For me, the most important stat is penalties. Yesterday the Hawks had 8 for 51 yards, which is manageable. Compare that to the previous week which saw 14 for 131 yards and it's easy to see why last week was a loss and this week a win.

Didn't they only win a game against one of the only teams in the league that's more lackluster then they are? Not seeing how they are back in playoff possibility land.

When the Hawks win Super Bowl 50 in Santa Clara against the Patriots as a wild card team, it's gonna be pretty damn awesome. (I hear Ciara is playing the halftime show.)

Damn, the fall of the 49ers may be the quickest and most rough in NFL history.

What a hell of an offseason they had.

@1: It may have more to so with the fact that last week they played a really good team, and this week they played a team led by a career worse-than-backup QB, and coached by Super Mario's lethargic cousin.

Lynch is likely gone for the season with a "Sports" Hernia. Rawls makes that bearable.
They still have no clue what to do with Jimmy Graham.
Still too thin at receiver.
There's 6 games left. Next week is crucial, and I wouldn't bet on them to beat the Burg.
I wouldn't pick them to win in MPLS or AZ unless the Cards rest Palmer, either.
But they've got to take 1 of those 3 to get there.
Yeah, Baltimore, Cleveland and St. Louis all look eminently beatable.
8-8. That might actually get them the 2nd playoff spot and a date with destiny in Carolina.

wild card. 2nd wild card spot. obviously its a playoff spot.

@3: that's adorable, but the way the Seahawks have played this year, there's just no chance of that happening. Even if they somehow made it to a SB against the Pats, unless the Pats get a lot more beat up, how the heck can they stop Brady-Gronkowski?

@8: "No chance"? Ha! Vegas has the Seahawks at 8-1 to make the Super Bowl. Hardly "no chance". And how will they stop Brady/Gronk? They fared pretty well in Super Bowl XLIX...until a stupid call at the goal line.

@9: I believe 8-1 was where they started the year. Current odds are 18-1. They're about 50/50 to make the playoffs, so that makes them 9-1 if they do. Seems about right. Hard to imagine them beating this version of the Patriots this year.

@10: 18-1 are Hawks' current odds to WIN the Super Bowl. 8-1 are the current odds to make it there.

@9: Vegas doesn't make odds based on the likelihood that something will happen, they make odds based on the likelihood that people will make wagers which balance their books and cover their exposure.
For the record, 538 has the Seahawks as 45% odds to make the playoffs, and 2% odds to win the Super Bowl, which would be 24-1. They don't state odds of making the Super Bowl however.

@12: The 538 model is interesting. The Hawks have only a 45% chance of making the playoffs, but are the 7th most likely team to win the Super Bowl. It shows that if (WHEN!) they make it in as a wild card, they are a legit threat to make the Super Bowl.

(Also, how do you translate 2% odds into 24-1? My math says that's 50-1.)

Oh Doug, always the perennial homer. Tell me how often the Vegas odds from that far off prove right.

And don't hand that AFC crown to NE just yet.

@13: My bad, 49-1. I'm off today. The reason it's not 50-1 is that if we imagine a team is 50/50, that's 1-1. The math is that you compare the odds that they don't win to the odds that they do win. 98%-2% = 49-1.

@14: Who are you giving it to? Brock Osweiler?

@14: The Broncos are 15-1 to win the Super Bowl. Barely better than the Seahawks.

Why are the Vegas odds "off" for the Hawks? They're not. 538's are.

@17: Because the Vegas odds are not the odds of winning the game, they are the portion of the money on a particular result.

@18: Right. It's a crowd source, which is more reliable than game simulations. Otherwise Nate Silver would be a billionaire.

@ 16, to the team that wins the AFC championship. Sure, NE is the best team right now (well, they're currently tied 3-3 against Buffalo in the 2nd quarter at home - not terribly impressive, but just a hiccup I'm sure) but they got to earn it still.

@12: yes, yes, every time odds are discussed on a non-sports site on the internet, some pompous ass shows up to earnestly explain How Gambling Works to the ignorant masses. You're correct, of course, but it's also the case that there's so much money on the NFL that the odds really do reflect a consensus view of the most likely outcome because NFL wagering is extremely rational. This is much more true than it used to be for sports gambling across the board (long gone are the days of identifying a couple of under- or over-rated by gamblers college basketball teams and riding their lines all winter. Sigh.) but it's especially true for the NFL.

The Seahawks have to outplay Tampa Bay and Atlanta down the stretch, and they're in the playoffs. That's not beyond them.