A Grip on Sports: The NFL’s usually wild Wild Card Weekend unfolds without Seattle – but in the best way possible

A GRIP ON SPORTS • It’s Friday. A weekend with snow on the ski slopes looms. So does the best NFL weekend of the year. One that unfolds this season without the Seahawks. And yet every person who has a 12s shirt in their closet is happy. And time on their hands to watch, well, whatever is on.

•••••••

• A bye is a wonderful thing. In the NFL. In its playoff system. Only two teams, one in each conference, earn one. The twins denote dominance. They give Seattle (and the Denver Broncos) a chance to refresh, reboot and recharge. To get healthy. To add to what’s worked. To sand off the rough edges. To prepare for a playoff run that will always be at home until the final, super, game.

And everyone associated with the bye-winning teams, from the owner to the fans, a chance to watch a weekend’s worth of games without any rooting interest.

Six games. Twelve teams. Two days. Fun.

• Saturday’s slate begins with the Rams in Carolina to face the Panthers (1:30 p.m., Fox). MVP candidate Matt Stafford and this year’s losing-record division winner. L.A. is favored by 10.5 points. Seems about right. The best outcome for the Seahawks? Carolina posts a massive upset.

The day’s second game pits two old-time franchises in an old-time NFC North battle with a new-time twist. The Packers travel to Chicago to face the division-champion Bears. Or the underdog Bears, whichever you want. Yep, Green Bay is favored by a point-and-a-half. The best outcome for the Seahawks? Depends on who wins the day’s first game. If the Rams roll, the Packers, as they would be a better matchup for Seattle in a week. A Carolina upset? The Bears seem the better choice in this one.

• Sunday features a full day. Three games, starting with the Bills at the Jaguars (10 a.m., CBS). Somehow Buffalo, which struggled at times this season even when healthy, is favored by a point-and-a-half. The best outcome for the Seahawks? The AFC games are somewhat immaterial, at this point anyway, but the Bills would be fun.

The 49ers’ matchup with defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia on the road starts at 1:30 (Fox). The best outcome for the Seahawks? It would be better to never have to face San Francisco again this season, so we’ll pick the Eagles, a 4.5-point favorite.

Sunday night football features Jim Harbaugh’s Chargers at the are-they-a-fraud Patriots (5 p.m., NBC/Peacock). The best outcome for the Seahawks? The Pats. Who wouldn’t want a Super Bowl rematch with New England?

• There’s one game Monday night. Houston, a 3-point favorite, at seemingly-impossible-to-kill Pittsburgh, with Frankenstein’s monster, Aaron Rodgers, at quarterback. The Texans are a 3-point favorite. The best outcome for the Seahawks? Oh, the Steelers for sure. The farther Rodgers travels down the playoff road, the less attention is paid nationally to everyone else. Seattle can continue to build its success in anonymity.

• Those folks running the College Football Playoffs may not make smart decisions all that often, but getting the semifinals finished tonight was a genius-level judgement.

Tonight’s Peach Bowl (4:30, ESPN) is must-see TV. A Big Ten – that still hurts – rematch between Oregon and Indiana. The current upstart against the 2010s upstart. Neither has ever won a national title. The winner gets a chance to remedy that against Miami. The best outcome for us, as the writer of this column? Oregon wins. And the CFP title game features the coach that spurned the Ducks against the guy who replaced him.

• College basketball also seems to have received the memo not to deal with the NFL. There are only a couple of Top 25 vs. Top 25 matchups on the weekend – and both are at least a little surprising. No. 24 SMU is at No. 6 Duke at 11 a.m. Saturday (ESPN). And No. 16 Illinois travels to No. 19 Iowa for a 9 a.m. (Fox) matchup Sunday. Both should be finished before the NFL begins for the day.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t a couple other good matchups Saturday, at least locally. Washington State is at Saint Mary’s, maybe the toughest place to win in the WCC these days. (Knowing Zag fans, we typed that last phrase and then reflexively ducked.) That game is on the CBS Sports Network at 2 p.m. At the same time, EWU is hosting Money Williams and Montana and Idaho hosts Montana State. Both are only on ESPN+.

