The Seattle Seahawks’ nightmarish three weeks of losses and unfavorable results elsewhere has led to the end of their division title and playoff hopes.

Absent a Los Angeles Rams loss to the Arizona Cardinals (spoiler: it didn’t happen), the next best thing for the Seahawks was to avoid having any four of the following six teams winning their respective Week 17 games: Cincinnati Bengals, Buffalo Bills, Minnesota Vikings, Cleveland Browns, Washington Commanders, and San Francisco 49ers.

Well, we didn’t even make it to the 49ers game on Monday.

The Bengals won in overtime over the Denver Broncos on Saturday, the Bills blew out the New York Jets on Sunday, the Vikings held off the Green Bay Packers, and while the Browns lost to the Miami Dolphins, the Commanders (led by former Seahawks Super Bowl champion defensive coordinator Dan Quinn) rallied to beat the Atlanta Falcons in an overtime thriller.

The Seattle Seahawks’ path to a strength of victory tiebreaker is out of the question. They are officially eliminated from postseason contention, and the Los Angeles Rams are NFC West champions after starting 1-4 with a slew of injuries on the offensive line and at wide receiver.

This was what the NFC West standings looked like after Week 14:

NFC West Standings, Week 14

1. Seattle Seahawks (8-5, 3-2 NFCW)
2. Los Angeles Rams (7-6, 2-1 NFCW)
3. Arizona Cardinals (6-7, 2-2 NFCW, H2H vs. SF)
4. San Francisco 49ers (6-7, 1-3 NFCW)

And this is what it looks like now:

NFC West Standings, Week 17

1. Los Angeles Rams (10-6, 4-1 NFCW)
2. Seattle Seahawks (9-7, 3-2 NFC W)
3. Arizona Cardinals (7-9, 2-3 NFCW)
4. San Francisco 49ers (6-9, 1-4 NFCW)

There were few paths where the Seahawks could’ve put themselves from sole possession of first place in mid-December to completely out of the playoff hunt before Week 18, but they found it. Yes, the Rams had some good fortune by winning seemingly every close game they had to win over the last five weeks, but they won them. The Seahawks had one close game they had to win against the Minnesota Vikings and lost it. Almost every other result related to Seattle’s playoff hopes also went against the Seahawks. It happens.

Seahawks miss the playoffs in back-to-back years for first time since 2008-2009

The Seahawks have now missed the playoffs in consecutive seasons for the first time since Mike Holmgren’s injury-laden final season in 2008 and the horrendous Jim Mora tenure of 2009, in which the Seahawks went a combined 9-23. Seattle has had only one season come remotely close to those teams,

With just one playoff win in the last eight seasons and similarly only one NFC West title in that same span, this is the worst stretch of Seahawks football in terms of playoff success since the dreaded 21-year playoff drought from 1984 to 2005.

Unlike when the Jim Mora succession plan blew up in Tim Ruskell’s face, Mike Macdonald neither a one-year hire nor is general manager John Schneider likely to have the same fate as Ruskell did. Barring something bizarre and completely unforeseen, Macdonald has provided plenty of positives on the defensive side of the ball and turned one of the league’s worst units into an above-average group.

Oh well. There’s always next year. But there’s still the Rams game to be played, and it’ll be interesting to see what Mike Macdonald decides to do with regards to playing starters vs. backups.

Just remember that the San Francisco 49ers cannot win the Super Bowl this year, for they’re also not in the playoffs.