Seahawks can be in a wild card position by Thursday night

The hopes and dreams of the Seattle Seahawks do not need to be pinned on the best team in the NFL, but certainly the New Orleans Saints can give them a little boost on Thursday night. That’s when the Saints take on the Cowboys in Dallas and if New Orleans comes out victorious, the Seahawks will officially be situated in the six seed for at least a couple of days.

At 6-5, the Cowboys are in first place in the NFC East, holding a tiebreaker over 6-5 Washington. But if Dallas loses on Thursday and drops to 6-6, Washington advances back into first place while the Cowboys drop back into the wild card races. Not only would Seattle have a better record by a half-game (6-5) but they have the head-to-head victory advantage over Dallas thanks to a Week 3 win.

It’s pretty much as simple as that.

The Seahawks host the 2-9 San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, a team they’ve beaten nine straight times, including playoffs. A win would keep them in a playoff position, while a potential loss by the 6-4-1 Minnesota Vikings against the 8-3 New England Patriots would advance Seattle to the five-seed.

I can see the comments already about “don’t care about anyone else, don’t look ahead” and etc. and so on and so forth but this is factually just how sports work. What you do matters. What others do also matters.