Wild card-observing Seahawks rooting guide

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Instead of Seaside Joe reaching 2,500 today being an accomplishment, I can’t help but think of this milestone as only being “halfway to 5,000”. Satisfaction is overrated. Being thirsty is what you want.

This is the 2,500th consecutive day that I’ve sent out at least one newsletter about the Seattle Seahawks. Two months shy of 7 years. This streak started before L.J. Collier was drafted.

If you’ve been here since day 2 and you’ve just been waiting for me to earn your paid subscription, maybe now is the time? Maybe not. But if it is, join Regular Joes or Super Joes, or upgrade to Super Joes, by clicking here:

The Seahawks play the 4, 5, 6, or 7 seed in the NFC when they return. Who should fans be rooting for in wild card weekend?

(5) Rams at (4) Panthers, Saturday, 1:30 PT (Fox)

Root for: Panthers

If the Bears and Eagles both win this weekend, then the Seahawks will host the winner of this game. Why not choose the team that lost their “win-and-in” game to reach the playoffs and is the worst team in the postseason?

Some people might say if you wanna be the best, you gotta beat the best. Well, Seattle already did that.

I can’t think of a single Super Bowl winner that people say, “Well, they’re not the real Super Bowl champs because they never faced (blank)" about.

The Rams are the best non-Seahawks team in the NFC playoffs, so get ‘em outta here.

The Panthers did beat L.A. in Carolina five weeks ago, but somehow the Panthers are a worse team now than they were then. The Panthers have lost three of four since that shocker and are only in the playoffs because the Bucs stayed cold and the Falcons got hot.

Still, it wouldn’t be a bigger playoff upset than the 7-9 Seahawks beating the 11-5 Saints in 2010. This game opened with the Rams around 10 point favorites and that game in 2010 opened with the Saints around 11 point favorites.

Similar situations (and Dave Canales was a low-level assistant on that 2010 Seahawks staff) of a losing team hosting a wild card team that many fans still see as Super Bowl favorites despite not winning the division.

I expect the Rams to win and I also expected the Rams to beat the Panthers in November, so let’s just keep an open mind. If the Rams win, then I think it changes the math for who to root for the rest of the weekend.

• Because if the Panthers win, root for the other division winners to win.

• If the Rams win, root for the Packers or 49ers.

(7) Packers at (2) Bears, Saturday, 5 PT (Prime)

Root for: Packers (if Rams win), Bears (if Panthers win)

The only time that Green Bay has won a Super Bowl in the last 30 years, they were a 10-6 wild card team. That team warrants almost no comparison to this team that has lost their last four games going into the playoffs.

The Packers had a top-5 defense in 2010. Their defense is average at best this season and that was before they lost Micah Parsons.

The Packers had Aaron Rodgers and Greg Jennings in 2010. They have Jordan Love and Romeo Doubs in 2025. That team could block, this team lost Elgton Jenkins and isn’t certain to have right tackle Zach Tom, either could be their best offensive lineman.

The Packers had Clay Matthews in 2010, but this season they lost Parsons to a torn ACL.

And yet, the team that Green Bay has played the hardest over the last month is the Chicago Bears (because the Bears are so overrated), beating them once and losing in overtime in the rematch.

The Packers might be worse than the Panthers, so it might be ideal if the Panthers and Packers both win (meaning that Seattle is left with at least two terrible teams in the NFC out of three others in the divisional round) but I have a really hard time believing that any team is that good outside of the NFC West. Chicago, Philadelphia, Carolina, or Green Bay.

The Packers defense is worse than the Bears defense and the 49ers defense is worse than both of their defenses.

And given how inconsistent Seattle’s offense has played this season, the worse defense, the better.

(6) 49ers at (3) Eagles, Sunday, 1:30 PT (Fox)

Root for: Eagles (if Panthers win), 49ers (if Bears, Rams win)

I know that the phrase “root for 49ers to win” makes absolutely NO SENSE, but by Sunday it could simply come down to the question of whether you’d rather face the Rams or you’d rather face the 49ers.

If the Rams win and the Bears win, then an Eagles would win send the Rams to Seattle in the divisional round. I’d like to save that matchup for as late as possible.

I guess the counter-argument to that is that if Seattle gets to face the Rams in the divisional round, then the Seahawks will be far more rested than L.A. at that point.

Is that more relevant than potentially not playing the Rams at all?

Because if Bears, Rams, 49ers all win, then San Francisco goes to Seattle and L.A. goes to Chicago. You send Matthew Stafford to Chicago in January, that’s not an ideal matchup for him or the Rams.

Then you’d have the Seahawks hosting the 49ers, a team they just snuffed, and potentially the Bears in the NFC Championship game, a defense that gave up the fourth-most yards in the league and was equally bad against the pass and the run AND a quarterback who in many ways still looks like a rookie.

On the Eagles side, they come across as the Panthers with better PR.

Since their bye week, the Eagles are 25th in scoring. The only two times they showed anything on offense were against teams that lost 12 games and 14 games.

Philly has the experience of winning the NFC in two of the last three years, but they’re also only hosting a playoff game against the 49ers because they’re in a division that didn’t have another team with a winning record. The Cowboys might have actually challenged them a bit more if they hadn’t traded Parsons.

It’s incredible that the Eagles have gone 6-0 when they are held UNDER 300 total yards. (1-1 when they have 302 total yards)

So the Eagles might be an interesting challenge for Seattle in the NFC Championship game if it happens. The only two teams that the Seahawks can’t face next week though are the Bears and Eagles.

In the immediate results, the Seahawks have to think about how these games impact their matchups when they return to the field in the divisional round. So if it benefits the Seahawks to see the Eagles beat the 49ers, then root for that. If it benefits the Seahawks to see the 49ers beat the Eagles because they don’t want to host the Rams in the divisional round, then that’s what should happen.

I know that feels wrong though, so why do you think the Seahawks should or shouldn’t want to face the 49ers in round 2?

AFC playoffs

(6) Bills at (3) Jaguars, Sunday, 10 AM PT (CBS)

(7) Chargers at (2) Patriots, Sunday, 5 PT (NBC/Peacock)

(5) Texans at (4) Steelers, Monday, 5 PT (ESPN/ABC)

The Seahawks are expected to play next Saturday because there are two NFC playoff games this Saturday that will impact Seattle’s schedule.

In the AFC, I have little to write about until we get deeper into the playoffs.

Every team that the Seahawks have faced in the Super Bowl (Broncos, Steelers, Patriots) is in the AFC playoffs and all of them have home games (Denver’s is next week). The field seems unpredictable to me, like anybody could win it except the Steelers…but even Pittsburgh is at home and there’s a chance that could be at home next week if they win. There’s an outside chance the Steelers would never have to leave Pittsburgh.

When this newsletter started, the Seahawks were coming off of a weak wild card loss to the Cowboys. They didn’t have a 1,000-yard receiver and they were 30th in yards per carry allowed. We’ve continued this streak up until the point where Seattle is the number one seed, meaning that they’ve already matched their deepest run in the postseason since 2015, they have the leading receiver in the entire league, and the number one run defense/number one scoring defense/number one third down defense.

If that’s what the Seahawks can accomplish in 2,500 days, what can they do with 2,500 more?

Seaside Joe 2500