http://blog.seattlepi.com/hawkfan/archives/229312.asp
http://blog.seattlepi.com/hawkfan/archives/229312.asp
How The Seahawks Could Finish 7-9 and Win the NFC West
The NFC West catches a lot of flack for being well, a dreadful division, not just in football,
but professional sports.
I tend to agree and disagree with this notion, because while the regular season records may be porous the NFC West truly does personify the Phoenix metaphor by tying the AFC East with the most Super Bowl representatives in the past decade (four).
Regardless, the Seahawks have a chance to be the first 7-9 team to win a division title (correct me if i'm wrong), in NFL history.
With four of their next six contests at home, I doubt they go 2-4 to finish the season with a losing record. The sad thing is, not much has to happen for the Seahawks to capture the NFC West with seven victories anyway.
If they can just beat the Rams and 49ers through the rest of the season, those two teams would have to finish 4-1, and 5-0 respectively through all of their games to steal the division away.
The 4-6 Rams have the Broncos, Cardinals, Saints, Chiefs, and 49ers, as well as a road contest in Seattle remaining on their schedule.
If they notched a road loss at Seattle, they would lose their tiebreaker against the Seahawks and the season series would stand at 1-1. The Seahawks would also surpass the Rams most possible divisional wins (4), meaning the Rams would have to attain eight wins to top Seattle.
The 3-7 49ers have the Packers, Chargers, Rams, and the Cardinals twice remaining on their schedule, as well as hosting Seattle.
If they recorded their eighth overall loss and second to Seattle, that means they would have to surpass seven wins to have any chance at winning the division.
That's a tall order for both teams, and I simply don't see any team in the NFC West finishing the season with a 4-1 record.
As to where the Cardinals enter into this equation, I don't see how anyone can enter them into the equation.
They have the 49ers twice, as well as the Panthers, Broncos, Cowboys, and Rams left to go.
If you want to make this whole NFC West race even sadder, the rest of the division can help take each other out of the race.
If the Cardinals and 49ers split their two games, that means both would have at least eight losses, if the Seahawks beat the 49ers, that means they would be mathematically eliminated if the Seahawks notched one more victory after that.
If the Cardinals and Seahawks both beat the Rams, and it's important to note that both contests are road games and St. Louis hasn't won on the road, that means they would have to win all of their remaining games to have a chance.
Here's an interesting one where all of the NFC West teams can take each other out of the race.
If the Cardinals and Seahawks both beat the Rams, and the Cardinals and 49ers split their games that means all three teams would have eight losses and would have to win all of their remaining games to finish 8-8.
This is all assuming of course, that the Seahawks finish the season 2-4 and don't beat the Panthers, Chiefs, or Falcons at home and crumble against Tampa Bay on the road.
The worst case scenario is those pesky Rams, the most significant way they can damage Seattle is to win at Qwest Field. This gives them the tiebreaker and if they were to go 5-0 in their remaining games they would win the west.
Or you could look at it this way, if Seattle merely finishes with a better record here on out the the rest of the division regardless of who they play, they win be default.
If each NFC West team loses one game, Seattle only needs to play .500 ball to guarantee the division.
If each NFC West team loses two games games, Seattle only needs two wins to guarantee the division title.
Now don't even get me started on the scenarios for an 8-8 finish, I thought about writing them but it's just too pathetic to comprehend.
Lets just say, a lot has to go right for those three teams and simultaneously the Seahawks would have to completely collapse and lose to any five of the Rams, 49ers, Panthers, Chiefs, Buccaneers, and Falcons, to truly lose grip on the division.
Somewhere, Pete Carroll is very happy the team he chose to coach is not in the NFC South.
