A Grip on Sports: After a long wait, the Seahawks finally get a playoff game at home in front of their fans but will Sam Darnold be ready?
A GRIP ON SPORTS • Anything of consequence happening in the Northwest today? Other than the sun making an appearance west of the Cascades and boosting the temps into the high 40s, I mean? That’s always a big deal in January. How about an NFL playoff game fans can attend? It’s been a while. Since 2017.
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• Nine years is long enough for three or four TV shows to become the new hottest watch. And fade into irrelevance. Heck, nine years ago new episodes of “Game of Thrones” were still flying around HBO and “Stranger Things” scared the bejesus out of Netflix subscribers. Wait, that last one is a bad example.
The point is the Seahawks not having a home playoff game for that long – with fans in the Lumen Field seats – seems almost as plausible as an entire other world existing just below a small town in Indiana.
Or a dragon burning through downtown Seattle.
Playing the role of said evil beast tonight? The San Francisco 49ers, who have crushed many of Seattle playoff hopes the past nine years.
The most recent iteration of the Hawks matches up well with Mike Shanahan’s 49ers, mainly because Mike Macdonald’s defense was built to compete in an NFC West dominated the past few years by Shanahan and Sean McVay. Lucky for Seattle, both might be on the road to the Super Bowl.
Or unlucky. Your pick.
Macdonald’s defense shut down San Francisco two short weeks ago. In Santa Clara. Does the past inform the present tonight (5, Fox)? Or do the 49ers have counters ready that will burn through the Hawks like dragonfire?
The NFL is a week-by-week league. Has been for years. This season has been a Space Needle-sized example of that. Each week a new team was crowned the league’s best. And before you could delete all the social media posts of praise, they had lost to the Falcons or Panthers or someone.
The last team standing, headed into the playoffs? Seattle. After a week of wild card games? Still Seattle. Though Las Vegas is still not convinced the Rams won’t figure out a way past Chicago and tonight’s winner and win it all. L.A. has better odds than any AFC team. The longest odds? The 49ers.
And that’s worrisome. At least for us doom and gloom folk.
At least we will know whether the oddsmakers are right before we go to bed tonight. And have all day Sunday to either celebrate or drown our sorrows.
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WSU: Around the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, there is story in the Gonzaga section below in which Greg Woods added a WSU perspective to Theo Lawson’s usual look back at the GU men’s game. … The Washington men had NCAA dreams when the season began. Can they salvage them? … Oregon has lost its two leading scorers at the worst possible time. Next up for UO? No. 4 Michigan. … Colorado hopes to start better against West Virginia. … USC has another tough task at hand. Fifth-ranked Purdue. … Arizona State also has a test. At seventh-ranked Houston. … Top-ranked Arizona hopes to bully past UCF. … Boise State needed a win badly. The Broncos got it by holding off visiting Colorado State. … New Mexico heads to San Diego State, which is a homecoming of sorts for its first-year coach. … Utah State makes its first, and last, conference trip to Grand Canyon. … The third-ranked UCLA women will host Maryland today, contrary to what I had in this space yesterday.
• In football news, Jon Wilner has his Friday mailbag in the Mercury News. It contains a lot of thoughts on the future of college football. … John Canzano wonders if picking games against the spread is something he should not be doing anymore. The impetus for his thoughts? The latest betting scandal. … It is just me or does it seems as if no one is in charge of college football? No, it is not. … Indiana meets Miami on Monday night with a national title at stake. This is not the matchup most anyone could have imagined at the beginning of the season. … Christian Caple has a Washington mailbag. The Huskies have had an interesting portal journey this offseason. … The new Oregon coordinators each received a large raise as they try to help the Ducks to the final frontier. … Kyle Whittingham is taking some Utah recruits with him to Michigan. … Sam Leavitt said goodbye to Arizona State fans.
Gonzaga: The Zags needed every one of Braden Huff’s 28 points – on just 14 shots – to get past Seattle University in the first meeting in Spokane. He’s not available tonight in Climate Pledge Arena. And that could be a problem. Theo has a preview of the West Coast Conference game as well as the key matchup. … He and Greg teamed up to look back on Thursday night’s game in Pullman, won by the Bulldogs 86-65. … The Huff injury has been noted nationally as well. … Elsewhere in the WCC, Saint Mary’s has not lost a beat despite all the changes in the college basketball landscape.
EWU and Idaho: Around the Big Sky, the Idaho State men held off Idaho at home Thursday in the schools’ rivalry game. … The Northern Colorado women are on a roll. … Idaho State is not, especially offensively. … Sacramento State dominated the boards in its recent win at Northern Arizona. … In football news, Weber State has added eight transfers.
Whitworth: The Pirate men traveled to last-place George Fox and rolled to a 100-85 victory.
Preps: Dave Nichols spent his Friday night at Central Valley High watching the CV boys and Mead girls post key Greater Spokane League wins. … He also put together this roundup of other GSL games.
Chiefs: Everett is in first place in the WHL’s U.S. Division. Spokane is scrapping along at around .500 and trying to make a push for the playoffs. They met Friday night in Everett. And the Chiefs posted a 4-0 victory.
Seahawks: Clear some time. There are a lot of stories to pass along. That’s a big part of why I kept my contribution above short and sweet. There are stories about how to watch (though nothing about how to avoid listening to Tom Brady’s bland delivery), the season that was and, most importantly, on how bad Sam Darnold’s oblique injury just may be. Who thought the entire season might rest on Drew Lock’s shoulders? Not me, certainly. But this is the NFL and the Not For Long acronym applies to health as well. … One of the biggest plays in Seahawk history happened against San Francisco 12 years ago. These franchises have had some other great games as well. … AJ Barner has had a breakout season.
Sounders: It’s really cool when an athlete gets to play for the team he’s rooted for his entire life.
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• There is another reason this is shorter today. I am on the road. Working in a hotel. And the wireless is, well, OK. Think OK as in how you described that first date you had that one time in college. You know the one. Where the person you spent time with transferred to another school soon after. If I had not prepaid, I would be transferring today. Until later …