RENTON, Wash. -- The Seattle Seahawks should win Sunday. They better win Sunday. If they don’t, it’s probably on the road again to start the playoffs, a scenario that seemed unthinkable after the victory over the New Orleans Saints on Dec. 2.
And a loss Sunday to St. Louis would be a surprise, to say the least, for many reasons. Seattle hasn't lost at home to the Rams since 2004. And losing consecutive division games at home is something the Seahawks just don’t do, with one exception 11 years ago.
The only time Seattle lost back-to-back NFC West games at home came in the same season was 2002, the first season after the Seahawks moved from the AFC to the NFC.
Seattle was 7-9 that year. The Seahawks lost to Arizona, 24-13, in the first home game of the 2002 season. After a home win over Minnesota, the next NFC West home game came on Oct. 14, when San Francisco defeated Seattle 28-21.
In the 10 seasons since, the Seahawks never lost two in a row to a division opponent at home. The only other time Seattle lost two NFC West games at CenturyLink Field was 2008, but the Seahawks had a divisional victory at home in between the two losses.
The 12-3 Seahawks are a 10-point favorite to take care of business Sunday, which would clinch the NFC West title and home-field advantage for the playoffs, regardless of what the 11-4 49ers do.
But the Seahawks have lost two of their last three games for the first time in more than a year. The last time they lost two games over a three-game span was back-to-back losses last season, 13-6 at San Francisco on Oct. 18, 2012, and 28-24 at Detroit on Oct. 28, 2012.
The last time Seattle lost consecutive home games was the 2011 season – a 30-28 loss to Atlanta on Oct. 2, 2011, and a 34-12 loss to Cincinnati on Oct. 30, 2011.
"If we just do what we do best, we'll be fine,'' said Seattle receiver Golden Tate. "We just want to get back out there and get the bad taste out of our mouths from the last game."