For the Seattle Seahawks, Week 14 isn’t about reinventing the offense, unleashing a new defensive wrinkle, or putting the season on the back of a superstar performance. It’s about discipline. It’s about maturity. It’s about taking care of the details that playoff teams refuse to overlook.
Because as tempting as it might be to glance ahead to next week’s home showdown with the Indianapolis Colts, overlooking the Atlanta Falcons would be a mistake with playoff consequences.
At 9–3, tied atop the NFC West with the Rams, riding a two-game win streak and playing some of their best ball of the season, the Seahawks have proved they can win in any environment. But the NFL humbles teams that show up assuming records or rosters on a spreadsheet will do the work for them.
Week 14 could be the ultimate trap game for the Seattle Seahawks
You have to line up, execute for 60 minutes, and this week, above all, demands execution -- not flash.
Atlanta may be without Michael Penix Jr. and is now operating with Kirk Cousins under center, but they still have one of the league’s most electrically gifted players in Bijan Robinson in the backfield, who is the exact type of weapon who can flip a script in a single snap.
Miss a tackle, fit a gap wrong, get lazy with pursuit angles -- and Robinson is gone out the back door. The Seahawks can’t afford to let him breathe life into a Falcons team desperate to spoil someone’s season, and this is where gap discipline, reliable tackling, and gap-sound run fits matter more than scheme creativity.
On the opposite side of the ball, Seattle doesn’t need Sam Darnold to be a hero or for Jaxon Smith-Nijgba to erupt for 175 yards and two scores. They don’t need Kenneth Walker and Zach Charbonnet to combine for 200 rushing yards. They need efficiency.
Convert in the red zone. Protect the football. Win situational downs. Avoid the penalties that extend drives for Atlanta or stall their own. That's the boring, monotonous checklist that gets you to 10–3.
For head coach Mike Macdonald, he knows the trap. You look up at halftime, mistakes are piling up, and suddenly you’re down 10 to a team that had nothing to lose. That’s how seasons detour. That’s how divisions slip away.
Week 14 is about professionalism: take care of business, stay locked in for four quarters, and get out of Atlanta with a win that keeps you on the division lead’s heels.
Then -- then -- you can shift your eyes to the Colts in Week 15.