•••

WSU: The transfer portal taketh and the transfer portal giveth. Sometimes, the same player. Leo Pulalasi entered the portal and jumped back out Thursday. Greg Woods has that story. … And sometimes the portal produces a surprise. Greg has a piece on Kirby Moore dipping into the pro ranks, adding a former professional basketball player turned tight end to the recruiting class. … Speaking of hoops, what has fueled Washington State’s recent run? Greg tells us to look no further than the rebounding column of the latest box scores. … Two former and future Pac-12 foes met in Pullman last night, with Oregon State’s women continuing their WCC roll, topping the Cougars 78-64. OSU is 4-0 in conference play. … Elsewhere in the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, we learned a lesson years ago. A good friend and his wife filed for a divorce. He wanted to talk. Wanted to make sure he was making the right decision. We shared our true feelings. The couple reconciled. We haven’t seen our friend since. Thought of him last night when the Demond Williams Jr. news came down. How he was going back to Washington. All of those folks who vented publicly? Good luck walking it back. … Yes, Oregon is on the clock tonight against Indiana. One of the more interesting aspects of the game is it may well be serving as a referendum on Dan Lanning’s tenure in Eugene with the Ducks. Mario Cristobal left to head home to Miami a few years ago, returning to his alma mater. And, maybe, a better chance to win the national title. The Hurricanes and quarterback Carson Beck are one game away after their 31-27 semifinal win last night. … John Canzano has some thoughts of course…. Jon Wilner has some thoughts on BYU’s season and future in the Mercury News. … New Utah coach Morgan Scalley is a defensive guru. So, how will the Utes play on the offensive side of the ball? … It is almost impossible to keep a backup quarterback anymore. USC found that out yesterday when it lost highly touted Husan Longstreet to the portal. By the way, all four CFP semifinal teams start a transfer quarterback. … A former Utah State quarterback decided the grass was not greener elsewhere than it was in Logan.  … Arizona State is filling its gaps already. … So is neighbor Arizona. … If you can play the game, a college will find you.

• In basketball news, the Washington women started well against Michigan State on Thursday night then ran out of gas. … Baylor got past visiting Colorado 56-52. … Stanford has another star. … San Diego State clicked offensively and pulled away from Grand Canyon. … The Oregon State men held off Seattle U. at home. … Oregon lost another Big Ten game, this one to Ohio State. … One Colorado player is a double-double machine this season. … Utah will have its hands full in the local Big 12 battle with No. 9 BYU. … A Boise State player has lost his shooting stroke and is looking to get it back.  

Gonzaga: Mark Few is doing something this season he’s rarely done in his quarter century run. He’s using nine or more players pretty often. Last night the Zags ran away from Santa Clara in the second half, though the Broncos’ late surge made the 89-77 final more respectable. Graham Ike’s 34 points was the headline, and rightfully so. But the Zags’ depth – Few played 11, with nine getting meaningful minutes again – was the secondary story, with Emmanuel Innocenti’s 13 points the poster child for the depth this time. Theo Lawson has the game analysis and helped the folks in the office with the recap with highlights. … Jim Meehan once again highlights the defense, which shined for much of the second half. He also has three takeaways. … Tyler Tjomsland has the photo gallery.

EWU: Once again Eastern’s men came up short in a game coach Dan Monson felt they could win. He lamented the Eagles’ inability to string together a strong 40 minutes after their 68-64 home loss to Montana State. Dan Thompson has that and more in this game story. … We can also pass along a photo gallery from Colin Mulvany. … The women also lost. In overtime. In Bozeman. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, the Weber State men topped host Northern Arizona.

Idaho: Like many Big Sky teams before them, the Vandals couldn’t contain Money Williams in their 79-73 loss to visiting Montana. Peter Harriman has the coverage. … The UI women won again, rolling over the Griz 67-50 in Missoula.

Preps: The roundup from Thursday night’s action includes coverage of a couple basketball games and a bunch of wrestling matches.

Kraken: Berkly Catton’s first NHL goals were, for him and his family, a long time coming. If that sentence seems familiar, it is. Wrote it Thursday. The Times’ story that sparked it is on the S-R website today. … The Kraken picked up a point last night but lost to Minnesota in overtime.

Mariners: The M’s reached agreement with most of their arbitration-eligible players. Not all though. The big name still part of the arbitration process? One of the big five starting pitchers, Bryce Miller. 

Seahawks: The Seahawk defense is something to behold. Dave Boling has been beholding it all season. And he has some thoughts on just how good it is as we enter wild-card weekend. … The unit’s new nickname needs work. … Byron Murphy’s favorite move does not. … We linked this Charles Cross story yesterday. Again today too. … It was frustrating season for Jake Bobo. But he found a purpose. … Healing is important this week.

Sounders: Seattle added a midfielder, Nikola Petkovic, through the loan process. 

•••       

• It’s my lucky weekend. Not crowded with much. The usual chores, sure. But when the games I want to watch are on, I’m free. If you are wondering where I will be, the answer is simple. In the beat-up Laz-E-Boy, right in front of the big screen. Snoring (probably). Until later …