RENTON, Wash. — The Seattle Seahawks can finally get into the rhythm of the NFL season, coach Pete Carroll said this week.

So far, the Seahawks played a Monday night game, a Thursday night game and had a bye in the first five weeks of the season. The schedule left the Seahawks wondering at times whatever happened to playing at 1 p.m. on a Sunday.

Well, wonder no more, as the Seahawks are beginning a stretch of seven games on seven Sundays. Next up is a contest against the Dallas Cowboys that looks to be a lot tougher now than it might have a few weeks ago.

This is one season when the expectations for Dallas weren’t great, something that a decisive home loss to the San Francisco 49ers in Week 1 did nothing to change.

Since then, Dallas reeled off four wins in a row, and it comes to CenturyLink Field on Sunday tied with the Philadelphia Eagles and the San Diego Chargers for the best record in the NFL at 4-1.

Dallas is thriving behind a running attack that is second in the NFL behind only that of Seattle, averaging 160 yards on the ground per game. Most of the damage is coming from the feet of running back DeMarco Murray, who has 670 yards and on pace for 2,144, which would be an NFL single-season record.

“He’s really special,” Carroll said of Murray, “and he continues to break really solid tackles. Guys have him and he keeps on moving and keeps on going. He’s got enough speed to run around you and set you down and bust away from you. … So it’s going to be a great challenge for us.”

It also is going to be a great matchup of the top runner in the NFL and the top run defense. Seattle leads the NFL by allowing just 62.3 rushing yards per game and 2.6 per carry.

That was keyed by a dominating performance against the Washington Redskins in which running back Alfred Morris was held to 29 yards on 13 carries.

“We had a really cool week of preparing for the run this last week. Hopefully that will help us,” Carroll said. “Alfred Morris is a terrific player, and we worked really hard to do that. Well, we’re going to have to do that exact same thing again and see if we can pull it off and slow them down.”

What Seattle also hopes to do is play a little cleaner game than at Washington, where the Seahawks were flagged 13 times for 90 yards. While the Seahawks protested a couple of the calls, they also acknowledged that they simply have to do better in that area — eight were pre-snap penalties on the line of scrimmage.

“I think we were jumpy, we were really anxious to get going, and it took us a long time to get settled in, and we were very sloppy,” Carroll said. “Really, it was eight penalties at the line of scrimmage. That’s just far too many for a team that expects to play well.”

The overall picture, though, shows a team just about where it wants to be.

Seattle is 3-1, having lost only to a surging San Diego team on the road in 100-degree heat. The defense held the Green Bay Packers, Denver Broncos and Washington well below of their season scoring averages in Seattle wins.

“Really disappointed that we were so far off down in San Diego. That one’s not going away,” Carroll said. “I’m going to kind of carry that one for a long time because we just weren’t right. All in all, we played a lot of really good football and we’re doing a lot of really good things. …

“I don’t think we’re showing any wear about last year or any of that kind of stuff. I think we’re all playing football and we’re taking it one big game at a time and focusing in that manner. … We’ll prove it again this week by playing well against Dallas, so I think we’re in good shape right now.”