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The move of Seahawks’ game against the Philadelphia Eagles from Sunday afternoon to Monday night only seemed to ratchet up the stakes by the time kickoff finally arrives at Lumen Field.
On a typically dizzying NFL Sunday, the Seahawks watched as a few results helped their playoff hopes — the Packers and Falcons losing; while a couple others hurt them — the Rams and Saints winning.
They also learned that the Eagles — in the wake of allowing 75 points the past two weeks in losses to Dallas and San Francisco — made a change in their defensive coaching structure, with Matt Patricia taking over the play-calling duties from defensive coordinator Sean Desai.
That’s the same Sean Desai who spent last year with the Seahawks as associate head coach-defense. And the same Matt Patricia who is the former head coach of the Detroit Lions and longtime right-hand man of Bill Belichick.
The Seahawks also found out over the weekend that Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts is listed as questionable with an illness. Hurts flew to the game on his own on a private charter Sunday so as not to potentially infect others.
The news of the defensive coordinator switch and the uncertainty over Hurts painted the Eagles as in surprising turmoil for a team that is 10-3 — and thanks to Buffalo’s win over Dallas Sunday, with a chance to move back in front of the NFC East with a win in Seattle.
The Seahawks have plenty of their own issues, notably their own uncertainty at quarterback.
Starter Geno Smith was listed as questionable Saturday while still dealing with a groin injury that held him out of last week’s 28-16 loss to the 49ers. Smith practiced on a limited basis all week with coach Pete Carroll saying that he had “made it through’’ practices without any apparent setback but would be a game-time decision. A report from FoxSports portrayed Smith as having an “uphill battle’’ to play, seeming to indicate the team’s questionable listing might be on the optimistic side of things.
If Smith can’t go, Drew Lock will start for the Seahawks. And if Hurts can’t go, former Oregon standout and Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Mariota will start for the Eagles.
That’s maybe not what the NFL had in mind when it made the decision to flex this game to Monday night, replacing the Kansas City-New England contest (that game wasn’t exactly a thrill-a-minute, ending in a 27-17 Chiefs win).
They could hardly ask for a game that will carry more meaning. The results of Sunday’s games improved the Seahawks’ postseason odds slightly according to The Upshot’s playoff calculator, from 27% to 34%.
More important is what the Seahawks do.
According to The Upshot, their postseason odds increase to 56% with a win and decrease to 15% with a loss.
And with a win, the Seahawks can move ahead of the Saints from ninth to eighth in the NFC playoff ladder (the Vikings and Rams, each 7-7, have tiebreaker edges on Seattle for the sixth and seventh slots). The Seahawks would drop to 10th with a loss.
A loss would also be their fifth in a row, which would be the team’s longest losing streak since Mike Holmgren’s final season in 2008 when the Seahawks dropped six straight.
While the Seahawks finish the season with three games against teams with nonwinning records, a that lost and fell to 6-8 could hardly be considered as a sure thing to sweep those three and get the nine wins that seems the minimum for a playoff spot.
The stakes of the game had Carroll eschewing his usual one-game-at-a-time philosophy this week to acknowledge that they are in a four-game fight to the finish.
“The way I’m looking at this thing, with five other teams that are in this situation, the same one we’re in basically, the tournament is on,’’ Carroll said. “Here we go. It’s one week at a time, and we have to fight our way out of this thing. … This is still a wide-open opportunity. I don’t know how the other guys are looking at it, but I’m looking at it like it’s playoff time all the way down the stretch here. Every game is going to make a difference, as they always do, but it’s even more amplified now.’’
The four-game losing streak led to the inevitable search for answers, by the team as well as fans and media.
Carroll and his players insisted there was no real internal strife, no frustration other than what would be expected of a team that has fallen from 6-3 and seemingly assured of a playoff berth a month ago to losing four in a row.
“Winning cures all of that (talk),’’ middle linebacker Bobby Wagner said. “The moment you win, then it’s a whole different story. We understand what we need to do. We need to do it quick.”
The Seahawks have been saying the same thing for a few weeks and haven’t been able to get it done with a leaky defense that allowed 31, 41 and 28 in the last three games against the 49ers and Cowboys.
True, those are two of the best teams in the NFC.
But so are the Eagles. And while struggling on defense, they are seventh in points scored, eighth in yards gained and fifth in rushing yards.
After showing some promise in October, the Seahawks’ defense has backslid greatly of late and ranks 25th in points allowed, 28th in yards allowed, 25th in passing yards allowed and 23rd in rushing yards allowed.
Two struggling defenses face two offenses that, as of Sunday night, weren’t sure who their quarterbacks will be and in far more dire straits than they might have figured they’d be a few weeks ago.
“I think we need to make sure we win and do what we need to do to win, and everything else will take care of itself,’’ Wagner insisted. “The moment we start thinking about playoffs and this and that and all this other stuff you miss what’s right in front of you. I’m looking at it as we have a good team coming in here, we have got to do better, and we need to win and that’s the focus. And everything else will take care of itself.”
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