SEATTLE — The fans of Seattle and San Francisco hold these NFC West division tilts in high order and the Seahawks gave their fans something to feel good about throughout the week.

“It was a good day’s work,” Seattle head coach Pete Carroll said. “We needed that — badly.”

Sunday’s 37-18 rout by Seattle over San Francisco at CenturyLink Field was an uplifting experience for the hosts, a performance to hang more than just a mark on the rivalry on, but one to base a season on.

San Francisco, which had looked like it took a few steps forward away from the national media’s prognostication as the worst team in the NFL, was overmatched from the get-go. The offense was ineffective until the final six-plus minutes of the long-since decided game. The defense was gouged for long runs, long passes and motivation-sapping drives by Seattle.

In other words, it was a rout. And, that’s why most of the Seattle defense was upset over the two garbage-time touchdowns by the Niners to make the scoreline look cosmetically better than it should have.

“I don’t think we finished well; we held them to three (points) for the majority of the game and that’s how it should have ended,” Seattle strong safety Kam Chancellor said. “We should have kept them out (of the end zone). You have to do the right thing for the whole game. That’s the hard part of being disciplined and doing the right thing on every play. You have to keep it up, keep it going. We didn’t do that.”

“I know the guys are upset for not finishing the game like they wanted to, but the defense really performed today,” Carroll said. “We’ll take that any week.”

Seattle held San Francisco to just 130 yards of offense through the first three quarters. The Seahawks led 30-3 after three and television commentators, media row denizens and other observers were looking for filler and other distractions from the game at hand.

Some of that distraction was justified — Russell Wilson’s knee injury at the hands/tackle of linebacker Eli Harold in the third quarter — for a bit of drama. Wilson left the game for one play, came back, finished the drive that turned into a Steven Hauschka field goal and was done for the day.

“He toughed it out and we had to pull him out of the game,” wide receiver Doug Baldwin said of Wilson. “You just have to save a guy from himself at times.”

“I’m fortunate; it isn’t as severe as it looked, but I’m moving fine and it feels fine,” Wilson said to open his post-game press conference.

By the way, Baldwin’s one-handed catch on Seattle’s second drive of the game was pretty nice. It isn’t a catch of the year candidate, mostly due to circumstance, but a very athletic catch from a former “pedestrian” receiver.

Of course, the rout was kick-started by running back Christine Michael’s first two touchdowns of his NFL career. Rushing for 71 yards on nine attempts and two touchdowns in the first quarter alone, Michael was the main beneficiary of a gameplan designed to get the rushing offense on track and rolling.

“The offense did a great job — the offensive line, the tight ends, Russell, the wide receivers — everyone did a great job,” said Michael, who finished with 106 yards on 20 carries and two touchdowns. “I want to help the offense as much as possible, especially when the running game is going. I just did my part today.”

So, there isn’t much else to tell about a game that was over just eight minutes into the contest. You can’t tell that to the fans, who’ll make sure the other side knows just how much they enjoyed Sunday’s game.

As for the players, this was a division rival they beat and one they have to take serious every time they step onto the field.

“It is always a rivalry; division games are always rivalries,” Chancellor said. “They are always hard, regardless of the score. It doesn’t matter. It is hard to get a score like that. Even if the score is like that, the game is still going to be played hard. Every game, they’re going to bring it. So, we have to bring it.”

The Seahawks brought it on Sunday. The Niners didn’t.

Rob Burns: (360) 537-3926; rburns@thedailyworld.com; Twitter: @RobRVR