By defeating the St. Louis Rams Sunday night, the Seattle Seahawks qualified for the N.F.L. playoffs in spite of having lost nine games and won only seven.
They are not, technically speaking, the first N.F.L. team to have reached the playoffs with a losing record: in its strike-shortened 1982 season, the league temporarily expanded its post-season to include 16 teams, and the Detroit Lions and Cleveland Browns each advanced with 4-5 records.
But they are almost certainly the worst. The Seahawks are not any garden-variety 7-9 team: they are an incredibly bad 7-9 team.
First, consider the Seahawks’ point differential. They allowed 407 points during the regular season while scoring just 310, meaning that they were outscored by roughly a touchdown per game on average. Although it is quite common for N.F.L. teams to reach the playoffs with a negative point differential, none has had one as poor as the Seahawks’ minus-97.
The Seahawks, moreover, were probably fortunate to be outscored by only 97 points. Measured by yardage, their offense ranked 28th of the 32 N.F.L. teams, while their defense ranked 27th. (Bizarrely, the San Diego Chargers led the N.F.L. in both categories, but finished 9-7 and missed the playoffs.) The Seahawks’ yardage differential — they were outgained by more than 1,100 yards this season, not counting special-teams plays — was the second-worst in football, ahead of only the Arizona Cardinals.
What’s more, the Seahawks compiled this inglorious record against mediocre opposition. Not only did they have the benefit of playing six games against the other weak teams in the N.F.C. West, but their four intra-conference games were scheduled against teams in the A.F.C. West, which was also rather weak this year. According to the ratings compiled by Jeff Sagarin of USA Today, the Seahawks’ schedule was the fifth easiest in the league.
Nor, despite Sunday’s victory, can one really give the Seahawks credit for having peaked at the right time. They went 2-5 over their last seven games, defeating only the Rams and the Carolina Panthers, who finished their year at 2-14.
The more deeply one looks at the Seahawks, indeed, the worse they tend to appear: according to an advanced statistic known as Defense-adjusted Value Over Average, or D.V.O.A. — compiled by the geniuses at Football Outsiders — the Seahawks were actually the very worst team in the N.F.L. over the course of the regular season.
when all your teams are celebrating gaily about winning their division and making the playoffs, a Pittsburgh player said that he is going to put his AFC North Champion hat in his drawer and probably not pull it out for a couple years
![:\](https://bluelight.org/xf/BL_Images/Orig_Emoji/wrygrin.gif "wry grin :\")