From the second the Los Angeles Rams beat the Arizona Cardinals on Saturday, the unique focus for the Seattle Seahawks was to get one hell of a slew of outcomes to interrupt their means to be able to clinch the power of victory tiebreaker. Hopes have been dashed for good when the Washington Commanders beat the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday night time, eliminating the Seahawks and (barring a miracle in Tampa) the Falcons.
In our fixation on simply surviving Week 17, it’s occurred to me that we by no means totally defined or clarified the parameters of what the Seahawks wanted to clinch the NFC West in Week 18. We’d as effectively get that out of the way in which now! So let’s faux that the Falcons knew use timeouts and had an NFL kicker able to hitting from past 50 yards.
What the Seahawks would’ve wanted in Week 18 (except for beating the Rams)
Chicago Bears over Inexperienced Bay Packers
New England Patriots over Buffalo Payments
Tampa Bay Buccaneers over New Orleans Saints
Atlanta Falcons over Carolina Panthers
Miami Dolphins over New York Jets
Denver Broncos over Kansas Metropolis Chiefs
Arizona Cardinals over San Francisco 49ers
Los Angeles Chargers over Las Vegas Raiders
Detroit Lions over Minnesota Vikings
A whole lot of these outcomes have been distinctly attainable if not possible. Would-be heavy favorites just like the Payments and Chiefs intend to relaxation starters, growing the probabilities of the Patriots and Broncos to win their respective video games. One caveat with the Chargers over the Raiders, which might ordinarily be a straightforward Chargers win, is the potential for LAC to be locked into their seeding pending the results of the Cincinnati Bengals and Pittsburgh Steelers.
The obvious hang-up can be the Packers’ intentions to play their starters in opposition to the Chicago Bears, who seemingly can by no means beat them lately. That most likely would’ve been sufficient to journey Seattle’s whole operation.
In the end it was all the time going to be extraordinarily unlikely the Seahawks would’ve been in a position to get the SOV tiebreaker to flip in Week 18. If something, I consider the principle disappointment out of being eradicated in Week 17 is the truth that the Seahawks vs. Rams would’ve a minimum of been significant as a (presumptive) Saturday sport. Starters on each side would’ve been enjoying and this could’ve successfully served as a playoff-like sport for the Seahawks, no matter how grim their probabilities seemed for the Sunday slate. That have been aren’t even getting that’s most likely what stings slightly bit, because the common season finale will as a substitute look virtually like a glorified preseason sport.
