SEATTLE — The Seahawks did their part Sunday to stay alive for the NFC playoffs, turning in one of their best defensive performances of the year to beat the New York Jets, 23-6.
But Seattle didn’t get all the help it needed elsewhere as Green Bay demolished Minnesota 41-17 at Lambeau Field to keep its late-season surge for a playoff spot very much alive.
And the combination of those two games means that while Seattle moved ahead of eliminated Washington in the NFC playoff ladder, the Seahawks are still on the outside looking in heading into the final weekend, eighth in the NFC — the top seven seeds make it.
It also makes the formula for getting to the playoffs pretty simple. Seattle needs to beat Bobby Wagner and the Los Angeles Rams next weekend at Lumen Field and hope the Lions can defeat or tie Green Bay at Lambeau Field.
Anything else and Seattle will be home for the postseason.
The analytic website FiveThirtyEight.com gave Seattle a 22% chance to make the playoffs after the results of Sunday, surely based in large part on thinking that the Packers and Aaron Rodgers will be able to make do of the Lions in a win-or-go-home game at Lambeau. Seattle was at 27% heading into the day.
That wasn’t all that put a little bit of a damper on what was just Seattle’s second win since Nov. 6 as the Seahawks also finished the game without leading tackler Jordyn Brooks, who suffered a knee injury with 5:30 to play in the second quarter and was immediately ruled out.
Seattle also played much of the third quarter without receiver Tyler Lockett, who started the game after missing the loss against Kansas City on Dec. 24 due to a broken bone in his hand.
Lockett left for the locker room late in the second quarter with what was listed as a leg injury. Lockett was said to be questionable to return. But after missing most of the third quarter, he returned to the sidelines and re-entered the game to begin the fourth quarter.
The Seahawks at least had built up a pretty big cushion by then, taking a 17-3 lead 45 seconds into the second quarter on two touchdown passes by Geno Smith, who got a measure of revenge against the team he began his NFL career with from 2013-16.
Seattle, in fact, scored just three plays and 1:35 into the game, with a 60-yard run by Kenneth Walker III on the first snap of the game setting up a 12-yard pass from Smith to tight end Colby Parkinson to make it 7-0.
After an exchange of field goals that made it 10-3 — Seattle’s coming after an interception by Quandre Diggs — the Seahawks used a 41-yard gain by DeeJay Dallas on an improvised toss by Smith as he was scrambling to set up a seven-yard Smith pass to Tyler Mabry to take a 17-3 lead.
The play was the first catch of the career for Mabry, who was elevated off the practice squad on Saturday to add depth at tight end with Will Dissly going on the injured reserve earlier in the week.
The Seahawks were never really headed from there as the New York offense was unable to move it consistently with quarterback Mike White — making his fourth start of the season and seventh of his career — struggling with his accuracy throughout.
The Jets actually didn’t punt until midway through the third quarter and moved into Seattle territory on five of their first six drives.
But the Jets could turn that into only two Greg Zuerlein field goals, with one drive ending on the White interception thrown to Diggs, and another when a pass by White went off the hands of standout rookie receiver Garrett Wilson on a fourth down, on a play that would have easily gotten first down.
The Seattle offense didn’t do much after scoring on each of its first three drives with the Seahawks gaining just 16 yards in the second quarter and getting just two field goals in the second half.
But Seattle finished with 198 yards rushing — their third-highest total of the year — led by 133 on 32 carries by Kenneth Walker III.
And Seattle didn’t lose a turnover, finishing plus-three.
After allowing a few big runs early in the game, the Seahawks put the clamps on the Jets running backs. Seattle allowed 56 yards rushing on six attempts in the first quarter but just 19 on 11 the rest of the way.
That forced White into throwing it on almost every down as the game wore on.
White responded by throwing another interception in the fourth quarter on a pass straight to Seattle cornerback Michael Jackson that led to a Jason Myers field goal and a 23-6 lead that put the game away.
The win snapped a skid of five losses in six games for Seattle, which turned a 6-3 start to the season into a 7-8 record before Sunday.
But the win over the Jets means Seattle will have a chance at its 10th winning season in Pete Carroll’s 13 years as head coach as well a 10th playoff berth.
And while the Seahawks may now lament the losses in the past two months at home to Carolina and the Raiders — two teams that entered the day with a combined record of 11-19 — Seattle at least enters the final weekend of what many viewed heading into the season as a rebuilding year with the postseason still a possibility.
“All we could have wished for at this point in the season is competing for a playoff spot,” Seahawks general manager John Schneider said in an interview on the team’s pregame radio show.
And Seattle did what it needed to do Sunday to assure it will stay alive for one more week.
