Tag: postseason

If Seahawks beat Rams, will become ‘biggest Detroit fans in the world’

If the Seahawks beat the Rams in Week 18, they’ll be rooting for the Lions to topple the Packers in order to advance to the playoffs.

The Seattle Seahawks are gearing up for their final regular-season game of the year this Sunday, a must-win over the Los Angeles Rams to have any chance of advancing to the playoffs.

Quarterback Geno Smith talked about the state of the team with a playoff berth on the line.

“The entire locker room is focused,” Smith told reporters Thursday. “Everyone is ready to prepare and get ready for the week. Over the course of the season, we have done some good things to put ourselves in this position. Obviously, I wish we could’ve done a lot better, but it is what you want at the end of the year to be playing meaningful games.

“We’ve got one coming up this Sunday.”

But even with a win over the Rams, the Seahawks need a little help from the Lions, who must either win or tie with the Packers for Seattle to advance.

“Obviously, we have to take care of our business first and after that, it comes down to that Detroit–Packers game,” Smith said of the Sunday Night Football matchup. “We can’t control that. All we’ve got is what we can do and that’s going out there and winning this game on Sunday and becoming the biggest Detroit fans in the world after that.”

First, Seattle needs to take care of business at Lumen Field. The Seahawks and Rams are set to kick off at 1:25 p.m. PT.

[mm-video type=playlist id=01eqbycpfe4qgv9nf6 player_id=01eqbvhghtkmz2182d image=]

[lawrence-related id=98972]

[listicle id=98987]

All 49ers playoff scenarios for seeding and possible 1st-round opponent

We laid out all the scenarios for the 49ers with seeding and potential 1st-round matchups:

The 49ers can’t fall further than the No. 3 seed in the NFC playoff picture, but some late-season chaos has launched their potential postseason path into flux.

They could wind up as low as the third seed, but they could also finish as high as No. 1 in the NFC. There are also four different opponents they’ll face on wild card weekend assuming they don’t have a first-round bye, of course.

Here’s a quick list of all the different scenarios for the 49ers and which Week 18 outcomes impact them:

Lions get help to start Week 15 in their postseason quest

The 49ers beat the Seahawks on Thursday night, which helps the Detroit Lions inch closer to a potential playoff berth

The Detroit Lions players will wake up on Friday morning knowing they have a chance to move closer to the final NFC playoff spot. Or perhaps they went to bed on Thursday night aware of their potential after watching the San Francisco 49ers defeat the Seattle Seahawks.

San Francisco’s 21-13 win drops the Seahawks to a 7-7 record. The 6-7 Lions can move into a tie with Seattle if Detroit can manage to beat the New York Jets on Sunday.

Alas, the tie still doesn’t get the Lions into the postseason driver’s seat. The Seahawks own the tiebreaker over Dan Campbell’s team by virtue of the 48-45 win in Detroit back in Week 4. Both teams are now chasing the loser of Sunday’s game between the Commanders and Giants, who are tied at 7-5-1.

[mm-video type=playlist id=01eqbx8sj47vkwrznr player_id=01eqbvhghtkmz2182d image=]

A couple final Notre Dame bowl projections ahead of announcement

Where do you want Notre Dame to go?

Notre Dame was off on Saturday as they’re at home with their 8-4 regular season record.  It was a slightly crazy week for the Irish that saw them gain a commitment from [autotag]Kaleb Smith[/autotag], who chose the Irish after being a one-time commitment to Texas Tech.  The week also featured quarterback Drew Pyne announcing he’s enterting the transfer portal right away, leaving Notre Dame to likely use Tyler Buchner in the bowl game.

About that bowl game – where will the Irish be headed?  Our look around the national projections last week had nearly everyone saying it’d be the Gator Bowl against an SEC opponent.  With conference championships now wrapped up we took a look at a couple of updated projections Sunday morning and here is where they’re seeing the Irish going.

Notre Dame bowl projections following Week 5

Where do you want the Irish to end up this bowl season?

A month into 2022 and Notre Dame is at a fork in the road for the season.  After the unexpected loss to Marshall the Irish have bounced back to be 2-2 headed to the Shamrock Series game on Saturday against BYU.

Win this one over the ranked Cougars and all of a sudden 2022 seems like it could end up being a good amount of fun despite that awful start.  Lose this one though and all of a sudden you’re looking at what probably at best ends up being a 7-5 season.

So where would any of those possible results leave Notre Dame at season’s end?

Here are what the expert outlets nationally see in terms of Notre Dame’s postseason destination as we make our way into Week 6 of the college football season.

College Football Playoff to expand to 12 teams and I hate it

Love it, indifferent, or hate it?

What was it that made you first fall in love with college football?

Obviously the pageantry of the game is like nothing else in sports in the United States but for the longest time college football had the best regular season by far of any major sport in this land.  The key word being “had”.

