Division title is Seahawks’ first priority

RENTON, Wash. – In Pete Carroll’s eyes, everything the Seattle Seahawks want to accomplish in a season starts with the NFC West. So as the Seahawks progress through offseason training and mini-camps and training camp and the exhibition season and the regular season, Carroll says that’s the only specific goal that is ever mentioned. “Why don’t you ever talk about the Super Bowl?” Carroll said this week, repeating a question he gets asked. “We never talk about that.” Instead, as Carroll sees it, the best way to get to the Super Bowl is to win the West and then get, as he calls it, “the benefits of that.” So that’s the goal and always will be, he says. “That’s the only thing that’s important is to position ourselves for the end of it, so that’s clearly been our mantra,” he said. “So I don’t see any reason why we would ever change that.” That prize is what’s at hand today as the Seahawks host the St. Louis Rams at 1:25 p.m. at CenturyLink Field. If the Seahawks win, Seattle will capture the West for a second straight year and third time in five years under Carroll (it would be the ninth division title since Seattle joined the NFL in 1976). And then they’ll get the benefits of that – the No. 1 seed in the NFC and home field through the playoffs barring an unlikely Detroit-Green Bay tie (which, combined with a Dallas win, would give the No. 1 seed and home field to the Cowboys). “We saw what that was (last year) to have home field throughout,” Carroll said. It’s the third straight year the Seahawks will host the Rams in the regular-season finale with the NFC West on the line. Seattle won both times, but in 2012 didn’t get the 49ers loss it needed to get the division title. Last year the Seahawks controlled their destiny and just needed a win to take the division – which they got 27-9 – as they do again this season. The Seahawks, though, lost the last time they played the Rams, on Oct.19 in St. Louis, a game that also serves as one of the low points of the season. That game came 48 hours after the trade of Percy Harvin, which was announced as the team boarded buses at the VMAC for the trip to St. Louis. A Seahawks team that appeared to still be shaking off the shock of the trade fell behind 21-3 midway through the second quarter. And despite statistically dominating the game – Seattle outgained the Rams 463-272, including gaining 303 in the second half – a Seahawks rally fell just short, 28-26. Given the bizarre circumstances of the weekend, it seemed only fitting that the Rams sealed the win by converting a fake punt from their own 18 with 2:33 to go. That capped a wild game of special teams in which the Rams also scored on a 90-yard trick-play punt return and also scored a touchdown on a short drive following a 75-yard kickoff return. “The big plays in the special teams were the difference,” Carroll said, adding that the Seahawks will have to do a better job deciphering any possible tricks this time. “It’s the awareness that you have to have of sensing the right numbers on the field, the right looks on the field-goal teams, if everyone is where they’re supposed to be, scanning the sidelines,” he said “You always have to be on the alert.” A meeting of Carroll and team leaders following a loss at Kansas City on Nov. 16 is widely credited with getting the season back on track. But the St. Louis defeat can be viewed as its own turning point as Seattle is 8-1 since then, the only defeat the 24-20 loss at Kansas City, with all but one of the wins coming by 10 points or more. Cornerback Richard Sherman, for one, resisted the idea this week that much has really changed since the first game against the Rams, saying the biggest difference is that the Seahawks are “just healthier” and that the loss was just “part of the process” of the season. If that was an ebb, though, then Seattle is definitely in the flow now, one that has led them to the doorstep of another NFC West title. They are favored by 121/2 points against the Rams. “When it comes to next week, we’ll see what it means and where we are in all that,” Carroll said. “This is really the prize that you can get right now.”