When Seahawks cornerback Riq Woolen tossed 49ers receiver Jauan Jennings to the ground for a 1-yard loss in a Week 18 win, it wasn't just a big play for Woolen in a big Seahawks victory, it was a fitting bookend to what has been an at times challenging, yet ultimately productive season for the fourth-year cornerback.

It was against the 49ers in a Week 1 loss that Woolen was on the wrong end of two of the biggest plays of the game, a 45-yard fourth-quarter completion to Ricky Pearsall on which Woolen appeared to be in position to make a play, only to misjudge the flight of the ball, and on the same drive, the go-ahead touchdown pass to tight end Jake Tonges, who took away what looked like a potential interception from Woolen.

Over the course of the 76 defensive snaps Woolen played in that Week 1 loss, he did a lot of things very well, but the nature of that position is the mistakes are really magnified. It's why Woolen has adopted the mentality popular among cornerbacks of trying to have a short memory, borrowing a phrase popularized by the show "Ted Lasso," which is to be a goldfish, because, as the saying goes, they have 10-second memories.

"Shoot, it's kind of crazy, honestly," Woolen said. "That's the position we play. It's a blessing at the same time, because it keeps you on your toes. In order to play this position, you've got to have a short memory, you've got to be like a goldfish. Get rid of the last 10, 13 seconds of memory, and just refresh it. That's how I try to be like a goldfish. Playing cornerback on this team, I've got great people around me, so that helps as well. You've got people to pick you up if you do mess up. Having the mentality, having the people that I do around me, it helps a lot."

And with that approach, Woolen bounced back from some early-season struggles, including multiple penalties in the first few games of the season, as well as a quasi-demotion that saw him split playing time with Josh Jobe, to become a huge part of the Seahawks' defensive success.

After some early-season inconsistency, followed by a concussion that caused him to miss Seattle's Week 6 win in Jacksonville, Woolen saw his play reach a new level beginning with a Week 7 win over the Texans in which he had two passes defensed and four tackles. Starting with that game, Woolen has recorded 11 of his team-leading 12 passes defensed, one interception, and plenty of sticky coverage that allowed him to hold opposing receivers to just 2.7 yards per target in man coverage, the fewest in the NFL for a player with at least 20 targets according to NFL Next Gen stats.

And now, after beginning his season with a tough outing in a loss to the 49ers, Woolen is a big part of a Seahawks defense that will be trying to shut down San Francisco's offense when the Seahawks host a divisional round playoff game on Saturday night.

"With the exception of a couple plays, I thought Riq played well that (Week 1) game," Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald said. "But I can tell you this: He's playing really good football right now. Playing really good football. Playing great football. So really proud of him. Happy for him. It's great for the Seahawks, great for him, everybody involved. But he's playing really good football for us. Attention to detail, technique, practice, all those things are on point right now. It's really great."

Woolen relates his season to a game of football, noting that early struggles don't have to determine the overall outcome.

"That's just the game of football, that's just how it is," he said. "You've just got to get better each week and just trust the process. That's the game of football. That's what makes the game of football so beautiful, it ain't over first quarter, second quarter, third, it's won in the fourth. And at the beginning of the season, we just put different parts of the season into quarters, and I just wanted to heat up as the quarters do, and I feel like I did what I was supposed to do. As we go into the playoffs, I'm trying to just keep excelling the right way."

Woolen's improvement this season are, of course, the result of his talent and hard work, but it is an illustration of the job Macdonald and his coaching staff have done, not just with Woolen but with the team in general in terms of helping players find ways to improve as the season progresses. Rather than sit Woolen on the bench and tear him down for some early mistakes, Macdonald found a way to build him back up while keeping him, and Jobe, who also has earned his playing time, both engaged in the game by splitting reps at cornerback.

"I think every time, every single person I've seen with Mike and with most of the coaches on our roster is that every piece of information you give them, whether it be, good, bad, indifferent, you always do it with care and love," defensive coordinator Aden Durde said. "I think you always have a solution for people, and you get on with it and you move forward. Whatever it is, if it's for the defense or in Mike's case the team to improve, I think that's how you do it."

That mentality has rubbed off on the locker room as well, with players also having a role in building each other up in good times and in bad.

"We love him, and we love where he's at," safety Julian Love said. "Confidence is such a big thing, in football and general, but especially at corner, and he's always a confident guy, but it's tough when you don't make a play or two, it's tough to fight that internal battle. So to see him go out there, you see the swagger and pep in his step, the celebrations he has when he makes plays, we love him. And even when he's not making plays, the special thing about this team is, we still love him, we're still going to mess around with him. No one is shunning him when he's not making plays. That kind of sense of team, it's how people can play free. It's like, 'All right, I need to get that next one, I will for my guys, but no one is going to put me in the corner if I don't make plays.'"

Added fellow cornerback Devon Witherspoon, "It's amazing. He's showcasing what we expected from him to begin with, because he put it on his rookie year. Once you put that film out there and you're capable of doing those things, that's the standard you're going to be held to. To see him get back to what he's supposed to be, that's what we've been asking for all year. I'm happy for my dog, I'm proud of him. We talk about this every day—how can we be better, how can we grow? I'm going to stand behind him no matter what, because I know how hard it is as this corner position. You can't have a bad day at corner in this league, you're just going to get the crazy critics. It's just dope to see that he's back to his normal self."