NFC Championship Game is the ultimate ‘what if’ for Seahawks

Would the Seattle Seahawks be representing the NFC in the Super Bowl if they had a third matchup against the San Francisco 49ers?

Despite having a solid season and making it further than many expected, the Seattle Seahawks’ season obviously ended too early – in the divisional round to the Green Bay Packers. While the Seahawks and their loyal fans are certainly disappointed they weren’t playing during championship weekend, Sunday’s action rubbed a little more salt in the wounds.

Not only are the Seahawks watching the rest of the playoffs from home, but they also were forced to witness their division rivals, the San Francisco 49ers, advance to Super Bowl LIV in Miami. It is now the second straight year an NFC West rival has reached the Super Bowl.

What perhaps stings the most is the fact the NFC Championship Game played between the 49ers and Packers is an ultimate example of “what if?” for the Seahawks.

In both games against San Francisco, the Seahawks gave the Niners all they could handle. Seattle delivered San Francisco’s first loss of the season in a wild 27-24 overtime win on “Monday Night Football.” Then the Seahawks came literally centimeters away from sweeping the Niners during an equally entertaining 26-21 season finale loss at CenturyLink Field.

Meanwhile, the Green Bay Packers didn’t even come close to standing a chance against the buzzsaw known as the 49ers. The Pack was blanked 27-0 at halftime, and never even came closer than being down 14 points in a 37-20 embarrassment.

Although the Niners very well may have still won the NFC in a third matchup versus the Seahawks, it’s rather hard to argue Seattle wouldn’t have put up a better fight to dethrone San Francisco.

Unfortunately, it’s all up to speculation at this point for the Seahawks, who will likely spend the rest of the offseason wondering what might have been if they could have stopped the Packers on any of the third and longs they allowed Green Bay to convert to ice their 28-23 win.

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