A week ago, Russell Wilson was a Hollywood celebrity, whose newfound fame was the cause for his season-long struggles.
Now, he is his former self after leading the Seahawks past a reeling 49ers team, 29-13.
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Talk about a Hollywood ending. Except for the fact that Seattle (5-5) still has six games left and has another tough game on Sunday against the Steelers (6-4). The Seahawks are also three games behind the Cardinals for the NFC West lead and one game behind the Falcons for the final playoff spot in the NFC.
Despite his strong performance against San Francisco -- 24-of-29 passing for 260 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions -- Wilson has more to prove, though he has quelled the masses. For now.
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"Whether Wilson was motivated by the recent negativity we'll probably never know," The Seattle Times reported. "He said his preparation for the 49ers game was 'same week as always. I ignore the noise, and just focus on what we can control.'
"I would suspect, however, it did fire him up. Wilson has thrived his whole career on people theorizing on why he can't succeed as an undersized quarterback. Maybe he needed a wakeup call."
But that may have been the point of the criticism of Wilson, who is now dating a pop star and has signed an $87 million contract extension over four years. It seemed he was ready to play every game; he didn't need a wakeup call.
Consider comments on his contemporary Colin Kaepernick after a two-week stretch in October that culminated in a 25-20 win over the Ravens.
"Colin Kaepernick found success against a bad secondary on Sunday, putting up big numbers in a situation where he absolutely should have put up big numbers, ninersnation.com reported. "And that's absolutely perfect for him.
"What Kaepernick really needed to do was go out and get his business done on Sunday, and that's what he did. What he needed to do was make some good throws and beat a defense that every expert worth his or her salt would have suggested Kaepernick could easily demolish before the season got underway."
One month later, Kaepernick's season is over after being benched and then undergoing surgery on his non-throwing shoulder that no one but the team knew was hurt.
Just like Kaepernick, Wilson seems to play better when those around him play better. Go figure.
"He played his best because we all played our best,'' wide receiver Doug Baldwin said, according to the Times. "When we're all clicking like that, nobody can stop us. And even if he weren't doing well today, we'd all pick it up for him because we were all playing really well. When you have that all clicking, it's not going to be just a good day for the running backs or receivers. It's going to be a good day for the offense as a whole."
The Times added that asking whether Wilson is an elite quarterback is the wrong question because he's already proven to be a winning quarterback on a good team.
But that was before he was getting paid like an elite quarterback. So the implication that he's back after one game can only be labeled as premature.
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