Pete Carroll: The Seahawks deserve to be in the playoffs

Pete Carroll has imagination. He is unique, in part because he has been a football coach for fifty years.

The 72-year-old head coach of the Seahawks isn’t exactly an outlier. aside from now, of course. The team’s three-game losing run and lack of victory since a last-play field goal on November 12 against powerful San Francisco (9-3) are the exact opposite of all that has been seen over the past month. Carroll predicts a 6-6 result on Sunday before playing Philadelphia (10-2). Seattle is a club deserving of the playoffs.

“I just believe we are of that caliber,” he said.

The Seahawks are currently outside of the NFC playoff race after losses by one point against the Los Angeles Rams, by a wide margin against the 49ers, and by a small margin at Dallas last week.

In the conference, they occupy the ninth spot. There are seven postseason teams. Seattle is ranked seventh and eighth in the tiebreaker, with Green Bay and the Rams, also 6-6, ahead of them.

Seattle is currently in third position in the NFC West after Los Angeles defeated the Seahawks twice. With a record of 6-3 last month, the Seahawks were leading the division. It feels like ten years ago.

The Seahawks trail San Francisco by three games plus a tiebreaker for the top spot in the division with five games left in the regular season. On Sunday, Seattle is the underdog by 10 1/2 points in Santa Clara.

That is tied for the biggest lead a team has had over Seattle in the previous twelve years with the one from last Christmas Eve at Kansas City. In week nine of the 2011 season, the Seahawks were 11-point underdogs against Dallas, marking Carroll’s second revamp of the team. It will be difficult from week to week. Quarterback Geno Smith of the Seahawks stated, “We can count on that.”

However, we have the correct guys. Tough guys are on our side. The correct coaches are on board. It has nothing to do with the play calls made by offensive coordinator Shane Waldron. It’s important that we go out and perform.

“We can build on (the Dallas game) yeah. But it’s about winning, most importantly.”

NFC PLAYOFF PICTURE

Unless Seattle’s defense suddenly gets a pass rush, gets stronger at the line of scrimmage, gets a bushel of turnovers, unless the offense finds a running game to give Smith a better chance of not getting sacked trying to throw so much, the Seahawks are on a straight path to 6-8.

Then they would have to win at Tennessee (4-8) Christmas Eve, home against Pittsburgh (7-5) New Year’s Eve and at Arizona (3-10) to end the regular season 9-8.

That’s the record Seattle had last season, when it got the seventh seed then lost 41-23 at San Francisco in the wild-card playoffs 11 months ago. Thing is, it may take 10 wins to make the NFC playoffs this season.

The Packers have surged from sub-.500 into a playoff spot. They now have statistically the easiest remaining schedule. Green Bay plays at Minnesota (6-6) but also against Carolina (1-11), Chicago (4-8), the New York Giants (4-8) and Tampa Bay (5-7). A 10-7 record seems not only doable but likely for the Packers.

For the Seahawks to get to 10-7, they’ll have to beat either the 49ers Sunday or the Eagles in Seattle Dec. 18. And the Seahawks currently lose a tiebreaker if they finish with the same record as Green Bay.

In other words, if the Seahawks truly are playoff-caliber, they likely must beat either San Francisco or Philadelphia, or both, the next two weeks to prove it.

“We have to find our way through it and get there,” Carroll said. “I don’t know if there are enough games. Maybe there isn’t. Maybe we run out of games, I don’t know. We’re going to have to make some big noise here in the next couple of weeks and we just have to keep on going.

“We will be hardened,” Carroll said. “We will be competitively battlefield-tested, as well as you could be prepared. I think all of that will add to it if we keep growing with it.

If we keep taking the proper steps forward, that’s the way I’m seeing it. It’s only one shot at a time, but a month from now, we will have been through everything that you could go through in preparation for a playoff opportunity. “Whether we have enough wins, I don’t know. We’ll see what happens. We’ll see how it goes.”

THE 49ERS’ DOMINANCE

Next up: perhaps the league’s most complete team. The rival Carroll and general manager John Schneider rebuilt their defense to beat — yet lost to in four consecutive routs over the last 15 months.

The 49ers are coming off one of the more impressive wins in the league this season, 42-13 at previously one-loss, NFC-champion Philadelphia.

The Niners will clinch a playoff spot if they beat Seattle and either the Vikings lose at the Raiders Sunday or the Packers lose at the Giants Monday night. “We just have to bring it (this) week,” Seahawks rookie wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba said. Man, do they.

San Francisco smashed Seattle 24-3 in the first half and 31-13 overall Thanksgiving night at Lumen Field. The Niners did it the way they have for years, dominating the line of scrimmage for huge running plays, big play-action passes and a pass rush that besieged Smith.

After improving with a quicker passing game that had Smith completing throws instead of getting sacked at Dallas, the Seahawks gained 406, were 9 for 14 on third downs, scored 35 points — yet still lost to the Cowboys. Ten penalties for 130 yards on Seattle, the NFL’s most-penalized team, helped doom the Seahawks. Again.

“I think we played close to championship football (at Dallas),” Seahawks defensive tackle Leonard Williams said.

“I think we could clean up a few areas, like penalties and things like that, and just build off of this. “I feel like we’re going in the right direction.”

The 49ers sure are. They haven’t lost since having key starters injured during a three-game losing streak that ended before Halloween. Those are the only games San Francisco has lost all season.

“It’s not getting easier,” Carroll said. “We see all of that.”