Seahawks secure wildcard spot in playoffs

From dismal losses to thrilling wins, the Seattle Seahawks took followers on a rollercoaster experience this season.

The massive image: Ranked on the backside of the league pre-season, the Seahawks defied expectations, slipping into the playoffs — and an opportunity on the Tremendous Bowl — on the final second.

• The Hawks’ secured their postseason berth Sunday, after they beat the Los Angeles Rams in a dramatic 19-16 showdown and the Inexperienced Bay Packers misplaced to the Detroit Lions.

What’s subsequent: The Seahawks tackle bitter rival, the No. 2 seed 49ers, within the wildcard playoff sport in San Francisco on Saturday.

The intrigue: No person anticipated the Hawks to be excellent of their first post-Russell Wilson season.

• The Bleacher Report rated the group twenty ninth among the many Nationwide Soccer League’s 32 groups.
• Sports activities gamblers banked on them being the worst group within the NFL, based on a preseason Caesars Sportsbook report, and Seattle was one amongst solely 4 groups that noticed bets positioned on them to complete the season with zero common season wins.

Seems, Geno Smith’s acquired mad abilities and the group’s operating sport and cross protection aren’t too shabby both.

• By November, the Hawks had exploded into the highest ten rankings.
• “No protection within the league has improved extra because the first 4 weeks of the season than Seattle’s,” wrote The Athletic, which referred to as Smith “the perfect story within the NFL thus far this season.”

However, however, however: In comparison with the Nationwide Soccer Convention’s top-ranked group — the Philadelphia Eagles, with 13 wins to three losses — the Hawks’ 9-8 file exhibits their inconsistency.

• Amongst all 14 groups within the playoffs, Seattle at the moment has the bottom odds to win the Tremendous Bowl, based on DraftKings Nation.

What we’re listening to: “Each week’s been a nailbiter,” Richard Fiorentino, a Seahawk fan for 4 a long time, advised Axios Seattle. “However Geno and the Seahawks confirmed up and stunned the world. I 100% consider they’ll make it to the bowl.”

How they did it: The NFL’s two conferences — the American Soccer Convention and the Nationwide Soccer Convention — every ship 4 division winners to the playoffs, plus three wildcards (the groups with the following finest data).

• The Hawks did not win a division title, however Sunday’s win — mixed with some unhealthy luck for the Packers — let Seattle snag the final of the NFC’s three wildcard spots.

Be good: Here is find out how to watch Saturday’s playoff sport towards the 49ers.