Tony Dungy called the Seahawks an "offensive team" the other day, and while they have shown vast improvement the past couple weeks, I'm not sure we can start calling them that just yet.

We have to keep the past two games in perspective, their offensive outbursts have come against the 3-8 San Francisco 49ers and a Pittsburgh Steelers team that ranks in the bottom third in terms of stopping the pass. The experts on TV and radio like to say any win in the NFL is a good win, but that simply isn't true. No doubt victories are earned, but not all teams are created equal. If they were then we wouldn't have teams like the 49ers or Jaguars who have only three wins. What I'm saying is that there's a reason they have so few wins and that's because each team's talent level varies.

The other big news out of the Pittsburgh game is the season-ending injury suffered by Jimmy Graham. No doubt a huge blow for the Seahawks, but it may not be as grave a loss as first thought.

First off, Graham is a subpar blocker to put it nicely, and for some inexplicable reason the 'Hawks had him blocking a lot, especially earlier in the year. They started to scrap that in recent games, but with him out, he's no longer a liability in the run game.

Though the best evidence for why the Seahawks won't miss him is because simply, they have already won without him. They've made two consecutive Super Bowls without Jimmy Graham, and it's quite possible that Russell Wilson and the offense can turn it up a level without the pressure of having to get the ball to Graham throughout the game.

Instead we are going to see what we saw Sunday, Russell spreading the ball around and getting the ball to Doug Baldwin and Jermaine Kearse.

We saw it last year when Percy Harvin went down, although Darrell Bevell did a lot more to tailor the offense around Harvin. Still, we saw that the core of this offense has a rapport and chemistry that allows it to over come the loss or lack of a bonafide star.

Therefore, we shouldn't worry. Although gauging the current mood of the 12's it seems like we're not too worried to begin with.

The Seahawks look much better with Patrick Lewis at center

The center position on the offensive line is of paramount importance in football. He is essentially the anchor and leader of the line, recgonizing defensive looks and prepping the rest of the line for what's coming. A center for this Seattle Seahawks team also has extra duties as the Seahawks regularly run sets out of the shotgun, necessitating the additional responsibility of getting a good snap to the quarterback. 

Therefore it was a bit baffling as to why Pete Carroll opted to go with a converted defensive lineman who had never played center before in Drew Nowak to start the season at center. The offensive line was already a liability, yet they chose to take an even greater gamble in hope Nowak could learn on the fly and quickly, even when they had Patrick Lewis on the roster.

Lewis started four games last season when Max Unger was sidelined with an injury and performed adequately. Reports out of training camp also indicated that Lewis was performing well at center, although maybe not at the Pro Bowl level of Unger.

Now Lewis has taken over for Nowak, and voila, the line has improved greatly, although I wouldn't go so far as to say that the problem is solved. Russell Wilson has had a better pocket - as we saw against Pittsburgh - and has been sacked less. We've seen the running game improve and become more consistent, and the question is why didn't the coaching staff start out with Lewis in the first place? In not doing so, they may have shot themselves in the foot the first half of the year.

Photo: Flickr/Mike Morris