A final regular season game between a team that has been eliminated from the playoffs and an opponent that is in but has positioning at stake is about as hard to predict as it gets. Entering Week 17, the Seattle Seahawks did not have a great chance of catching the Los Angeles Rams, and almost nothing went their way.
Most professional athletes do not merely phone it in once their post-season chances are over. Some even play better with no remaining pressure. But you just never know how a team in Seattle’s situation will respond, especially with an entirely new and mostly unproven coaching staff.
Complicating the matter is an opponent who has to decide whether to rest some of its starters in preparation for the Wild Card round game next week. If I were the Rams, I would be very focused on beating the Hawks and thereby avoiding a first-round matchup with the Minnesota Vikings or Detroit Lions. The Packers or Commanders would be a much more desirable draw.
Bold predictions for the Seattle Seahawks final game of the 2024 season
But Sean McVay has all but said he will give players like QB Matthew Stafford and star wideout Puka Nacua the day off. I suppose he figures the Rams will eventually have to get past the Vikings or Lions, and the rest will help whenever that game arrives. Maybe that’s why he has won a Super Bowl and I have not.
Last week, we got half of our predictions right. Seattle’s defense was dominant, surpassing the nine TFLS I predicted. They got to ten. And Caleb Williams was atrocious at times. But the corresponding piece – that Williams would make a few spectacular plays – never materialized. Perhaps the weather was the main culprit, but Wiiliams’ 53 passer rating suggests that there was simply a lot more bad than good.
The other prediction – that Geno Smith would have his best game – was also washed away by the rain. Geno’s 92.7 rating was not his best of the year, but given the conditions, it was pretty darn good.
Anyway, that’s the past. We have one more week for glory, both on the field and in the prediction game. Let’s see what we’ve got for the Seahawks final game of 2024. How about these…
"Puka Nacua and Tyrel Dodson will not renew their skirmish from the first game between the Hawks and Rams," or "Kenneth Walker will not match his combined 100-plus yards from scrimmage from the first game," or maybe "The Hawks will not match their six holding penalties (two of the coming on defense) from game one."
There – I should be pretty safe with those picks. Nacua probably isn’t playing and Dodson absolutely isn’t playing. Not for Seattle, at least. Walker is on IR. And the players who accounted for five of those six holding calls are either there with Walker on IR (Anthony Bradford), are seeing reduced snap counts late in the season (Johnathan Hankins), or have been benched (Michael Jerrell).
OK – that’s no way to end the year. Let’s try again…
The Hawks record five sacks
If it is indeed Jimmy Garoppollo under center for the Rams, I look for him to be a little rusty. The veteran will get the ball out of his hand pretty fast, but he is not very mobile, and he may not have several top-tier receiving weapons. There are bound to be plays that look sloppy. Garoppollo is smart enough to realize that sometimes taking a sack is the better option than simply throwing the ball up for grabs.
And the Seahawks won’t only be facing a backup quarterback. McVay has hinted at resting some offensive linemen and Kyren Williams as well. Will the line hold up? Will the young backs pick up the blitzes?
Five would be a nice number because it would allow Seattle to match last season’s total of 47 sacks. I’ll be especially pulling for Leonard Williams, who has been the Seahawks' best player this year, to record at least 2.5 sacks, and tie or surpass the best sack total in his ten-year career.
We will see one or two players score their first touchdowns
The final game of the season is often a time for someone new to step up. With both Nacua and Cooper Kupp likely to get some rest, other Rams’ receivers will get their chance. That includes Tyler Johnson, a fifth-year receiver who has seen just 32 targets through 14 games in 2024.
Tutu Atwell could see more action as well, but his role won’t change very much. Johnson should run the routes that Nacua normally would. He has yet to score a touchdown this year. I give him a good chance of doing it on Sunday.
It would not be Johnson’s first career TD. He has had a few in earlier seasons. So let’s also give a player his first-ever NFL touchdown on Sunday. Zach Charbonnet should still start off as the replacement for lead running back Kenneth Walker. But I think Kenny McIntosh will eventually take over in the backfield and get his first NFL TD.
Final score…
16-13. I’m not sure who has the 16 and who has the 13, but this game does not figure to produce a lot of points. Still, that would be a lot more exciting than last week’s game against Chicago.
Should the Hawks win, they would become the first team to win ten games in a season and fail to reach the playoffs since the NFL expanded the post-season to 14 teams. That seems somehow fitting in an off-kilter roller-coaster season. It has been hard to get a firm grasp on what this team does, but a win against Los Angeles would at least point the ship in a positive direction heading into 2025. I’m not predicting it. But I am still hoping.