The Seattle Seahawks can punch their ticket to the playoffs in Week 18 against the Los Angeles Rams if they win and another game goes their way. Their only shot at making the playoffs is to make it as the No. 7 seed, which means they would be locked into playing the Minnesota Vikings or San Francisco 49ers if they make the playoffs.
Update: Seahawks Inch Out Win in Season Finale
It wasn’t the prettiest outing for Seattle but they got the job done at home in the season finale. In what as a must-win game, the Seahawks beat the Rams 19-16. Now that Pete Carroll’s team did their job, it’s time to scoreboard watch.
There’s one way into the playoffs now and that’s for the Lions to beat the Packers on Sunday Night Football. If Detroit can pull it off, Seattle is in.
Seahawks Playoff Scenarios To Watch for in Week 18
For the Seahawks to secure the seventh seed and a spot in the playoffs, these are the possible scenarios in Week 18.
The Seahawks secure the seventh seed if:
- Win AND Packers loss/tie OR
- Tie AND Packers tie AND Commanders loss/tie
The Seahawks would be eliminated if:
- Loss vs. Rams OR
- Packers win OR
- Tie vs. Rams AND Lions win OR
- Tie vs. Rams AND Lions/Packers tie AND Commanders win
Because the Packers and Lions play each other in Week 18, there aren’t too many games that Seahawks fans will have to watch in order to learn their playoff fate. If both the Seahawks and Packers win, they’ll have the same record. Green Bay would advance over Seattle because they would have a better record against conference opponents — Green Bay would be 7-5 against NFC competition, while the Seahawks would be 6-6.
If the Lions and Seahawks end up with the same record, Detroit’s superior conference record won’t matter because Seattle won head-to-head in their Week 4 matchup with a 48-45 win.
MORE: Dallas Cowboys Playoff Chances and Scenarios Week 18
There’s an odd third scenario that if both games end in a tie, how the Commanders perform against the Dallas Cowboys will determine whether or not Seattle makes it. If Washington wins, that means there’s a four-way tie among Seattle, Washington, Detroit, and Green Bay, which invokes the multiple-team tiebreaker procedure instead of the two-team tiebreaker procedure.
In that case, the NFL eliminates same-division teams by using the division tiebreaker to select one team. Here, the Packers would lose out to the Lions because of their head-to-head record, as the Lions would have a win and a tie. The Lions, Commanders, and Seahawks would then break their tie on conference record, and the Lions would advance.
If the Commanders lose in a scenario where the Rams and Seahawks tie while the Packers and Lions tie, then it’s no longer a four-way tie. In the three-way tie scenario, Detroit would once again advance over Green Bay because of divisional tiebreaking procedures, but Seattle would get to apply their head-to-head advantage over the Lions when the tiebreaker is reduced to simply two teams.
It’s a fringe scenario, but worth considering.