Seattle Seahawks News: The Final NFC Playoff Alignment
If the Seattle Seahawks aren’t the best team in the world, which they probably are, then they’re at least the best team in the National Football Conference. They’ve certainly played like it, and now they have the top playoff seed to show for it. Not a bad position to be in.
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Seattle finished the regular season at 12-4, matching the records of the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys. But those two teams were relegated to the two and three seeds, respectively, because the ‘Hawks had the tiebreaker advantages over them both. The completely embarrassing and ridiculous Carolina Panthers nabbed the fourth seed with their 7-8-1 record, while the 11-5 Arizona Cardinals and Detroit Lions round out the postseason teams at the fifth and sixth spots.
So who do the Seahawks take on in their first postseason matchup? It’s unknown, other than that it won’t be the Cowboys or Packers. Seattle will face the lowest-seeded team to survive the Wild Card round.
Arizona and Carolina will open the postseason with a matchup in Phoenix on Saturday the 3rd. The Seahawks will play the winner of this game, so long as the Cowboys defeat the Lions in Dallas the following day. But if Detroit can pull off the upset, then they’ll be the unlucky suckers who have to travel to Seattle.
The most entertaining scenario, of course, would be the Cardinals and Cowboys both winning, creating the strongest NFC field possible and setting up a one-last-chance rematch between Arizona and Seattle. The Seahawks and Cardinals have played each other twice since November 23rd, with Seattle going 2-0 and outscoring their division rival 54-9 en route to reclaiming the division. Drawing the Cards at home would be fun for all.
Detroit is the lowest seed, but they’re clearly a much better team than the Panthers, who are one of the worst playoff teams of all time. Even the 7-9 Seahawks had a case to be made that they were more than just an also-ran joke, but these Panthers really don’t belong here. If they can upstage Arizona, they’ll be sent straight to the CenturyLink meat grinder.
The NFC Divisional Playoff game at CenturyLink Field will be played at 5:15 pacific time on Saturday, January 10th. If the Seahawks win, they’ll get to host the NFC Championship Game at 12:05 on Sunday, January 18th. The Super Bowl’s on February 1st in Phoenix. See you there, AFC.