3 reasons Seattle Seahawks should be hopeful against Lions Week 17

The Seattle Seahawks just played one of their worst games of the season against the Chicago Bears on Sunday.

The Lions are one of the few teams in the NFL with a worse record than the Seahawks, and Pete Carroll should push his team harder this week in practice to avoid another embarrassing loss in week 17.

Here are three reasons why the Seahawks should like their chances on Sunday.

3 hopes for Seattle Seahawks in Week 17

1. The Lions have been up and down this season

There have been games where the Lions have performed well such as their victories over Minnesota and Arizona, along with their narrow loss to Baltimore, but they have also had some awful performances. Following their close loss at the hands of the Ravens and Justin Tucker, the Lions followed that game with a stinker against the Bears on the road falling behind early 14-0 and eventually losing 24-14.

Then they lost again to the Bears at home on Thanksgiving, blowing a 14-13 fourth quarter lead, and losing on a last-second field goal 16-14. While they have surprised some teams at times, with better-than-expected performances, they are not consistent winners.

2. The Lions have struggled in Seattle

Detroit has really struggled on the road against the Seahawks in this series in recent memory. They have not won a game in Seattle since 1999 when Charlie Batch was their quarterback. The Seahawks defeated Matt Stafford in the playoffs back in 2017 to advance to the divisional round the last time the Lions were in Seattle.

The Seahawks currently have a four-game home winning streak against the Lions which started in 2003 with a 35-14 win. Overall, Pete Carroll and Russell Wilson are (3-1) against the Lions, their lone loss came on the road back in 2012, during Wilson’s rookie season in a 28-24 loss.

3. The Lions are a bad team

There are lots of reasons why the Lions have been competing with the Jaguars for next year’s number one draft pick. The Lions are poor on both sides of the ball this season, as they rank 29th in scoring offense averaging 17.3 points per game and give up the 25th most points allowing 25.7 points per game. They also are (1-6) against teams with a losing record this season.

This means the Lions not only are statistically bad, but they also are not good at beating teams they could beat. Detroit like Seattle does not have much to play for this week other than pride, and likely would be better off losing to protect their draft status. The Seahawks do not have a first-round pick in next year’s draft, so winning this game would not hurt.

Given how bad the Lions have been this season, and the fact the Seahawks lost in an embarrassing fashion the day after Christmas, the Seahawks should come out and dominate the Lions to make up for it.