The results from Week 14 worked out very favorably for the Seattle Seahawks

Germain Ifedi Color Rush Jersey , and mostly favorable for the Minnesota Vikings. Regardless of the outcome on Monday Night Football, both teams will still occupy the two wild card spots, but merely flip places.According to the trusty New York Times Playoff Machine, a win over the Vikings is as close as you can get to clinching a playoff berth without officially clinching.With the Philadelphia Eagles, Carolina Panthers, and Washington all sitting at 6-7, while the Green Bay Packers are 5-7-1, the Seahawks are now in a position where beating Minnesota and then suffering an inexplicable collapse to 8-8 more likely than not will get them a wild card berth.We can ignore Washington at this point, as they are banged up and bad enough to the point where losing out is a distinct possibility. The Eagles are at the Los Angeles Rams and host the Houston Texans, and both could lead to Ls for the defending Super Bowl champs. Carolina has slumped from 6-2 to 6-7 and finish the year with the New Orleans Saints twice in three weeks, and it’d be a surprise if they managed to win out at this point. Lastly, the Packers are at the Chicago Bears, the New York Jets, and then finish up with the Detroit Lions at home. Even if they win out, the Vikings hold the tiebreaker on them so they have to hope the Vikings finish below .500 or that everyone else above them is 8-8 or worse.Should the Seahawks lose to the Vikings Marshawn Lynch Color Rush Jersey , they’re still at 79% odds. The big story here is that the Seahawks are in tremendous shape to make the playoffs, so there’s no need to freak out if Monday’s result doesn’t go as planned. If they do win, though? You can pretty much start celebrating. Before the game went to overtime, it came down to a moment for which the Seattle Seahawks have spent seemingly every waking moment since the end of the 2017 season preparing: Fourth & Goal at the opponent’s one yard, down by a touchdown. The Hawks had given the ball to running back Chris Carson on both second and third downs, and while there was still plenty of time for Seattle to score again if they got the ball back, the wet weather combined with a fired up San Francisco 49ers squad made a a touchdown crucial. The result was a play that is likely to stay in the highlight reels for a long time, as the 49ers defense appeared initially to have stopped Carson short of the end zone. But, Carson is big and strong and apparently didn’t feel like being tackled short of the end zone, so this is what happened. Just the effort to not get taken down short of the end zone in such a crucial moment is amazing, and it certainly shows how the 2017 seventh round selection appears to have cemented his starting role for Seattle going forward. He’s certainly not the fastest running back on the planet, but he’s smooth, agile and can make defenders miss, all while possessing the size and strength to also break tackles. So, while the data may certainly show that rushing is of little importance in the NFL Earl Thomas III Color Rush Jersey , don’t even bother trying to tell me that Eddie Lacy or Thomas Rawls score on that play. They don’t, and it’s not even up for discussion. In any case, on Sunday Carson recorded his fourth 100 yard game of the season (and of his career), with 119 yards on 22 carries, with the one touchdown included. Those numbers push his season totals to 913 yards with 6 touchdowns and give him 188 yards on 35 carries in the two games against San Francisco this season. While Carson lacks the speed to present a home run threat, but defenses certainly have to account for the fact that he can pick up chunk yardage on any play as a result of his ability to break tackles and make defenders miss. However, in spite of Carson’s elusiveness and his position near the top of the league for running backs in YAC (Yards After Contact), something became readily apparent during the red zone possession on which Seattle tied the game: they were not going to run behind Ethan Pocic. Here’s the sequence of run calls once it was 1st & Goal:1st & Goal: Option left to Tyler Lockett2nd & Goal: Chris Carson over left guard3rd & Goal: Chris Carson over left guard4th & Goal: Chris Carson over left guardCertainly that is a small sample size, but over the course of the drive, here’s the running plays that Brian Schottenheimer called: 1st & 10 at the Sea 25: Chris Carson up the middle1st & 10 at the Sea 46: Chris Carson left guard (Jordan Simmons injured)And that’s when Pocic came into the game, at which point the playcalling became:2nd & 5 at the SF 49: Chris Carson left end1st & 10 at the SF 23: Mike Davis left end (Russell Wilson kept it to the right on the RO keeper2nd & 5 at the SF 18: Incomplete to Doug Baldwin3rd & 5 at the SF 18: Pass short left to Ed DicksonAnd then came four straight run plays, none of which went to the right side. Fourth quarter, with the game potentially hanging in the balance, and the running game had been reduced to half the field as a result of an injury at a single position. After Simmons left with what Pete Carroll referred to as a sprained knee, the Seahawks ran the ball 12 times for 59 yards Chris Carson Color Rush Jersey , which is a respectable 4.9 yards per carry, but 26 of those yards came on the first play after Simmons left injured. Over the final 11 rushing attempts of the game, the Hawks managed just 33 yards, or three yards per carry. Now, Seattle did have a decent run by Mike Davis called back on a holding penalty, but that’s what happens when teams run the ball. In spite of the fact that there are more passing plays in the NFL than there are running plays, there are more holding penalties on running plays than passing plays. In any case, Week 15 is in the books, and it now falls to the Seahawks to attempt to clinch their playoff spot in Week 16 against the Kansas City Chiefs, though they will need help from the Tennessee Titans to clinch this week because the playoff hopes of the Washington Redskins have not been fully extinguished just yet. The Chiefs bring their high powered offense to town, and Patrick Mahomes is likely licking his lips thinking about facing the secondaries of the Seahawks and Oakland Raiders over the final two games of the season.