Frank Clark responds to Seahawks being called 'middle of the road' team: 'Richard Sherman and his era is over'

The Seahawks are coming off their fourth-straight win and look like they're headed back to the playoffs

A couple weeks back, the Seattle Seahawks were getting ready to take on their division-rival San Francisco 49ers. One prominent 49er, in the lead-up to the game, called the Seahawks a "middle-of-the-road" team. The Seahawks were 6-5 at the time, so the statement would not have been all that controversial, except that the 49er who made it was former Seahawks star Richard Sherman. 

Ten days and two wins later, Seahawks defensive end Frank Clark has a response to Sherman's comments: "Richard Sherman and his era is over here," Clark said after the team's Monday Night Football victory over the Vikings, per the Seattle Times. 

Clark has emerged over the past few years as a premier pass rusher and is now one of the best players on Seattle's defense. He has 29 sacks over the past three years, ninth-most in the NFL. As one of the holdover players from the era where players like Sherman and Kam Chancellor and Michael Bennett and Cliff Avril were still in town, Clark has some thoughts on why things are different this year than the past few. 

"For so long, I feel like we've had this spirit over us -- that Super Bowl lingering from 2015. You know what I mean?" Clark said. "I feel like for the longest (time) we had that cloud over us, like people wouldn't get over it. But I feel like there were some changes here. We were called a team that was going to have a rebuilding season, quote (unquote).

"The one thing we want to do is just continue to go out there every week and prove all the doubters, all the haters, wrong and continue to show them that we're a team and we're a force to be reckoned with."

The Seahawks have certainly proven that over the past few weeks, having now won four games in a row and essentially put a clamp down on the No. 5 seed in the NFC. It sure looks like they are headed back to the playoffs after missing out last year, and if the standings hold, they'll head back to Dallas to play the Cowboys, who they beat earlier this season. They won't have Earl Thomas this time around, but their defense is rounding back into form anyway, and that could make for an interesting matchup. 

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