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The path to the postseason for the Seattle Seahawks is simple. They need a win and Green Bay Packers loss in Week 18 to earn the final wild card spot in the NFC playoffs.
But the NFL has dealt the Seahawks an unfortunate circumstance that makes those two outcomes less likely to happen.
The NFL announced the league’s Week 18 schedule on the afternoon of January 2. As expected, the Seahawks will host the Los Angeles Rams at home at 4:25 ET/1:25 PT.
But the Packers will not play at the same time. Instead, they will face the Detroit Lions in primetime at 8:20 pm ET on NBC.
That’s a problem for the Seahawks because if they win, the Lions will be eliminated from playoff contention, and thus, have no incentive to beat the Packers.
Seahawks Dealt Bad Week 18 Schedule
The NFL has done its best recently to eliminate situations where teams are not motivated to provide their best effort in the final week of the season. About a decade ago, the league moved to only division games on the final weekend.
In more recent years, the NFL has also left the final week’s games unscheduled until a few days prior so the league can ensure to schedule games with potentially impactful outcomes at the same time.
But the NFL failed to do that for the Seahawks in this circumstance.
If Seattle loses in Week 18, then the Lions-Packers matchup will be a win or go home matchup. That will be exciting television for casual fans.
But it would be surprising if the Seahawks don’t take care of business at home against the Rams, who have nothing to play for but draft position.
Should the Seahawks win, the Lions will know about an hour before kickoff that they have no reason other than to play spoiler to knock off the Packers.
The Lions have beaten the Packers in two straight meetings, but Green Bay is 28-3 at Lambeau Field versus Detroit since 1992.
The Schedule the NFL Should Have Made for Week 18
In the league’s defense, somebody has to play on Sunday Night Football. This season, there were no obvious choices of who should play in the final game of regular season.
However, if the Cincinnati Bengals lose on Monday Night Football on January 2, then the Ravens-Bengals Week 18 matchup would have been a much better choice for the NBC primetime showdown than Lions-Packers.
If the Bengals don’t win in Week 17, then the Ravens-Bengals showdown in Week 18 will determine the AFC North crown. The Ravens and Bengals have each already clinched a playoff spot, and their Week 18 outcome will not have a major impact on other teams.
The problem with scheduling Ravens-Bengals for Sunday night in Week 18 is if the Bengals win on January 2, then Cincinnati will have already clinched the AFC North. Then the Bengals-Ravens Week 18 matchup has a lot less sizzle.
The other option for the Sunday night time slot was the Titans-Jaguars matchup, which the NFL scheduled for Saturday. That game will determine the AFC South crown. Also like Ravens-Bengals, Titans-Jaguars will have minimal impact on other teams.
But Tennessee and Jacksonville do not have huge fan bases like the Packers and Lions do. The Titans-Jaguars matchup probably wouldn’t draw as well for NBC as Lions-Packers.
Unfortunately, it appears the NFL elected to go for television ratings instead of fairness with its Week 18 schedule.
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