1. Which team can ‘Embrace the moment’ and take control atop the NFC West?
While players and coaches from both teams will try not to overhype this game, there’s no denying the significance of the outcome when it comes to playoff ramifications. If the Seahawks win, they take a one game lead in the race for the No. 1 seed and the division title, whereas if the Rams win, they not only would take a one-game lead over the Seahawks, it would essentially be a two-game lead because, in that scenario, they’d have a head-to-head advantage over Seattle.
Again, the 49ers are also a factor, especially with a Seahawks win, which would leave the 49ers and Rams both with four losses, and Seattle still facing a trip to Santa Clara in Week 18. But while this is not a two-team race, by any means, the top two teams have a chance to take control of their playoff destiny on Thursday night.
The way Macdonald see is, the Seahawks aren’t focused on the magnitude of this one game, but they can appreciate that the work they’ve done up to this point has put them in a situation to be playing in such a high-stakes late-season game.
“There’s a lot of stuff that happens in the NFL, and my message to our team was, ‘Hey, we are really fortunate and blessed and should feel really confident in the work that we’ve done up to this point to put ourselves in this position where we have a lot of great players that are ready to go,'” Macdonald said. “We trust each other. I feel like we’re a connected team. I feel like we’re a tough team, so let’s go do it. Let’s go rip it. That’s where we’re at.”
And while, to Macdonald’s point, this game is a chance to build off the work the Seahawks have done to get to this point, players know they can’t hide from the significance of December game against two 11-win teams.
“Let’s just say what it is,” safety Julian Love said. “Right now, we’re fighting for the No. 1 seed in the NFC.’ There’s a lot of power in that, especially being in Seattle with a great home stadium. That’s just where we are, we have a shot to do that. It’s a team that we’ve seen and we lost to in the past. We didn’t play our cleanest football, so it was close. We’ve just got to go out and just execute. You can appreciate the hype, you can try not to hide from it, just face it head on. That’s kind of how my approach is, embrace the moment.”
