The Seahawks have pulled off their season’s greatest accomplishments the past two weeks winning back-to-back games for the first time this season after beating the Texans. They also swept the season series with their rival, the San Francisco 49ers two weeks ago. Winning on the road is never easy, even if it’s the Texans. But Seattle blew out Houston and coasted in the second half of last week’s matchup.
Maybe even better, giving the seven-win playoff-hopeful rivals in the bay two of their six losses so far. Possibly the greatest highlight of this dark and morbid season. Nothing like adding more fuel to the rivalry now, is there? It is something to tease and mock another team for. Now Seattle fans can deflect and have ammo in a war of words against 49ers fans.
The question now is just this, what now? There are four games left this season and after two wins where does the team stand? The Seahawks are 5-8 and still bottom of the standings so did anything change? Let’s dive into what the last two games did and what is possible for Seattle to do the rest of the way.
Playing Spoilers
Two of the four games remaining for Seattle come against super bowl hopeful rivals. A step up from the 49ers looking to make the postseason. Both Arizona and L.A. just met each other on Monday Night Football. A victory for L.A. is allowing the Rams to stick around the division title race being one game back now at 9-4 (5th seed) to the Cardinals 10-3 record (3rd seed). Not only that but if the Rams or Cardinals have things go their way, they may land the one seed and skip the wildcard round of the playoffs. With a 17-game season, neither team can hope to pull starters and rest, as they need every win to win the division or make that number one seed.
Seattle at 5-8 and 13th out of 15th in the NFC standings don’t have great playoff hopes. However, they can shake up the NFC landscape quite a bit in the playoff picture. With the Cardinals tied with two other teams atop the NFC with the best record with only a one-game lead ahead of the Cowboys (4th Seed), Seattle can knock down the Rams’ or Cardinals’ hopes of a bye. Not only that, but they can make the NFC West champions drop to the fourth seed making it harder on whoever gets the divisional title in the playoffs.
Depending on how the month goes for Seattle, they can be a thorn and spoil the season for the rest of their rivals in the division. The 49ers (6th Seed) are in the thick of the wild card race being a game above 7th Seed and four other bubble teams. If Seattle had lost just one game to San Fransico, the 49ers would be more secure this month. Meaning there is a chance that Seattle plays a major factor in the 49ers missing the postseason.
If Seattle beats the Rams in week 15, they can say they all but ended LA’s divisional hopes. The Rams traded so much top-end draft capital spending as much cap this season as they felt necessary to make a Super Bowl run. Yet, they’re just a lowly wild card team that would likely have to play two road games to even see the Super Bowl. A lot of good divisional rival fire is left to stoke in this holiday season.
Playoff Hopes
As mentioned above, Seattle doesn’t have great playoff hopes, but miraculously they’re technically only one game out of the 7th seed. Any more losses this season for Seattle and their record will drop under .500 making post-season odds very unlikely. If Seattle wins out their odds are about 50/50 in making the playoffs with a winning record.
The roadblock here and why it’s 50/50 odds even at 9-8 is that three of the six teams ahead of Seattle battling for the 7th seed have beat the Seahawks head-to-head (Minnesota Vikings, New Orleans Saints. Washington Football Team). Though if every 7th seed hopeful goes 2-2 or worse and Seattle goes 4-0, the Seahawks are in.
Seventh Seed Needs Upsets
If you are a believer that Seattle can win out, here’s a rundown of why the final month is upset season. Below is a list of the playoff bubble teams that will be favored to lose and matchups that go head-to-head with other playoff bubble teams.
5-8 Teams
Carolina Panthers – Buffalo Bills (week 15), Tampa Bay Buccaneers (week 16), New Orleans Saints (week 17), Tampa Bay Buccaneers (week 18).
Seattle Seahawks – L.A. Rams (Week 15), Arizona Cardinals (week 18).
6-7 Teams
New Orleans Saints – Tampa Bay Buccaneers (week 15), Miami Dolphins (week 16), Carolina Panthers (week 17), Atlanta Falcons (week 18).
Atlanta Falcons – San Francisco 49ers (week 15), Buffalo Bills (week 17), New Orleans Saints (Week 18).
Philadelphia Eagles – Washington Football Team (week 15 and 17), Dallas Cowboys (Week 18).
Minnesota Vikings – L.A. Rams (week 16), Green Bay Packers (week 17).
Washington Football Team – (7th seed as of week 14) – Philadelphia Eagles (Week 15), Dallas Cowboys (Week 16), Philadelphia Eagles (week 17).
7-6 Teams
San Francisco 49ers (6th seed as of week 14) – Atlanta Falcons (week 15), Tennessee Titans (week 16), L.A. Rams (week 18)
Every team will be projected to lose a couple of games next over this month. Even if the odds are against the Seattle Seahawks, the teams that make the playoffs at 6th and 7th seed are getting hot and upsetting teams in the final month of the NFL Season.
With all that said, the teams to be root for appear to be Dallas Cowboys, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Buffalo Bills. They get a lot of NFC wild card playoff matchups the next few weeks.
Watching Meaningful Games
In six weeks, the Seahawks can accomplish the most unexpected craziest finish to a season in franchise history. Seattle could go from giving the New York Jets a top-five pick in the draft, to making the playoffs and shocking everyone, even the most supportive diehard Seahawks fans.
At the very least Seattle fans will have an important final month of the season to watch. After the Monday Night Football loss to the Washington Football Team and falling 3-8, the season looked like it had no more meaningful games left to offer. Now the Seahawks have placed themselves to have a critical game against the L.A. Rams in week 15. The outcome of which will teeter the season to another extreme.
With only four games remaining, we’ll have to wait and see what this team can pull off.
Northwest Sports Desk 