Undefeated Seahawks add to leads in the division and conference--without doing anything
Russell Wilson and the Seahawks gained this weekend—while having a backyard, quarantine pumpkin patch and family infield practice.
Seattle’s franchise quarterback was all dad during the team’s bye weekend off.
While Wilson was holiday hunting and schooling his boy on grounders, the rest of the NFC broke the Seahawks’ way on Sunday.
The Green Bay Packers lost for the first time in five games this season, and alarmingly so: 38-10 at Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4-2). That leaves Seattle, 5-0 for the first time in franchise history, as the conference’s only unbeaten team.
The Seahawks, Pittsburgh Steelers and Tennessee Titans are the league’s only undefeated teams through six weeks. The Steelers and Titans play each other this weekend.
Yes, the Seahawks are the NFC’s top seed right now. But that doesn’t mean a heck of a lot in mid-October. Eleven games over 2 1/2 months remain in the regular season, including for Seattle this coming Sunday at division-rival Arizona (3-2).
Being the number-one seed in the conference is an even bigger deal this season.
The NFL has expanded the postseason to include seven teams each in the NFC and AFC. Only the top seed gets a first-round playoff bye. Previously, the top two seeds did.
The Seahawks gained some ground in the NFC West, too. That’s because the 49ers (3-3) beat the Rams (4-2) Sunday night. Seattle leads Los Angeles and Arizona by two games in the loss column atop the division.
The Seahawks have yet to play a division game. They will play three in the next four weeks: at the Cardinals and home to San Francisco Nov. 1. Then after a game at Buffalo (4-1), Seattle plays at the Rams on Nov. 15.
“I know it’s fun,” linebacker K.J. Wright said of his team’s undefeated start to 2020. “But our mission is still to win the West.
“And we haven’t played any of those guys yet.
“We have to keep it going. 5 and 0 is beautiful, but we have a long ways to go.”
History is on Seattle’s side with his 5-0 start.
Since the NFL went to a 16-game regular season in 1978, there have been 69 teams begin 5-0. Sixty-two of those 69 have gone on to qualify for the playoffs that season. That’s an 90% qualification rate.
But Seattle’s goal isn’t to merely make the playoffs; the team has done that seven of the last eight years.
To that end: Almost 40% of the teams that have started a season with five consecutive wins since 1978 have made it to the Super Bowl (26 of the 69 teams, 38%). That includes two of the last three teams to be 5-0, both out of Seattle’s NFC West: the 2019 49ers and the 2018 Rams.
Three of the last four NFC teams to begin 5-0 have made the Super Bowl: the 49ers last season, those 2018 Rams and the 2015 Carolina Panthers.
