In the movie Friday, Craig famously got fired on his day off. But on Sunday, the Seattle Seahawks practically won on their day off. I don’t know what’s going on with the NFC this year, except to say that Ice Cube would call every team other than his hated 49ers ice cold.
Despite losing three of their last four, the Seahawks haven’t really been punished for their failures yet. Not to the degree that most teams would feel despondent after an early season collapse. Instead, Seattle’s defense still ranks first in yards per game/passing yards per game allowed and they sit just a .5 game back of the bye week Lions for a wild card.
Not only are the Seahawks as much alive as the 5th-seeded Packers, every team below Seattle is 2-4 or worse. That includes the Los Angeles Rams, as the preseason Super Bowl favorites are 2-4 and in last place in the NFC West after losing to the Arizona Cardinals.
Before the season, I wrote that the Rams were much more flawed than the picture being painted for Sean McVay. I cited special teams as their greatest weakness, as well as their susceptibility to a single injury, and a vanilla defense led by Chris Shula. L.A. has stumbled out of the gate because of injuries to Myles Garrett and Puka Nacua (now it appears Davante Adams suffered a serious leg injury), a mediocre defense, and the worst special teams in the NFL.
Of the six 2-4 teams under Seattle, the Rams are in sixth based on tiebreakers:
2-4 Falcons (lost last 2)
2-4 Saints (lost 3 of 4)
2-4 Eagles (Jalen Hurts on IR)
2-4 Cowboys (lost last 2)
2-4 Cardinals (just ended 4-game losing streak)
2-4 Rams (lost 3 of 4)
1-3-1 Moons (only win against Seahawks)
1-5 Bucs (only win against Cowboys)
You could counter by noting that the Seahawks have lost their last two, and three of four, and they lost to Washington, but all of these teams have suffered ugly blowout losses. Even the Rams. Seattle doesn’t lose like that. They’ve been in every game because of their defense, losing all three by a combined eight points.
If there’s a fraud left out of the playoff picture today, it’s not the Seahawks. If there are three frauds, they are the Rams, the Eagles, and the Cowboys.
Who can seriously compete in the NFC?
9-seed and lower:
2-4 Atlanta Falcons (Bears 31, Falcons 23)
The Falcons were down 31-7 with 10 minutes left in the game. To cut the score to 31-23 is a little fluky and last week Atlanta lost to the Ravens with Tyler Huntley, a team that just lost to the Browns. I’d be wary of believing in the Falcons and the Falcons defense.
2-4 New Orleans Saints (Saints 34, Giants 27)
Maybe the real headline here is that the 3-2-1 Giants are in first place in the NFC East and nobody in the division looks ready to challenge them—even if New York loses seven more games, as they seem capable of doing.
As I wrote last week, the Seahawks may only need to set their sights on the 5-seed, if they can’t catch up to the 49ers in the NFC West. It’s not ideal, but it could still put Seattle in a great position to play a horrible division winner and reach the second round of the playoffs without facing the number one seed.
The Saints beat this team despite Tyler Shough going 16/30 for 144 yards. New Orleans has now beaten John Harbaugh’s current team and his old team (The Ravens, in Week 2) and in between they were outscored 103-64 in three losses.
2-4 Philadelphia Eagles (Panthers 25, Eagles 14)
Hey, Michael Robinson is in the news.
Hurts is on IR. Lane Johnson retired. Saquon Barkley didn’t play this week. The Eagles have lost four straight games.
2-4 Dallas Cowboys (Packers 23, Cowboys 13)
Did Brian Schottenheimer ever think to ask Pete Carroll for defensive advice? The Cowboys might have the worst pass defense in the league and that’s one sure way to miss the playoffs.
Dallas lost Sunday night even though they had 10 days rest after losing to the Buccaneers — with Jalon Daniels — in a Thursday night game where the Cowboys trailed by 14 points in the fourth quarter. At home.
