A Grip on Sports: Seahawks earn a passing grade Sunday but the CFP doesn’t
A GRIP ON SPORTS • The Seahawks survived Sunday. They (almost) always do. So will the College Football Playoffs. One probably deserves it. The other, not so much.
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• We will start with the Hawks first. After all, they are back in the playoffs again. Eight times in the past nine years. It’s expected when the regular season begins. It is not much of a big deal when the regular season ends – though tell that to Jamal Adams.
Anyhow, what happens the next two weeks – at home against the ticked-off Rams and on the road against San Francisco (in Arizona) – will decide just how long those playoffs will last.
Yes, Sunday’s 20-15 win at Washington was just enough to clinch another playoff spot. That’s it, though. Just enough offense. Just enough defense. More than enough special teams. The 2020 Seattle Seahawks everyone.
But this is an organization that prides itself on competing for the ultimate prize. An NFL crown. Can the Hawks seize it?
That’s where the next two weeks come in.
If Seattle wins next Sunday, it will clinch the NFC West and, at worst, the third seed in the NFC. That possibility opened up when the Rams lost to, get this, the Jets on Sunday. At home. C’mon man, that’s impossible.
Anyone want to argue Los Angeles spent time at practice last week getting prepped for the showdown with Seattle? No chance, right, but it sure seems like it. There has to be an explanation.
No matter. Pete Carroll welcomes the opportunity. But that is all it is, an opportunity to clinch the West with a win. The Hawks still trail Green Bay by a game for the lone bye that comes with having the No. 1 NFC seed – and the best path to the Super Bowl. Anything else is a crap shoot with loaded dice.
The Packers have two tough games left, hosting AFC South-leading Tennessee and then traveling to Chicago, where the Bears could be facing a win-or-be-out-of-the-playoffs scenario.
New Orleans has the same 10-4 mark as Seattle, but holds the tiebreaker with a better record against NFC opponents. The Seahawks need the Saints, who have lost their last two games, to lose to either the Vikings at home or the Panthers on the road.
In other words, the Hawks’ participation in the playoffs is assured. That’s it. Where the Hawks are seeded, whether they get to play at home, whether they get a bye, whether they, really, have a realistic shot at an NFC title, all that will be decided in the next two weeks.
Buckle up.
• Why can’t college football get its act together?
If any year, ever, has made it clear the folks who oversee the game have corrupted the system, it is this year. The four-team invitational isn’t working. Well, it does for Alabama, Clemson and Ohio State. That’s it. The other hundred-plus FBS teams are playing for the scraps. And if Notre Dame is an average Notre Dame team, no one else will ever get a spot at the table.
Mainly because the process you must follow to make a reservation changes every week, it seems. And it depends on the whim of those in charge.
Look, there are smarter people than me who see this four-team invitational as the sham it is. We have linked their thoughts throughout the section, so go read them if you wish. But don’t expect anything to change. The way the college football system is set up, it benefits the people in power, mainly the SEC folks. So they don’t want to change.
And players want to play for titles, so Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State and Notre Dame will continue to gather the best athletes, with an occasional SEC school like LSU or Georgia butting in. Even traditional powers like Oklahoma, Texas and USC, and the nouveau riche, like Oregon, are all going to have to get lucky to be awarded a one-year spot. The Group of 5 teams? No chance. No matter how good they are, the CFP will think of a new way to keep them out.
It’s the same travesty ever year. There is a simple fix – expanded to eight teams – but no one in the SEC wants that. So don’t get worked up over it. Give up. Accept it. Move on. It ain’t changing. Not anytime soon anyway.
Hey, college basketball is fun, right?
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WSU: The football season, such as it was, is buried. Theo Lawson takes the time this morning to examine the last nail, the loss to Utah. Some of the numbers from that game are astonishing. … Around the Pac-12 and college football, as we said, the invitational participants have been picked. And the Pac-12 was nothing more than a punchline for the ESPN crew. … The Associated Press poll didn’t mirror the playoff rankings after the top five. … Despite its pedestrian season, Oregon’s win over USC put the Ducks in the premier conference bowl spot this year, the Fiesta Bowl. The Ducks will face Iowa State, which was a surprise pick considering its three losses. … Washington will get its starting center back for a sixth season. … Oregon State learned some things in its season-ending loss. … Colorado, which dropped from the CFP rankings without playing, is happy to be headed to the Alamo Bowl to play Texas. … Arizona State is satisfied with how the season ended. … Same with Utah. The Utes are already rebuilding next year’s roster. … UCLA isn’t satisfied with the last few minutes against Stanford. The Bruins best running back is headed to the NFL. … Brent Brennan’s San Jose State team will play in Tucson. How convenient. … In basketball news, Arizona lost another game to the virus. … Utah is on pause as its virus problems resurface. … Lost in the pandemic problems is how historically bad Washington has become. The Huskies lost a nonconference game to Colorado in Las Vegas yesterday, another in a series of early season defeats that rival any poor starts since 1993. This one was by 23 points.
Gonzaga: Though this is the first we’ve mentioned it, the Zags are back in action tonight with the first of back-to-back games against Northwestern State. That’s not to be confused with Northwestern, which upset No. 4 Michigan State last night. The Demons are from the northwest part of Louisiana and are 1-7. Jim Meehan has more in this preview. … He also passes along the best matchup. … The Gonzaga women played yesterday in Las Vegas. In a foul-plagued contest, the Bulldogs overcame Eastern Michigan 77-68. Jim Allen has the coverage. … Elsewhere in the WCC, after the big win over San Diego State, BYU has to avoid a letdown. … USD is dealing with coronavirus issues again.
EWU: The Eagles are losing one of their better defensive tackles, Keith Moore. As Ryan Collingwood tells us, Moore has put his name in the transfer portal. … Kendrick Bourne scored a touchdown in the 49ers loss, which leads off our local NFL roundup. … Around the Big Sky, Portland State held on for a win at Weber State.
Preps: Cross country is big in Spokane, even in the youth category. Some recent results lead the way in our weekly local roundup.
Seahawks: After yesterday’s five-point win, John Blanchette decided to answer some questions in his column. … Carlos Dunlap has certainly been the answer to the Hawks’ pass-rush issues. When he’s healthy. … Carroll compared Russell Wilson’s play yesterday to that of Bart Starr. Interesting. … The Seahawks won ugly. It’s better than losing ugly. The bottom line is the NFL is a bottom-line league. … There are always grades.
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• Today is my favorite day of the year. Well, either today or tomorrow. See, today is the Winter Solstice. The day with the least amount of daylight each year. In Spokane today we get 8 hours, 25 minutes and 7 seconds of daylight. Tomorrow, we will get four seconds more. And ever day until late June we will have more daylight. The bottom has been reached. The darkest day. We are climbing toward the sun. I have felt this way about the Winter Solstice as long as I can remember. In three months it will be spring. Life renews. Yes, between now and then there will be tough times. There always is. But each day we have more sun with which to face it. And that makes all the difference in the world. Until later …