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What Seahawks loss to a division rival upset you the most?

San Francisco 49ers v Seattle Seahawks Photo by Michael Zagaris/San Francisco 49ers/Getty Images

Rivalry week(s) continues across all of SB Nation, and while it’s normal and easy to discuss our favorite wins over hated division rivals, it may be a little more difficult to spur bad memories by recalling some losses.

Guess what we’re doing today? Yup.

The Seattle Seahawks losing the NFC West title to the San Francisco 49ers at the 1-inch line may as well be everyone’s #1 by sheer recency bias. Seattle close-shaved its way into potentially getting a first-round bye at the start of Week 17. Other results didn’t go their way, and sure enough the actual game went to San Francisco. Not only does this loss sting, it stings even more knowing the COVID-19 pandemic could leave this as the Seahawks’ last home game with a full set of fans until at least September 2021.

Here are some others that I’ve certainly stewed over.


Cardinals 34 Seahawks 31 (2016)

Win your last two games and you get a valuable first-round bye. Just have to beat an awful San Francisco 49ers team, but before them is a mediocre and heavily injured Arizona Cardinals side that is out of playoff contention.

If only life were that easy.

Not only did Arizona take a 14-3 lead into halftime, but Tyler Lockett broke his leg and the touchdown he scored was taken away on video review. That horrifying sequence led to this horrifying sequence.

A furious 2nd half rally proved all for naught, as Steven Hauschka missed a PAT that would’ve given Seattle a 32-31 lead, and then the Cardinals defense easily marched down the field for the winning points. Goodbye #2 seed and it sure was one hell of a time to lose your first home game all year.

49ers 24 Seahawks 14 (2006)

Anyone who had lived in the Seattle area experienced a heavily damaging, life-threatening storm. I was in Lynnwood, which is north of Seattle but south of Everett (to explain for the non-locals), and somehow we went the whole night without a power outage. Many flickers, many trees brushing the master bedroom window, but ultimately I got to see all of the Thursday Night Football game that should’ve seen Seattle clinch the NFC West.

The Seahawks had a 7-3 lead entering the break and then completely collapsed in the 2nd half. Kelly Herndon’s inability to sack Alex Smith on this play is one of the worst things I have ever seen from anyone in a Seahawks shirt.

Then he scored on a naked bootleg that fooled everyone and at that point I turned the game off and went to bed. My dad fell asleep mid-game and I wrote a note for him and left it on his desk about how the game went.

Seattle backed into the NFC West with a negative point differential.

Rams 28 Seahawks 26 (2014)

Seattle had just lost to the Dallas Cowboys at home and traded Percy Harvin away. At 3-2, the opening day romp of the Green Bay Packers felt like it was eons ago. Luckily Jeff Fisher’s Rams were a bad team playing Austin Davis at quarterback. They were 1-4 and were beaten by 14 after initially leading 14-0 against the San Francisco 49ers.

Well that pesky trip to St. Louis predictably led to a disastrous 1st half with a lot of special teams hijinx bullshit. By halftime it was 21-3 and the Rams had punked the Seahawks with a punt return “trick” by having everyone go to one side of the field, while Stedman Bailey was all by himself to field Jon Ryan’s punt and score. The struggling Rams pass rush had Russell Wilson under siege.

Predictably, the Seahawks came back and pulled within 28-26. They got the critical stop needed to get the ball back and let Russ cook. I mean, what team would pull off some fake punt bullshit inside their own 20-yard-liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiife isn’t fair.

With a glimmer of hope still available, Tre Mason fumbled the ball with a Seahawks recovery, but the refs said the Rams recovered. Not reviewable. Game over.

The loss proved to be utterly inconsequential because the Seahawks won the NFC West and got the #1 seed anyway, but... FTR.


Grrr... shouldn’t have made myself this pissed off again. Anyway, you can respond with your most-loathed losses in the comments. Some of our older Seahawks fans can also chime in with some losses to AFC West foes, of which Seattle had plenty of them at their 1990s worst.