NFL News: Seattle Seahawks leave behind Saint Luis Rams, make the playoffs
The Seattle Seahawks didn’t just make the playoffs; they are the 4th seeded team in the NFC playoffs ahead of the 10-6 Green Bay Packers and the 11-5 New Orleans Saints. Their own record stands at 7-9. They are now scheduled to play the defending
champions at home in the wild card round.
The Seahawks set NFL history when they became the first team ever to win their division and make the playoffs with a losing record. The Seahawks aren’t going to hang their head low for setting an un-coveted record. Despite how their season turned out, the
Seahawks are indeed the division champions and that guarantees a playoff spot.
“There are no apologies for making it into the playoffs. The easiest way to make it to the playoffs is to win your division, period, point-blank,” safety Lawyer Milloy said. “We did that.” The division title didn’t come easy either. The Seahawks were trailing
one game behind the Saint Luis Rams before Sunday and their victory did not put them ahead but only tied their winning (or should we say losing?) tallies.
The only reason the Seahawks won the division was because they had a better record within the division. Against each other, both teams have won and lost one game each in the regular season. However, the Seahawks lost one game less within the division and
hence won the title.
Trying to paint the situation in rosy colours, Seattle’s head coach Pete Carroll said that the Seahawks won for all the teams with losing records who thought they couldn’t be champions. “It can get done, you can do it,” Carroll said. “Somehow it happened.”
While I won’t speak for the teams with losing records, I can assure you that teams with winning records would not be happy about the Seahawks making the playoffs. In particular, teams like the New York Giants and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Both teams have a 10-6
winning record yet neither was able to make it to the playoffs because they are in more competitive divisions.
Seattle’s advance into the playoffs has breathed new life into an old debate, should division winners automatically get home playoff games? Both Tampa Bay and New York decimated the Seahawks earlier in the season. Yet they would watch while Seattle go on
forward. Even if the Saint Luis Rams had won the game, the playoffs would have gone to a team that had been losing in the regular season.
The Seahawks dismiss their critics. “It just shows that no matter what happens through an awkward year if a team sticks together they can have a shot at the end to accomplish what they talked about in the beginning,” Milloy said. “We know it wasn't pretty
getting here, but what we talked about was right there at the end and we took advantage of it. Nobody can take that away from us.”
While there is jubilation in Seattle’s camp, the air was unmistakably dreary over in Saint Luis’ locker room. Rookie quarterback Sam Bradford said that he was particularly disappointed because he thought that Rams’ defence played well but the offence let
down the team. The quarterback was limited to just 155 yards in the air and threw an interception in the game. Seattle’s quarterback Charlie Whitehurst threw no interceptions and scored a touchdown. This was only his second start for the Seahawks. He replaced
quarterback Matt Hasselbeck after he injured his hip against Tampa Bay.
The Rams were unable to score a touchdown in the game and their 6 points came of two field goals. Rams' running back Steven Jackson said that in his opinion the Rams were just ‘out of sync.’ Weather it was Saint Luis’ own failing or the strength of Seattle’s
defence, in the end the Rams were unable to catch up to the Seahawks. “It's just frustrating to get this far and have an opportunity to make the playoffs, and to come up short,” Bradford said. “Just frustrating!”
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