Excruciating Saturday goes against Seahawks. How Seattle can make the playoffs now
The Seahawks’ playoff picture just got really bleak.
The game they had to have on an excruciating Saturday night did not go their way.
The eliminated Arizona Cardinals held down Matthew Staffford and the Rams. But Kyler Murray’’s dart of pass fired off the helmet of teammate Trey McBride high into a diving interception by former Seahawk Akhello Witherspoon in the final minute. That’s how Los Angeles beat Arizona 13-9.
That means Seattle needs help making the playoffs, a ton of it, beyond beating L.A. next weekend in the regular-season finale.
The Seahawks signed Witherspoon in March 2021. By September, before he played in a regular-season game for them, they benched then traded the cornerback, to Pittsburgh. Because of injuries, the Rams called Witherspoon up from the practice squad in the middle of this season.
Now that he’s ensured the Rams (10-6) won, the Seahawks (9-7) cannot win the NFC West merely by beating L.A. alone next weekend in Inglewood, California, in the season finale.
Seattle needs at least three, and preferably more, of the following teams to lose Sunday and Monday night: Minnesota (at home Sunday afternoon against Green Bay), Washington (at home Sunday night against Atlanta, Buffalo (at home Sunday morning against the New York Jets), Cleveland (at home Sunday morning against Miami) and San Francisco (at home Monday night against Detroit).
That would give Seattle a slight chance of winning the strength-of-victory tiebreaker that would decide the division title if the Seahawks beat the Rams next week and finish with the same regular-season record.
If Seattle beats Los Angeles next weekend, the teams will be even in record and the top four tiebreakers the league uses for two teams to determine a playoff spot. The fifth tiebreaker is strength of victory.
For that, the Seahawks also needed Cincinnati to lose Saturday at home to Denver. But the Bengals won, in overtime.
Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald was absolutely glued to his television.
“I’m going to watch every snap. Yeah,” Macdonald said Friday.
He must’ve been sick watching that Saturday night.
Yet the rookie head coach knows the Seahawks had their chances before this. And they lost them.
The home defeat to the two-win New York Giants in early October, for instance.
“First, I would say if you’re not in charge of your own destiny, you’re always going to think of moments that you felt like you could have taken advantage of better to put yourself in a better position,” Macdonald said. “But, that’s always going to be the case, otherwise, we’d be sitting here at 16-0 just thinking that we’re the best thing since sliced bread.
“So, that’s kind of where we’re at, and it’s not an ideal situation.
“But, I do feel that we probably wouldn’t have won some games as well or put ourselves in this situation if we didn’t learn, evolve, grow, stick together, and stick to the process of how we want to be as a team to be able to get through the ebbs and flows of the season.
“So yeah, absolutely, there are times throughout the year where we felt like we could have taken advantage of to put ourselves in a better position going into the last week.”
This story was originally published December 28, 2024 at 8:32 PM.
