Seahawks must heed these three lessons from the playoffs

The Seahawks begin their second season today versus the Eagles. If they learned anything from this weekend, it’s that anything can happen in the postseason.

I can’t say the Seahawks are lucky to be on the road today versus the Eagles, even though they’ve been tremendous on the road this season. They are quite lucky, though, to play the fourth game of the wildcard round. There have been more than a few lessons to be learned from the contests so far. Let’s take a closer look at the three biggest.

Yogi Berra’s Theorem of Finality. This is also known as, “It ain’t over till it’s over”. In the first game of the postseason, the Buffalo Bills were crushing the favored Houston Texans for the first 43 minutes of the game. The bills built up a 16-0 lead on stifling defense and heady plays by their quarterback, Josh Allen. You can change that crushing to crashing as Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson rallied his team to 19 unanswered points. With the pressure of the game on him, Allen made a couple of huge mistakes, ably assisted by a newly-impenetrable Texans defense. The Bills went from cruising into the second round of the playoffs to their usual postseason berth – home.

The Seahawks have more than a little experience in fourth-quarter rallies, of course. There are few quarterbacks better at it than Russell Wilson, after all. That doesn’t mean they can afford to take the first half off. We saw how poorly that worked out for the Hawks last week. Sure, the Eagles aren’t exactly as good a team as the Niners – and that truly pains me to even acknowledge that much. Regardless, once a team is in the playoffs, anything can happen – as we saw lat night.

 Yogi Berra’s Proof of Competitive Balance. This is most likely better known as, “We were overwhelming underdogs”. All you have to do is look at last night’s second AFC wildcard contest. The 9-7 Tennesse Titans had to take on the 12-4 New England Patriots in Foxboro. This was only the second playoff appearance for Tennesse since 2008. This was their fourth-straight 9-7 season. Their quarterback was one of the early departures from the Dolphins everything-must-go sale. For that matter, Ryan Tannehill didn’t even start until week seven.

Compare that to the anointed royalty of the league, the Cheaters – oops, sorry, the Patriots. 2008 is the last time the Pats missed the playoffs. Their current coach-quarterback partnership has six championship rings, including one I refuse to even talk about. Of course, the Pats were favored to win this one. And yet when the pressure was on, Tannehill was a bit cooler under pressure than Tom Brady. The vaunted Patriots defense had no way to stop Derrick Henry. As crazy as it seems, Tennessee moves on as New England broods.

Yogi Berra’s Postulate of Historic Recurrence. Perhaps his most famous pronouncement, you may know this as, “It’s deja vu all over again.” For this example, you need only look at today’s previous NFC contest. In some ways mirrored both AFC games. The lead swung back and forth between the Vikings and the host Saints in the first half. Minnesota then carried a 20-10 lead into the fourth quarter. Now let me remind you of a couple of things. New Orleans has Drew Brees at quarterback, who’s having one of his best seasons ever. They feature Michael Thomas, who set the all-time single-season receiving record with 149 catches. That’s more than Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf combined.

And the Vikings held them to 10 points through three quarters. Brees being Brees, he took over in the fourth. As of this writing, the Saints just kicked a field goal to tie the game with two seconds left. In this instance, the favored team may still win out, just as the Texans did versus the Bills. Although they didn’t need quite such a furious comeback to do it. In just a few minutes, we’ll both know what happened. Updated: The Vikings pulled off the upset, just as the Titans did last night.

What this all means for the Seahawks is simple. Throw the regular season out the window. The Hawks outplayed the Eagles in their first meeting, as the defense throttled Wentz et al. Despite all the injuries, I expect a similar outcome today. Although hopefully, Wilson will have a far better game. That would go a long way to settling down this crazy start to the postseason.