Seahawks Have Steeper Hill to Climb in NFC West After Week 10

The Arizona Cardinals and San Francisco 49ers extended their leads over the Seattle Seahawks with victories on Sunday.

Oct 10, 2024; Seattle, Washington, USA; Seattle Seahawks special teams players line up for an extra point attempt against the San Francisco 49ers during the fourth quarter at Lumen Field. / Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images

The San Francisco 49ers and Arizona Cardinals each earned Week 10 victories on Sunday, digging the Seattle Seahawks even deeper into their last place hole in the NFC West while the team was on bye.

Arizona (6-4, 2-0 NFC West) obliterated the New York Jets at home, 31-6, keeping a half-game lead over the Niners in the division. The Cardinals continued their meteoric rise with quarterback Kyler Murray back healthy. Murray played an outstanding game against the Jets, completing 22 of 24 passes for 266 yards and a touchdown. He also rushed three times for 21 yards and two more scores.

San Francisco (5-4, 1-2 NFC West), with star running back Christian McCaffrey on the field for the first time this season, prevailed in a thrilling 23-20 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers that saw kicker Jake Moody kick a game-winning 44-yard field goal as the clock expired.

Moody had missed three field goals in the game leading up to that point but converted his final, most important attempt. McCaffrey had 19 touches and 107 scrimmage yards in his debut.

Meanwhile, the Seahawks (4-5, 0-2 NFC West) were idle this week after losing five of their last six games leading up to the bye week. They had already fallen to last place in the division after losing to the Los Angeles Rams (4-4, 2-1 NFC West) in Week 9. Seattle entered Week 8 in first place in the division, but that narrative has since been completely flipped.

The Rams have a bout with the Miami Dolphins upcoming at 5:15 p.m. PT on Monday, and a win there would put Seattle in at least a one-game hole to every other NFC West team. They also have the worst divisional record of all four teams.

It's not going to get any easier. Seattle risks falling to 4-6 and 0-3 in the division in Week 11 when they travel to San Francisco for the second of two games against their bitter division rivals. The Niners already beat the Seahawks 36-24 at Lumen Field in Week 6,

The Seahawks are entering must-win territory nearly every week. They will likely need 10 wins to even have a chance of making the playoffs, and that requires winning six of their final eight games to close out the regular season. Three of their next four games are in-division contests.

"We're on our way. It's not where we want to be. It's not where we expect it to be. But I feel like we are ... I think we're resilient as heck," Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald said on Monday. "I mean, you can just go week by week on the adversity that we face. A lot of it is self-inflicted adversity. And great football teams don't do that. They eliminate drag. They go forward fast together. We're going together. We're just not going fast."

Seattle is hoping to get back on track versus a Niners team that has now won two in a row on Sunday, Nov. 17. A win or loss in that game will have massive implications for the rest of the Seahawks' season.

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