Seahawks suddenly in good position
The Seattle Seahawks were able to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 39-30 on Sunday afternoon at CenturyLink Field. The win gave the two-time NFC champions a 6-5 record and kept them both alive and well in the NFC playoff picture, this after starting 0-2 and then looking like a dead team walking for most of the season.
Certainly, all is not well with Seattle. In the third quarter of the game, All-Pro tight end Jimmy Graham went down with what appeared to be a serious knee injury. Graham went down without contact and writhed on the ground for several moments before medical personnel arrived in the corner of the end zone. Graham then had an air cast put on his right leg and was carted off the field, perhaps seeing his last action until 2016.
Without Graham, the Seahawks must find a way to generate offense down the field. Seattle does not have a ton of receiving prowess to talk about, with Jermaine Kearse, Doug Baldwin and Tyler Lockett being the main targets. In the backfield, the Seahawks are without Marshawn Lynch, putting even more pressure on quarterback Russell Wilson to both pass and run his way to victory.
At this point, the NFC West will belong to the Arizona Cardinals. Seattle is three games back and lost to the Cardinals at home, putting the Seahawks in almost impossible position in that quest. It would be nothing short of a miracle for Seattle to somehow find its way into the division lead With that in mind, the Seahawks are likely fighting for a wild card spot. In the fifth spot, you have the Green Bay Packers who are sitting at 7-4 and a game behind the mildly surprising Minnesota Vikings.
In the sixth spot, there are these Seahawks, who supplanted the struggling Atlanta Falcons, who also have a 6-5 mark but have lost five of the past six. Everybody else behind Seattle is at least a game back and does seem like a huge threat to make a move into the playoffs. Nobody believes the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, St. Louis Rams, Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, New Orleans Saints or New York Giants are going to make a serious run toward the postseason, something heavily expected of Seattle.
It has been a wild season for the Seahawks, one that has been both maddening and promising all at the same time. Seattle must stay the course and find a way into the playoffs, then hope that everything begins to come back to the one-time champions.
