It's cool for San Diegans and Seahawks fans to see Rashaad Penny find his NFL groove, although not without help.
But it's good for the NFL also, that Penny recently went for 108 rushing yards against the Rams and then 46 rushing yards on 5.8 per carry in the win last Thursday against the Packers.
A 32-team league is better if the flavors of ice cream are varied.
The NFL, you may have noticed, doesn't lack for slick passing games. They're exciting and perhaps essential to winning a Super Bowl in most years.
The Seahawks (5-5) are providing contrast as the only NFL team that runs the ball on more than half of its plays. Seattle, for now, is short on talent but has a clear identity in style. Most teams don't.
Fundamental to head coach Pete Carroll's big plan are three complementary pieces: A very good defense, a sturdy ground game, and the play-making of hybrid quarterback Russell Wilson.
In today's pass-happy NFL, can Carroll build a Super Bowl team that way?
We'll see _ but it worked several years ago, when the Seahawks reached consecutive Super Bowls, winning one and coming within a yard of taking another.
Penny, the former San Diego State star, is central to Carroll's current project. And until recently, was having a slow rookie season.
The Seahawks drafted him 27th in April, only to lose Penny to a broken finger that cost him numerous practices and three preseason exhibitions.
Penny, like Melvin Gordon after going from Wisconsin to the Chargers as the 15th pick, also struggled at running from shotgun sets that were fairly new to him.
Talent will win out, though, and when an injury to starter Chris Carson ensured he'd rotate with Mike Davis in the Week 10 practice sessions and then in the game, Penny put together a strong showing Nov. 11.
Against the NFC-West leading Rams, he had runs of 18, 24 and 38 yards and averaged nine yards across 12 carries at the Coliseum.
For the first time, Penny looked like a first-round draftee.
"It was great for him, for his confidence and all of that," Carroll told Seahawks reporters. "Great to see him having fun playing football."
Carroll was asked what most impressed him about Penny that day in the 36-31 defeat. "That he was explosive. Read the line of scrimmage really well. Saw things really clearly. Showed good speed on the edge."
The coach added: "This is the guy we saw in camp and all of that. We just hadn't had enough good looks at him."
Playcaller Brian Schottenheimer lauded Penny for eluding a blitzing edge rusher to get outside for his first career touchdown, the 18-yarder.
But it was the 24-yard run off a backside cut that Schottenheimer singled out as special because Penny, who weighed 233 pounds in August, was able to "get that big frame of his going the other way and then get to top speed pretty fast."
Penny is averaging 4.8 yards per carry on just 62 rushes and has nine catches for 75 yards.
Not recalling the 2015 version of Gordon, who was benched as a San Diego rookie due to fumbles, Penny has no fumbles in 79 touches that include eight kickoff returns.
