monday about Wilson over-compensating for the woebegone defense. OK, but what if Wilson has to play the 49ers without Chris Carson, Carlos Hyde and Travis Homer? We're talking full Superman mode for him, right?

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One would think that in the pile of 33 first downs and 572 yards of offense, including 200 receiving yards by WR Tyler Lockett, there would be a victory in there. But that's probably because the realization had yet to harden that the Seahawks offense has to compensate for a defense that not only is the worst in the the NFL, it seems destined to go down as one of the most helpless since the bad guy tried to use a knife against the pistol of Indiana Jones.

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Pete Carroll has said a couple of times this fall that if the nation had a plan to counter  covid-19 and stuck to it as has the NFL, rates of infections, hospitalizations and deaths would be much lower, and American life would be closer to normal.

While true, the contention overlooks the facts that as a single industry with huge resources, top-shelf medical practices, fast access to labs and a highly paid work force used to following orders, the NFL has a far better chance for success.

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Good as a 5-0 record looks, gratifying as it is to have the game at Arizona flexed to a 5:20 p.m. start Sunday for the national TV showcase (thanks to a coronavirus outbreak with the Raiders), and gobsmacking as it is to see a Pete Carroll-coached team lead the NFL in points per game, do the Seahawks really want to put it at risk to hire world-class headache Antonio Brown?

Russell Wilson hopes so. That, of course, is the problem.

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A primary impediment to improvement in the Seahawks defense -- whose inadequacies have generated a threat anxiety in the Puget Sound area second only to murder hornets -- is that the scheduled starting secondary has been available to play together for less than 80 snaps in five games.

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Who said there was no NFL preseason? The Seahawks finished it undefeated and start the regular season Sunday in Arizona against the 4-2 Cardinals, who dispatched the woebegone Dallas Cowboys 38-10 Monday night.

Or, considering that the cumulative record of Seattle's five victims is 9-20, and that the NFC West is the NFL's toughest division, you may prefer the golf analogy that the stretch of four division games in the next five is like advancing from Seattle's little Interbay golf course to Augusta National.

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Note to readers: Taking a cue from the Seahawks, I'm going on a bye week from the grind. I have an enjoyable story to complete that requires time away from daily journalism. I'm also eager to follow the advice that noted psychotherapist Marshawn Lynch offered in January: "Take care of y'alls mentals." I think that means time off. I'll be back next week.

One of Pete Carroll's most valuable virtues is a willingness to admit error. It doesn't always happen, but since it's a trait elusive to many leaders -- raise your hand if you know one -- that it happens at all in the hyper-scrutinized world of the NFL, is remarkable.

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We've been to cliff's edge with Russell Wilson and the Seahawks so many times. The dangle should feel normal: Fingernails trenching up dirt, hands uprooting the only shrub, cold canyon air sweeping up pantlegs, the abyss beckoning.

But it never feels normal.

Even to Pete Carroll.

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Say, Pete Carroll: If I had told you a few years back that one day you would have a 4-0 start to a season in which you were statistically last in the league in defense, would you have bought it?

"I probably would have challenged that thought," he said Friday, which is polite Pete-speak for suggesting I commit an act upon myself that is impossible to do, but nevertheless conveys his contempt for my very thought.

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It is easy to assume that the highlights of CB Ryan Neal's nascent pro football career are the final pass of the Cowboys game, and the first pass of the Dolphins game. He intercepted both. For a first-timer in the Seahawks lineup, that's freakin' cool.

But the picks apparently are tied for second in his football thrill-o-meter. Topping both was when Seahawks coach Pete Carroll tapped him on the shoulder after the Cowboys game and asked if he wanted the contact info for Kam Chancellor. To talk ball.

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Another perverse little milestone was passed in our cultural stagger toward whatever COVID-19 has in store for us when Pete Carroll messaged Bill Belichick Monday to congratulate him.

Not about football, exactly. Or even his Subway TV commercial, where a smile was detected. He saluted the New England coach's hygiene stewardship.

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After a gruesome-looking knee injury from a foul deed a week earlier, RB Chris Carson figured to be atop a Seahawks injury list longer than the Columbia River. Yet there he was Sunday, in hot, humid Miami.

Going into the injury tent for what could have been a concussion.

But no. It was "merely" a crushing blow to the chest, causing him to sit out a couple of series.

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As Seahawks fans know, Russell Wilson has operated in the first three games at a level suitable for a Marvel Comics superhero film. No one in NFL history has thrown 14 touchdown passes in such a short time. His passer rating of 139 is 15 points better than the runnerup. He's the NFC offensive player for the month of September.

Which is, of course, not enough, at least in the mind of Mr. Unlimited (his own nickname, not Marvel's).

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As if the week weren't sufficiently busy with creating from mud and leaves a patch for a secondary that was mediocre when healthy, coach Pete Carroll had to address with the Seahawks the NFL's first COVID-19 breakout, as well as Tuesday night's uproarious presidential debate.

He was not asked to help put out fires in his native Northern California.

So far.

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If it seems to you that most NFL games so far have been super-spreader events for offense, you would be a gridiron Anthony Fauci. If the current 25.4-point average per team continues for the rest the season, it would be an NFL record by about two points.

Helping lead the early engorgement of points are the Seahawks. Six teams have 90 or more points -- Green Bay (122), Seattle (111), Buffalo (93), Baltimore (91), Kansas City (91) and Atlanta (90).

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The outcome of a glorious mess of a game Sunday at the Clink was determined by players that usually get stopped by hotel security people who check IDs to make sure are indeed with the band.

"We were down to our last guys," said coach Pete Carroll.

While stars such as Cowboys RB Zeke Elliott fell down on his own to give up two points, and Seahawks WR DK Metcalf recklessly mishandled the ball to surrender six points, it became the turn of people such as Ryan Neal, Alton Robinson, Damontre Moore, D'Andre Walker and Bryan Mone to show out.

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It's a time of unrelenting uncertainty. Why should the NFL be different? Yes, it has a chance to pull off a whole sports season in one piece. But rarely has a season started with so many broken pieces.

The amount and prominence of the Week 2 injuries was the talk of the league. The national media barely noticed that the Seahawks, too, are out two starters for the season -- DE/LB Bruce Irvin and nickel CB Marquise Blair, both to ACLs torn Sunday in the win over New England.

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Yes, it's a raw number without context. Yes, it's a small sample size. Yes, there are extenuating circumstances.

Nevertheless, the Seahawks defense's two-game average of 485 yards surrendered creates blisters on the eyes of fans who not that long ago saw Seattle lead the NFL in scoring defense four years in a row. The average is the worst in the NFL.

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If the usual rowdy crowd had been at the Clink -- in full throat when the two best NFL teams over the past decade were deciding the Sunday night national showcase game on fourth and goal at the 1-yard line with three seconds left -- Seahawks SS Jamal Adams might never have gotten the word that LB Bobby Wagner said that the Patriots' final play was going to be a run to the defense's right.

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Any doubt that Russell Wilson has ascended to another level of confidence this season was erased this week.

Asked Friday by broadcaster Dan Patrick, "Do you think you're the best quarterback in the NFL?" Wilson replied, "Do I think I'm the best quarterback in the NFL? I believe so, without a doubt."

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