In Week 14 it was the Rashid Shaheed 100-yard kick return touchdown that helped spark a win in Atlanta. In Week 15 it was Jason Myers going six-for-six on field goals, scoring all of Seattle's points in a win over the Colts. And in Week 16, it was Shaheed again, but this time with a 58-yard punt return touchdown. The Seahawks special teams unit has been an integral part of Seattle's operation, contributing when the Seahawks need it most.

"It's been a game changer," head coach Mike Macdonald said on the unit. "I felt like we were doing it last year, too we just weren't getting the results we wanted at certain times. But you see the coaching and the inputs daily, and you knew at some point that it was going to come to life."

Macdonald and his staff have been outspoken about how important all three phases of the football team are and that includes special teams.

"I can't speak for everybody else. I know that for the teams that I've been on, it's a critical part of your football team," Macdonald said. "I learned that from John Harbaugh, and we share the same philosophy here, so that's what we believe in. That's how we treat it."

In the Seahawks' Thursday night overtime win, it was Shaheed's punt return touchdown in the fourth quarter that provided a boost for Seattle.

"Rashid Shaheed gave us some life in this game," safety Julian Love said following the game. "It gave us life. We felt like for this game, our special teams was a weapon. We have a really good unit. When we got Rashid this year, it gave us a whole new sense of focus and energy on special teams, just knowing that he can return a kick at any moment. And now, he's like, people aren't getting it done, I'm going to do it myself. We love Shaheed. We felt the stadium rocking after that."

After the game Shaheed said, "Based on the field position, we knew that we were going to be able to get a return. We've been focused on that left return all week. We knew that they had kind of a weak point with their special teams and we were able to circle the punt return team and make a big play."

Shaheed's punt return makes him the only player in the league with kick and punt return touchdowns this season. It also puts him alongside Tyler Lockett and Nate Burleson as the only Seahawks players to have both in one season.

Macdonald said that is a tribute to special team's coordinator Jay Harbaugh.

"Jay and Fitz (assistant special teams coach Devin Fitzsimmons), they are a driving force," Macdonald said. "I love their mentality, I love how we coach them, I love how Jay and Fitz think about the game and how they try to position our players. Again, to me it's our responsibility as coaches to give our guys advantages and Jay does is as good as anybody about doing that. I love how he coaches the guys too, about thinking outside the box, how we build our systems. It's the vision about how we want to be as a team, is how we coach special teams. He deserves a lot of credit. He's willing to take calculated risks, he doesn't coach scared, which I really appreciate and respect about him. We'll get together by the end of the week and understand, after we see how we've practiced certain things, how we're going to go into a game, but those ideas are all coming from Jay."

Macdonald didn't want to show his hand and say what exactly it was about the punt return that made it work, but said, "I'll just say we had a good plan on our punt return and the guys executed really well. When you do that, when you marry sound, good, fundamental, aggressive scheme with great fundamentals and great decision making in real time, then you have a chance to make some really great plays on special teams."

This season Shaheed was named Special Teams Player of the Week following Week 14 and Myers was named Special Teams Player of the Month in November and Special Teams Player of the Week following Week 15.