Seattle Seahawks get no favors in Week 15 before Rams game

The Seattle Seahawks have very slim playoff hopes, of course, heading into Week 15. But things got a bit worse before Tuesday’s game. Seattle needs to win out to have any postseason chance but they also need a little help. What they got on Sunday and Monday was quite the opposite.

There are currently four teams one game better in the loss column than Seattle. As we have mentioned before here, though, the issue is that three of those teams have a head-to-head victory over the Seahawks. This makes Seattle really 1.5 games back of these teams.

In essence, the three teams that have beaten Seattle in 2021, the New Orleans Saints, the Washington Football Team and the Minnesota Vikings would have needed to lose two of their last four games if Seattle won the rest of theirs. And this is just to try to get the last seed in the NFC playoffs.

The only team that is still ahead of the Seahawks that has 7 losses that Seattle hasn’t played is the Philadelphia Eagles.

Seattle Seahawks playoff hopes take hit after Week 15 games

The issue with Week 15 was that the Saints shut out the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 9-0. While New Orleans has beaten Tampa Bay quite a bit over recent years (the Saints have won 7 of the last 8 matchups), the hope was that the Bucs would be one of the games the Saints would lose.

Now New Orleans needs to go 1-2 in their last three games and they play the Miami Dolphins, the fading Carolina Panthers and the Atlanta Falcons. The Saints should win at least two of those games.

Minnesota also won in Week 15 defeating the Chicago Bears 17-9. The Vikings do have two tough matchups the next two weeks, however. They play the Rams at home and then travel to Green Bay to play the Packers. Two losses are still quite possible for the Vikings.

But if either the Saints or Vikings win two of their final three games, Seattle’s season is done even if they win the rest of their games. San Francisco is currently the 6th seed. Seattle has beaten them twice but the 49ers would have to go 1-2 for Seattle to have a chance of overtaking them. San Francisco, though, plays a banged-up Titans team on Thursday and then gets the Texans at home before finishing with the Rams.

Of course, if Seattle cannot defeat the Rams on Tuesday then none of this matters. If the Seahawks fall to 5-9 then whatever slim postseason hopes they have are dashed.