Fraud Complex: Is the NFC Championship a foregone conclusion?
Ahead of Seahawks 4th-ever home divisional playoff game on Saturday, what do fans want to know about the 49ers?
How’s this for predictability: There were only five teams in the entire NFC that won more than nine games in 2025. Four of them are still alive.
In fact, between the NFC North and NFC West, out of eight teams only the Arizona Cardinals had a losing record. Seven out of eight teams were above .500, including the Seahawks, Rams, 49ers, and Bears. And the team that knocked off the only other team with double-digit wins, the 11-6 Eagles, was the 49ers.
There were a lot of exciting finishes during wild card weekend, some intriguing late-game heroics, but I don’t think there was a single game I’d call an upset. With the exception of the Bills beating the Jaguars, every winning team had the better regular season record, and Buffalo is probably better than Jacksonville anyway.
A spoiler alert to a question I will answer later this week about the Chicago Bears: Yes, I think they are “frauds”.
But only to the fans who think that the Bears made it this far because they’re good, whereas I only think that they’re still alive because they had really lucky timing to win 11 games during a down season by the Lions and Vikings then they drew the Packers in the first round and as usual Green Bay blew a lead.
If the Seahawks aren’t hosting the Rams in the NFC Championship THEN I’ll say that the playoffs had an upset.
These are by far the 2 best teams left in the NFC playoffs.
In Tuesday’s first edition of Seaside Joe’s answers to Super Joes questions, Bret asked about the “chess match” between Mike Macdonald and Kyle Shanahan. It wasn’t until later in the day that I came across this video by Geronimo22 that actually breaks down the strategic decisions made by Shanahan and Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio on Sunday.
If I had seen this video earlier, I would have posted it in the previous post:
So I’d say watch that if you’re very curious about Shanahan’s offense.
I also liked this short breakdown that former Eagles quarterback Nick Foles did on his podcast this week, essentially just breaking down that Philadelphia made a terrible play call on fourth down and Jalen Hurts is clearly lacking in the areas of…I don’t want to say “leadership” exactly because Foles would deny that’s what he implied. But he’s saying that Hurts needs to have his go-to plays in high-leverage situations and then tell the coaches, “This is what we’re calling right now”.
Instead, Hurts went with a bad play call against quarters coverage, threw to the wrong receiver, and then just blopped it (unofficial term) down the middle into triple-coverage. Insane! Never forget that Philly’s game-ending play came after they wasted a timeout AND if they had saved that timeout they could have gotten the ball back one more time.
The Eagles did demote or dismiss offensive coordinator Kevin Petullo on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Hurts has a guaranteed salary of $51 million in 2026.
“People don’t read anymore”
I heard a writer for Entertainment Weekly say this on a podcast today and I agree it’s not very common, but then I know I’ve got the loyal subscribers to Seaside Joe who are here every day and I thank you for that. Read, scan, peruse, comment, share…it’s all welcome!
This season I have continued Seaside Joe’s newsletter streak without missing a day as usual, but I have kept almost every article FREE. And that’s what I prefer, I want Seaside Joe to be mostly free and then you can share it with others and hopefully they read it and want to subscribe.
Readers don’t just subscribe to Regular Joes for access behind the paywall, they also want to support the newsletter’s continued existence knowing how rare it is for a writer to make a living these days.
The paid articles are usually intended to be bonus editions if I manage to get more than one newsletter out in a single day. Given the importance of this week’s game against the 49ers, just the 16th home playoff game in Seahawks history, and only the fourth home DIVISIONAL home playoff game in franchise history, it seems like an apt time to do a bonus article.
And yes, if I could get one or two of you free subscribers to join for only $5 for a month of access (or 10% off if you sign up for a year) then I’ll gladly take that too.
How’s this for predictability:
2,507 days in a row and counting. You can’t get a better guarantee than that if you’re signing up for someone’s newsletter who promises you a whole ‘nother year of content and sometimes multiple articles per day.
Derek Archer: Should we feel confident facing the Niners again this soon? What does the offense need to do to put up more points this time facing San Fran?
A few of these questions about the Niners were similar and came in quick succession so I’m going to lump them together.
Other topics I’m going to cover if you’re a Regular Joes or Super Joe subscriber:
Kubiak’s best destination as a HC
Tomlin’s “decision” to leave the Steelers
Seahawks 2026 opponents announcement
How good is George Kittle’s replacement?
Let’s jump into the Seahawks-49ers matchup again with help from another breakdown video by our friend All-22: