A very good Sunday: While they sit in a Philly hotel, Seahawks move back atop NFC West
Maybe the Seahawks should sit in a hotel in Philadelphia every Sunday.
They couldn’t have better results while doing that this weekend.
The latest day in the NFC West began with favored Arizona losing at the New England Patriots. That dropped the Cardinals to two games behind Seattle in the loss column with five games remaining in the regular season. If not for Kyler Murray’s miraculous Hail Mary touchdown pass to DeAndre Hopkins that beat Buffalo this month, Arizona would be on a four-game losing streak.
Sunday afternoon ended with the Los Angeles Rams, coming off an impressive win at Tampa Bay last week, getting upset at home by the San Francisco 49ers 23-20 on a last-second field goal.
Four turnovers, three by quarterback Jared Goff, pushed the Rams out of first place—and the Seahawks back into the top spot in the division.
The NFC West looks like this entering Seattle’s game Monday night at the Eagles (3-6-1).
Seahawks (7-3)
Rams (7-4)
Cardinals (6-5)
49ers (5-6)
So Seattle will be playing Monday night with the chance to take a one-game lead in the division with five to play.
“We’ve just got to be ready to roll,” quarterback Russell Wilson said of his and his team’s task Monday night at Philadelphia.
Seattle went from fifth, the first of three wild-card positions, to third in the NFC playoff positioning. Green Bay beat Chicago Sunday night 41-25. The Packers are now 8-3.
A Seahawks win Monday night could move them back ahead of Green Bay for the second spot in the conference, on tiebreakers.
New Orleans routed Denver 31-3 because all four of the quarterbacks on the Broncos’ roster were ineligible for the game from COVID-19 testing and contact tracing. The Saints (9-2) remain atop the NFC.
The top seeds in each conference will be the only ones that get a first-round bye in the NFL’s new, 14-team playoff format. The second seed hosts the seventh seed, the third hosts the sixth and the fourth hosts the fifth the second weekend of January.
The Seahawks have only one of their final six regular-season games against a team with a winning record. That is the Rams. The rematch of L.A’s 23-16 win two weeks ago is Dec. 27, the next-to-last game of the season, in Seattle.
This story was originally published November 29, 2020 at 7:40 PM.
