The worst-case scenario came true for the Seahawks on Saturday. Needing a win by Arizona over the Rams to keep anything but faint hopes alive of a playoff spot, the Seahawks could only watch helplessly as Los Angeles held on in improbable fashion to beat the Cardinals 13-9. The win improves the Rams’ record to 10-6 to Seattle’s 9-7 with the two teams set to play next weekend at SoFi Stadium in the regular-season finale.
But while Seattle can tie the Rams with a win, L.A.'s edge in the strength of victory tiebreaker makes it statistically unlikely the Seahawks can make the playoffs.
The Upshot's playoff calculator had Seattle at less than 1% odds of making the postseason following L.A.'s win.
That SOV tiebreaker edge for the Rams had the Seahawks hoping for an Arizona win Saturday to create a win-and-in scenario next week at SoFi. But that won't happen now. The NFL is expected to announce the dates and times for next week's games by the end of games Sunday.
The Rams’ win was an especially frustrating result for the Seahawks given that Arizona was 5 yards away from a potential winning TD before a Kyler Murray pass went off the helmet of tight end Trey McBride and was intercepted by Rams cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon — who was a Seahawk in 2021 before being traded to Pittsburgh late in training camp — with 37 seconds remaining. That capped a game of missed opportunities in which Arizona scored only three points on three separate possessions inside the Rams’ 14-yard .