The College Football Playoff Board of Managers have spoken and voted to expand the College Football Playoff to 12 teams in a move that is expected to begin with the 2026 season.  I suppose that’d be great if it meant every conference champion and maybe a pair of wild cards then had a shot to play in the tournament but we know that’s not going to be the case.  Just like Cincinnati was the lone Group of Five member to make the dance last year there will still be only one, maybe two in a crazy year, that make it in this.

All this does is give teams who lose regular season games an extra out or two and that goes against everything that has helped to make college football great.

The College Football Playoff significantly watered down the regular season already by pretty much saying conference championships don’t matter and taking away the punishment for slip-ups that wasn’t previously allowed in the game.

Now were counting down until 12 teams will get the chance to play in the College Football Playoff.

12.

Not expanding to six or eight.

12.

If you were to take the top 12 teams from the final College Football Playoff rankings last regular season you’d be looking at six of those 12 teams having multiple losses.  Furthermore, three-loss Utah would also be in that group.

I get that it means more meaningful games during bowl season but it means for less significant games the rest of the year.  Alright, the battle between a pair of two-loss teams on rivalry weekend ends up being an elimination game now instead of the unbeaten vs. one-loss rivalry matchup previously doing so.  Am I supposed to believe that’s a net gain for the sport?

The regular season mattering more in college football was one of the things that first made me fall in love with the game and the longer we go the more and more watered down that continues to get. Congrats to the casuals who have to be told when games are meaningful before they start paying close attention.  They now get more of those while the thing that makes the sport great takes a major blow.

[vertical-gallery id=59988]

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Nick on Twitter: @NickShepkowski

CBS Sports ranks Super Bowl XLIX as 1 of best playoff games ever

CBS Sports ranks Super Bowl XLIX featuring the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots as one of the best playoff games ever.

There is no arguing that Sunday’s AFC divisional matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Buffalo Bills was one of the most exciting playoff games of all times, but CBS Sports has two contests ranked even higher, including the Seattle Seahawks loss to the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLIX.

“Ranked as the greatest Super Bowl of all-time by CBS Sports senior writer Will Brinson, the Patriots overcame a 10-point deficit on two Tom Brady touchdown passes. Seattle appeared to be on their way to a second straight title when Russell Wilson hit Jermaine Kearse on an incredible 33-yard completion,” writes Bryan DeArdo. “One yard away from the game-winning score, Seattle attempt a pass instead of giving ball to Marshawn Lynch. The decision backfired, as Wilson’s pass was picked off by Malcolm Butler, an undrafted rookie who had been on the receiving end of Kearse’s crazy catch two plays earlier.”

The only game CBS Sports ranked as a greater playoff game of all time is the 1981 NFC championship featuring the 49ers over the Cowboys.

[lawrence-related id=82787]

Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes now has most passing TDs through 10 playoff games

After tossing three scores against the #Bills, #Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes now has the most passing touchdowns in NFL history through 10 career postseason games.

Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes continues to crush NFL pace records, and the postseason is no different.

Mahomes made his tenth career postseason start against the Buffalo Bills in the AFC’s divisional round in what is just his fourth year as a starter. After throwing for three passing touchdowns against the Bills on Sunday, Mahomes now has the 25 career passing touchdowns in his first 10 playoff games. That number is good for the most career passing touchdowns by a QB through their first 10 playoff games in NFL history. He passed a Hall of Famer (Kurt Warner) and a future Hall of Famer (Drew Brees) who were both tied for the top spot through 10 playoff games with 23 touchdowns.

Our friend Jeff Kerr at CBS shared a tweet about this earlier in the week:

Mahomes has also passed former Cowboys QB Troy Aikman, former Cowboys QB Roger Staubach and former Eagles QB Donovan McNabb to throw for the 13th-most postseason passing touchdowns in NFL history. He is now tied with Russell Wilson and Joe Flacco. Here’s a look at the top 16 per Pro Football Reference:

  1. Tom Brady: 85
  2. Joe Montana: 45
  3. Aaron Rodgers: 45 (tie)
  4. Brett Favre: 44
  5. Peyton Manning: 40
  6. Drew Brees: 37
  7. Ben Roethlisberger: 36
  8. Dan Marino: 32
  9. Kurt Warner: 31
  10. Terry Bradshaw: 30
  11. John Elway: 27
  12. Joe Flacco: 25
  13. Russell Wilson: 25 (tie)
  14. Patrick Mahomes: 25 (tie)
  15. Donovan McNabb: 24
  16. Roger Staubach: 24 (tie)

At only 26 years old, Mahomes is doing things in the postseason that we’ve never seen before. It’s taken other players their entire career to even get to the point that Mahomes is at in terms of postseason play. His career is still in its infancy and it rivals that of Hall of Fame players. It’s just another reminder of how blessed Chiefs fans are to be witnessing such a great player at the helm of their franchise.

[listicle id=117875]