The Seattle Seahawks are going back to the playoffs.

For the seventh time in nine seasons under head coach Pete Carrol Jaron Brown Color Rush Jersey , and the sixth time in seven years with Russell Wilson at quarterback, the Seahawks will play after Week 17.A week after losing to a San Francisco 49ers team that has been eying the number one pick in the draft, Seattle ended up beating a team that’s eyeing the number one seed in the AFC. The Seahawks beat the Kansas City Chiefs 38-31 and have secured themselves a wild card slot. The Chiefs also had a lot on the line as they were fighting to clinch the top spot in their conference, but now they must fight another day.Not that Seattle’s position is totally decided yet.At 9-6, the Seahawks can still drop to 9-7 if they lose to the Arizona Cardinals at home next week. If the Minnesota Vikings win their game against the Chicago Bears, they’ll improve to 9-6-1 and become the five seed. The first wild card will travel to face the Dallas Cowboys, while the six seed might have to go to the cold confines of the Chicago Bears. Seattle has played both of these teams, losing in Chicago in Week 2 and beating the Cowboys at home in Week 3.Circumstances for all teams have changed notably since those games, but the Bears look like the much tougher matchup for a number of reasons. However, if Chicago beats the Vikings and the LA Rams lose to the 49ers, then the Bears become the two seed and the Rams will be hosting the six seed. It is very unlikely that the Seahawks will get their threematch against the Rams this soon, but it is possible.The Chiefs will still be the one seed if they beat the Oakland Raiders at home next week, but if they suffer an unfathomable upset, they could lose the division to the LA Chargers if the Chargers beat the Denver Broncos.The focus here though is on the Seahawks and they not only secured a trip to the postseason but did so with a signature win over a very good offense. The game was at home and Seattle will be on the road to open the playoffs, but even with backups and third stringers at multiple positions, they played much better than many expected. That’s a good sign for the coaching and the game plan as Carroll prepares to try and win a playoff game in January — something he’s done each time he’s led the Seahawks to the postseason.Carroll also broke a tie with Mike Holmgren for most postseason appearancesas the Seahawks head coach. Seattle went to the playoffs four times in the 23 years before Holmgren. Russell Wilson threw four touchdowns on Sunday and in many ways, he wasn’t even the star of the show. That likely falls on the incredibly broad, manly shoulders of linebacker Bobby Wagner, who had a sack, an interception, a touchdown, and ripped the ball out for a fumble that was both forced and recovered in a single moment Tre Flowers Color Rush Jersey , but Wilson continued his own season of notably efficient play.He completed just 11 passes, but 36% of those went for a touchdown, another gained 45 yards, another gained 27 yards, another gained 21 yards on 2nd-and-21 (thanks Richard Sherman), and an uncounted attempt went for 43 yards on a pass interference penalty. The end result was another multi-touchdown day for Wilson and even against a defense as bad as the one had by the San Francisco 49ers, his season is becoming as noteworthy as any other he’s ever had.After Sunday, Wilson is 217-of-326, 2,716 yards, 29 touchdowns, five interceptions, 8.33 yards per attempt. He’s set to post career-highs in touchdowns (39), yards per attempt, and passer rating, while only throwing it about 27 times per game. In a season when quarterbacks are shattering records for completion percentage and Patrick Mahomes is virtually a lock to go over 50 touchdowns, Wilson is doing it his own way while still keeping pace with some of those prolific scorers in the league.This is the type of offense that Pete Carroll envisioned when he took over the Seattle Seahawks in 2010, when he hired Darrell Bevell in 2011, and when he (or more accurately, John Schneider) drafted Wilson in 2012. This is what they were closing in on at times from 2012-2017, but this is undoubtedly the kind of result that Carroll’s been hoping for: a heavy and effective rushing attack mixed in with high-percentage explosive throws downfield that result in scores or close to it.Credit Carroll. Credit Wilson. Credit Brian Schottenheimer. Credit Tyler Lockett. Credit Schneider. The Seahawks still have myriad issues on defense that could keep them from advancing deep in the playoffs, but offensively David Moore Color Rush Jersey , Wilson is enjoying an unreal season from a scoring and efficiency standpoint, even if it gets him nowhere near an MVP award.His 11 games with at least two touchdowns is second in the NFL behind only Philip Rivers, who has done so 12 out of 12 times.He’s the only QB in the NFL to not have a game with a passer rating below 85.His TD% of 8.9 would be the fifth-best ever. Since Week 3, he’s thrown 24 touchdowns and only two interceptions.At home this season, he has 13 touchdowns and one interception, with three more home games left to go.In next week’s big game against the Minnesota Vikings, he’ll be at home and he’ll be playing on Monday night; Wilson has the best passer rating in Monday Night Football history on a minimum of 150 career attempts.He’s got the third-best road passer rating in the NFL this season, behind Mahomes and Rivers.His 63 touchdowns since the start of 2017 is the most in the league, seven more than any other player.Since coming into the league in 2012, Wilson has thrown 58 touchdowns in December, six more than any other player. He’s got the highest December passer rating in NFL history.Against the NFC this season, Wilson has 21 touchdowns and one interception. Against the NFC West, he has 10 TD and 0 INT.And here’s the other weird thing about Wilson’s season: it’s the first of his career without Bevell. In adjusting to new coordinator Brian Schottenheimer, and essentially giving up the designed runs he’d been used to over the first six years of his career, Wilson had to accept and face the risk of maybe not being as effective as he used to be. It was uncharted territory for Wilson, at least dating back to the time he transferred from NC State to Wisconsin and had to accept that even if his situation was seemingly better it was also different. We usually can’t predict that “different” is going to be “better.”In this case, it seems to be.Wilson won’t win the MVP award. The Seahawks are guaranteed no better than a wild card berth and voters don’t take kind to quarterbacks who throw it fewer than 500 times, but we, the fans, will take it. If he throws it 450 times and scores 40 times, I think we’ll be perfectly pleased with that.Awards are overrated. Wilson is not.