Seahawks move into 2nd place in NFC playoff picture

The Detroit Lions lost to the New York Giants on Sunday, dropping them to 9-5 and improving the Giants to 10-4. With the loss, the Lions remain in the lead of the NFC North but drop to third in the NFC playoff standings. Moving up: The 9-4-1 Seattle Seahawks, who beat the LA Rams on Thursday, 24-3.

If the Seahawks win their last two games (vs Arizona Cardinals, at San Francisco 49ers) they will be guaranteed a bye week and a home game in the second round of the playoffs. There is still a small chance that Seattle could get the one seed, but they’d need the Dallas Cowboys to lose their final three games, beginning on Sunday night vs the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and some other things to happen.

If the Bucs and/or Atlanta Falcons win on Sunday, it could drop Detroit even further to the four seed. The Lions aren’t out of the woods in the NFC North either; they look like they’ll be just one game ahead of the Green Bay Packers (currently leading the Chicago Bears as of writing this), who they also play in Week 17. Detroit plays at the Cowboys next week, the Packers host the extremely-slumping Minnesota Vikings.

The Seahawks have made the playoffs in each of the previous four years and five times under Pete Carroll. In the three instances in which they won the NFC West, Seattle also advanced in the playoffs when playing at home. They are 5-0 under Carroll in the playoffs at home, compared to 2-2 on the road. In the two instances in which they got a bye week under Carroll, the Seahawks made the Super Bowl.