{"id":656296,"date":"2026-01-05T16:22:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T16:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/656296\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T16:22:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T16:22:13","slug":"four-down-territory-how-the-seattle-seahawks-won-the-nfc-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/656296\/","title":{"rendered":"Four Down Territory: How the Seattle Seahawks won the NFC West"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was the biggest regular season game in franchise history, and the Seattle Seahawks delivered one of the most impressive defensive statements in franchise history. It was all Seahawks in a 13-3 pummeling<\/a> that doesn\u2019t accurately show how much Seattle dominated the San Francisco 49ers.<\/p>\n

After beating big brother number one in the Los Angeles Rams two weeks ago, the Seahawks embarrassed big brother number two in the 49ers to win their first division title since 2020, and secure the NFC\u2019s coveted 1-seed for the first time since 2014. It was a historic night to cap off a historic regular season, let\u2019s break down what it all means.<\/p>\n

First Down – Mike Macdonald should win Coach of the Year<\/p>\n

I understand and want to acknowledge the incredible seasons by both Mike Vrabel and Liam Coen have had incredible turnaround seasons, and they are the likely favorites to win the NFL Coach of the Year award. That being said, I don\u2019t think anyone has done a better job than Mike Macdonald in 2025.<\/p>\n

When Macdonald took over as the Seahawks head coach, he was taking over the 24th ranked defense that had a culture that felt stale at best, rotten at worst, and was lacking talent and consistency. In one year, he built the 12th ranked defense. In year two, he built the most dominant defense in the NFL, winning the defensive scoring title.<\/p>\n

Defensive coach or not, he saw his offensive vision was not to his standard this spring, firing former offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb<\/a> and working with Klint Kubiak to have Seattle finish second in the NFL in scoring.<\/p>\n

A franchise record 14-3, a franchise record 8-1 on the road, and a 6-2 home record to rebuild some lost goodwill with the fans at Lumen Field. Mike Macdonald has completely transformed the Seattle Seahawks into the best team in the NFL. I don\u2019t know if that will lead to a Super Bowl victory, but Macdonald\u2019s ability to blend the good from Harbaugh\u2019s Ravens and Pete\u2019s Seahawks has created a monster.<\/p>\n

I hope he pulls off the upset and wins the award.<\/p>\n

Second Down – John Schneider should win Executive of the Year <\/p>\n

Echoing what I just said about Coach Macdonald, the same can be said about the transformation accomplished by John Schneider.<\/p>\n

Schneider has achieved the highest highs already in Seattle. A Super Bowl champion that had built a legacy that was in the realm of hall of fame worthy as Pete Carroll\u2019s general manager, Schneider was given a second chance to build something new, as the Pete Carroll era had expired. I think there\u2019s a case to be made that Schneider should already have the NFL Executive of the Year award locked up. Yes, the award is just for the 2025 season, but this is a two year journey of excellence by John.<\/p>\n

It would be naive to think he didn\u2019t play some role in the removal of Pete Carroll. While the world was freaking out about how slow the coaching search was going, Schneider had his eyes set on Macdonald, and was able to close the deal, getting the best coaching prospect since arguably Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan.<\/p>\n

In the 2024 draft, Schneider hit two home runs, with the selections of Byron Murphy and AJ Barner, arguably the two best up incoming players at their respective positions.<\/p>\n

After a 10-win season that had some missed opportunities, Schneider was bold and locked in on his vision during the offseason.<\/p>\n

Out was Geno Smith. Out was DK Metcalf. Out was Ryan Grubb. Schneider cleared out culture guys that he was not set on, and then hit some absolute home runs in free agency.<\/p>\n

The signing of Darnold is arguably the storyline of the year. Despite the reputation that he has, Darnold just led the Seahawks to 14 wins and is a Pro Bowl quarterback. DeMarcus Lawrence may be the best defensive free agent signing in all of football. In the draft, the Seahawks drafted the best offensive lineman in Grey Zabel at pick 18. Using the pick they got from Pittsburgh for DK Metcalf, Schneider drafted Nick Emmanwori, who\u2019s undoubtedly the most exciting defensive rookie in this class, and looks like an immediate blue chip star.<\/p>\n

At the trade deadline, John made one of the biggest moves in the lead, trading for wide receiver Rashid Shaheed from the New Orleans Saints<\/a>. An aggressive trade, the Seahawks don\u2019t win the NFC West without some of Shaheed\u2019s heroics, specifically on special teams.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been an incredible two year run for Schneider, but what he\u2019s done this year is how teams make \u201cSuper\u201d jumps. 14 wins, best team in the NFL. It\u2019s be a travesty if he didn\u2019t win the award.<\/p>\n

Third Down – Work still to be done <\/p>\n

The Seahawks earned the right for a bye week, and they will need it as they can get better and have work to do. Despite all the good, there is plenty to improve upon from Saturday\u2019s win, specifically offensively.<\/p>\n

I thought Sam Darnold did a really good job on Saturday. That game was a playoff atmosphere, on the road, and Darnold got the job done. He was great on third down, he didn\u2019t turn the ball over, and he didn\u2019t look rattled. He also missed a wide open touchdown to start the game at the one yard line. He had two poor throws that could\u2019ve been intercepted, and this offense continues to struggle to deliver the explosive passing plays that rocked the NFL for the first 10 weeks of the season.<\/p>\n

For the first time all year, we saw Jason Myers struggle, missing two field goals that he simply hasn\u2019t missed this season. What has made this team so dangerous is that they have a massive special teams advantage over the rest of the league. That must continue if the Seahawks want to win three more games this season.<\/p>\n

As the Seahawks head into the bye week, they should feel good about getting both Charles Cross and Coby Bryant back from injury. If Cross can come back and help continue this suddenly booming running game, while protecting Sam long enough to start hitting Smith-Njigba or Shaheed deep, then this team should have what they need to make a run.<\/p>\n

Fourth Down – A night to a remember <\/p>\n

Emphasis on the run, I don\u2019t know about you, but last night was the closest I\u2019ve felt to watching a team in Seattle as great as the Legion of Boom era.<\/p>\n

The defense put on a masterclass that would rival anything the LOB, but it was the running revival that gave me goosebumps. Kenneth Walker and Zach Charbonnet combined for 171 rushing yards on 33 carries, just gashing and pummeling the 49ers defense.<\/p>\n

It would be one thing to break the 49ers hearts on their home turf to win the division, and send their asses to Carolina. It\u2019s a whole another thing to physically overwhelm them the way the Seahawks did. They were too fast, too strong, and simply too mean for the 49ers to handle.<\/p>\n

It was a night Seahawks fans will never forget, and it may be a night the NFL remembers that the Seahawks assumed the role of the biggest bully on the block. The job is not done, but your Seattle Seahawks will be playing at home in two weeks for the right to host the NFC Championship.<\/p>\n

Fun fact, the Seahawks have never lost a home divisional round game, or a home conference championship game. Dream big Seahawks fans, you have the best team in the NFL.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was the biggest regular season game in franchise history, and the Seattle Seahawks delivered one of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":656297,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2081],"tags":[7,6,238,237,261,52201,2635],"class_list":{"0":"post-656296","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-seattle-seahawks","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-nfl","10":"tag-seahawks","11":"tag-seattle","12":"tag-seattle-seahawks","13":"tag-seattle-seahawks-analysis-and-opinion","14":"tag-seattleseahawks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115843415850570382","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}