2-4 Arizona Cardinals (Cardinals 18, Rams 16)
2-4 Los Angeles Rams (Cardinals 18, Rams 16)
Well, which team am I supposed to believe is better now? The Rams are in sole possession of last place in the NFC West. If the Moons somehow beat the 49ers on Monday, L.A. will be the second-worst team in the entire conference.
The Rams are a team that could rebound over the next month.
They next face the Raiders, Chargers, Moons, and Cardinals. Three of those four games are on the road, and the one home game is against the other L.A. team that uses SoFi. Las Vegas has lost three in a row now, the Chargers have lost six in a row, and Washington is obviously a really bad team despite beating Seattle.
Myles Garrett could also return next week, but he might miss at least one more game. Unfortunately for the Rams, Adams came up limp on a non-contact injury in the final minute of L.A.’s loss:
The Rams cut kicker Harrison Mevis after a bad game against the Bills on Monday night — one of the most predictable cuts in the league if you had asked me to name someone three months ago — and then replacement Blake Grupe was injured on his first kickoff trying to make a tackle … a tackle he had to make because L.A.’s coverage unit and coaching is so bad.
Of all the teams mentioned so far, the Rams are probably still the most talented. Remarkably, they’re in 14th place but have the same record as the team in 9th place, so if they beat the Raiders and Chargers they’d be 4-4 and right back in the thick of the wild card.
Obviously easier said than done after losing to the Cardinals — and nearly losing to the Eagles two weeks ago — but nevertheless realistic, as is L.A. getting to 6-4.
The Teams Ahead
The Lions are on a bye week and the owners of the worst-ranked defense by yards per game allowed return with division games against the Packers and Vikings; five of Detroit’s next six games are at home.
The Packers next five games are difficult: Lions, Panthers, Patriots, Vikings, and Rams.
The Vikings return from their bye with somewhat of a layup against the Colts, followed by Lions, Bills, Packers, and 49ers.
Seattle’s next two games are against the Chiefs and Bears, followed by Cardinals and Raiders. If they can manage 3-1 or 4-0, they’ll almost certainly be in the driver’s seat for the 5 or 6-seed at midseason. The team in that position will face the winner of the NFC South or NFC East, most likely, and that could be a relatively easy ticket to the second round.
“Halftime Adjustments”
Unrelated, but because I once answered a Super Joes question about halftime adjustments to say that there aren’t halftime adjustments according to Peyton Manning, Vic Fangio, and many others, here’s another one. Aaron Rodgers said nothing special happens at halftime.
Felt like I had to add one more testimonial.
There's such an incongruity with the "halftime adjustments" myth you've proven several times over (the Rodgers quote being yet another). So many ex-NFL TV analysts still talk about it anyway, they keep feeding the notion -- even though they personally know that it's not really a thing. Do they keep this up just bc it's the accepted schtick and keeps the viewers hopeful?
Seaside Joe nailed it “ before the season, I wrote that the Rams were much more flawed than the picture being painted “
I though that they maybe aging on key spots on offense namely QB. I believe we are seeing that as well as special teams but did I believe they would have only two wins at this point? Absolutely not.
I think we can mostly agree not at least tagging Walker was a mistake and too big of a risk going into the season, but that’s water under the bridge
So how can we get in probably as a wildcard
Obviously, we need a running game. We can’t blame things on the OC when we are pulling players that are third or fourth string on most teams.
There is a lot of heat on the offensive line, but in the fourth quarter of the last game, they did not look too bad. I think they need to have the tight ends out more and play from heavy packages utilizing the tight end receivers.
As far as Darnold goes, I still believe he is protecting an injury or he is afraid of getting hurt again if you look at his eyes, he looks scared. He is not reading the defenses properly and he is making mistakes. He needs to trust himself again, go through his progressions and don’t overthink. I believe he is one of those fellows that gets into his own head a lot. I believe he is a good leader and talented but he is one of those that starts making mistakes get scared of making a mistake and then makes more mistakes as a result.
There’s nothing to be said about the Defense. They may have a bad series or two, but that’s about it. They are elite.