IF LAST WEEK’S game against Kansas City was a must win for the Seattle Seachickens, then today’s game at home against 1-10 Carolina is a must, must, must win.
After all, if you can’t beat the worst team in football at home, then it’s time to hang up the old cleats and go fishing.
Or maybe you should stay home and knit.
Evidently, the Seachickens didn’t get the message about the must win last week.
The pregame memo to the Seachickens must have read: Go ahead, take this Sunday off. Don’t worry your little heads off about tackling fundamentals. Let’s see who can have the most missed tackles this game.
The very young Chiefs, these same Chiefs who have been struggling for several years, came rolling into Seattle and stomped Seattle into submission by a 42-24 score.
Seattle gave up 503 total yards, 270 on the ground. That’s a lot of missed tackles. And it’s also the defensive stats of a very bad college team.
The Seachickens are a mediocre 3-2 at home (both blowout losses) and now face the reeling Panthers. The one-win, can’t-do-anything-right Panthers.
Let’s hope Carolina has an off game to give our Seachickens a fighting chance.
Top Six
1. New England Patriots (9-2) — Seachicken castoff Deion Branch had three catches for 113 yards and two touchdowns against the Lions on Thanksgiving. Seattle could have used Branch (or anyone, for that matter, who can actually catch the ball) against the Chiefs.
2. New York Jets (9-2) — Still tied with the Pats for the best record after destroying the Bengals on Thanksgiving. The issue of who is the best between the two teams will be decided Monday night when they face off.
3. Atlanta Falcons (9-2) — A lot of writers are picking the Falcons as the No. 1 team, but come on, this is an NFC team after all. And I’m not completely sold on Matt Ryan carrying the offense.
But it’s interesting that two of the top three teams have young quarterbacks (third-year Ryan and second-year Mark Sanchez of the Jets).
4. Baltimore Ravens (8-3) — I thought I would be a little wild and crazy and pick the Ravens ahead of the Steelers. These two teams also face off this week to decide the leader of the AFC North.
5. Pittsburgh Steelers (8-3) — Since I picked the Ravens ahead of the Steelers, watch Pittsburgh win today’s game.
6. New Orleans Saints (8-3) — The defending Super Bowl champs were picked over Chicago (also 8-3) because they’re the defending champs.
That means Green Bay falls out of this very unscientific Top-Six list because the Packers fell to the Falcons last week and are now a pedestrian 7-4, like four other teams. That said, Green Bay lost 20-17 on a field goal with 9 seconds left at Atlanta.
Bottom Six
27. Minnesota Vikings (4-7) — Darn the Redskins for losing to the Vikings last week. It’s hard to make fun of Brett Favre when Minnesota wins.
28. Arizona Cardinals (3-8) — It’s pretty much official, the Cardinals have gone from first to last in the NFC Worst after being pounded at home by the 49ers last week.
29. Detroit Lions (2-9) — The Lions are back to their old selves after giving us some hope they could climb out of the basement. Losing Matthew Stafford to injury again isn’t helping.
30. Buffalo Bills (2-9) — The Bills took the Steelers to overtime before losing last week.
31. Cincinnati Bengals (2-9) — As bad as the Seachickens have been recently, at least they’re not the Bengals. There’s no excuse, with the talent on this team, to be this bad.
32. Carolina Panthers (1-10) — If only the Seachickens could play the Panthers every week. That way both teams could end up with 8-8 records.
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Sports Editor Brad LaBrie can be reached at 360-417-3525 or at brad.labrie@peninsuladailynews.com.
