The Seattle Seahawks really needed to win either of their home games against the Green Bay Packers or Minnesota Vikings to be in decent position to reach the playoffs via the NFC West title. They opted to win neither, so we’re here twiddling our thumbs and waiting to see if the Arizona Cardinals can pull off the upset against the Los Angeles Rams. Yes, Arizona beat the Rams already in a blowout, but Puka Nacua, Cooper Kupp, Tyler Higbee, and a few other offensive linemen were not playing that day.

While the Seahawks can be eliminated with a Thursday loss to the Chicago Bears and a Rams win over the Cardinals, there’s also a scenario where it doesn’t matter if Seattle wins on Thursday.

How strength of victory could knock the Seahawks out

For the second year in a row, strength of victory does not favor the Seahawks, which is to say that they’ve once again failed to beat enough good teams to have that fairly infrequent tiebreaker flip in their favor.

Per the NFL’s official playoff scenario, the Rams clinch a playoff spot with a win over the Cardinals plus any four of these six results over the weekend.

Minnesota Vikings over Green Bay Packers

Buffalo Bills over New York Jets

San Francisco 49ers over Detroit Lions

Washington Commanders over Atlanta Falcons

Cincinnati Bengals over Denver Broncos

Cleveland Browns over Miami Dolphins

Technically, 3.5 wins (3 wins + tie in any of these games) will also suffice but we have not had a tie in two years so I won’t completely indulge such a rare event.

In other words, if the Seahawks’ non-common opponent wins (Atlanta, Denver, and Miami) suffer losses while the Rams’ non-common opponent wins (Bills, Vikings, and the extra win over the 49ers that the Seahawks don’t have) prevail in their respective games, then the Seahawks are screwed. They’re not out of the woods if these results break Seattle’s way, but it staves off elimination for a week.

The Broncos and Bengals play on Saturday, so a Broncos win would give the Seahawks one bit of help should they beat the Bears.

None of this matters if the Rams lose

If the Rams lose on Saturday night to an eliminated and banged up Cardinals team, then this article is useless because by default strength of victory will not matter for Seahawks vs. Rams. I’d rather this article be useless than the Seahawks’ Week 18 game be useless.