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After Sunday’s upset victory in Detroit (which in hindsight maybe shouldn’t be regarded as an upset), Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson told PFT by phone that 2018 is starting to feel like his rookie season.

“This reminds me of 2012,” Wilson said. “No one expected us to do anything then, and no one expects us to do anything now.”

Coach Pete Carroll sees parallels between the two seasons as well.

“Most of the expectations then were really coming out of our locker room and we put it upon ourselves,” Carroll told reporters on Friday. “That’s definitely the way it is now. Yeah, we have not felt the burden of expectations coming from outside in. I would hope we wouldn’t feel it anyway, but it isn’t there. It’s really on these guys and they’ve worked to be really, really good. They’ve worked and planned and prepared to be a really good team so we’ll see what happens. We’ve got a long haul here before we figure that out.”

In 2012, the Seahawks became a next-level factor, making it to the playoffs and beating Washington in Robert Griffin III‘s first season. The next year came a Super Bowl win, followed by a narrow Super Bowl loss and then two more appearances in the divisional round of the playoffs.

By not making it to the playoffs in 2017 (despite a 9-7 record) and then dismantling much of the coaching staff and shedding plenty of veteran players, the popular sense was that the Seahawks were taking a step back. After an 0-2 start, they’ve taken a step forward by winning four of five games.

Even though a division title likely isn’t the in cards (barring a collapse by the Rams), the Seahawks could be on track for a wild-card berth. Just like they were in 2012.