Lions clinch playoff berth with Washington loss

The Seahawks clinched the No. 3 seed by beating the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday (Jan. 1), while the Lions dropped to the No. 6 seed by losing to the Green Bay Packers later in the evening. San Francisco is 2-13 and reports have surfaced that coach Chip Kelly and general manager Trent Baalke will be fired. Their turnover ratio was a perfectly even zero this season.

But Seattle had playoff-seeding implications on the line. Here we go. It’s time. Wagner finished the season with 167 tackles, tops in the NFL. This is no week for the Lions’ offensive line to have protection breakdowns.

The Lions have done a lot right, on route to a 9-7 record, but their opportunities appear more obvious the last few weeks. Rawls was very ineffective in his last three games, averaging 11/2 yards per carry.

Shaun Draughn runs past the Seattle Seahawks’ K.J. Wright (50) after starting in place of an injured Carlos Hyde.

Instead of earning the fourth seed and home game as a result of winning the NFC North, the Lions will be the sixth seed and hit the road to face the Seattle Seahawks.

Seattle’s passing offense ranks 10 in the National Football League, and receiver Doug Baldwin (1,128 yards) and tight end Jimmy Graham (923) are now the two big playmakers on that side of the ball for the Seahawks, outside of quarterback Russell Wilson. Really, the most interesting thing that happened in the fourth quarter was the near-fight that Seattle’s defensive players Frank Clark and Jarran Reed had.

Russell Wilson threw for 258 yards and a touchdown Sunday; his touchdown went to Luke Willson.

I wondered how well tight end Jimmy Graham could come back from his knee surgery, and suggested they didn’t need him to catch 80 passes, but “mostly to be a looming threat and towering target in the Red Zone”.

But Atlanta had a huge lead over New Orleans, so it seemed unlikely that Seattle would be able to move any higher than No. 3.

SAN FRANCISCO KEY TRENDS: The 49ers have been a good bet in divisional games, covering in five of their last seven contests versus the rest of the NFC West. “We just have to get better individually during the offseason…we just have to find a way to turn things around”.

Special teams: Both JaCorey Shepherd and newcomer Raheem Mostert had nice kickoff returns and Mostert was the recipient of a nifty, throw-back return from Jeremy Kerley on a punt return. The venerable Phil Dawson capped his 18th season by making his three point-after kicks without attempting a field goal.

That is what will make Saturday’s playoff game so interesting as the Seahawks – who have been one of the league’s most consistent postseason participants – host a Lions team that hasn’t been here all that often.