Going to try something here I’ve never done before — slap in a gmail “chat” I had with a fan of the Seattle Seahawks late tonight, his time.

Seattle defeated the St. Louis Rams 16-6 to win the NFC West with a 7-9 record. It is the first time in NFL history in a non-strike season that a team with a losing record makes the playoffs, let alone won a division.

Looking back at this, it was a game the Seahawks could win. Pete Carroll, formerly of USC, is a defense guy, and the Rams went to Seattle for a night game with a rookie quarterback, and as good as Sam Bradford might be someday, Pete can shut down a one-dimensional team with an inexperienced quarterback, and he did.

Bradford was 19-for-36 for 155 yards (4.3 yards per pass play, an astonishingly low number) with an interception.

My friend and former co-worker, a huge Seahawks fan, was all fired up after the game, which he saw in person at Qwest Field in Seattle. He tends to stay up late, and we had the following chat, in which I confess, in hindsight, that I pretty seriously harshed his mellow, when that was not my intent, and I apologize for it.

 

1:37 AM Friend: NFC West champs …

1:38 AM behind the efforts of a manic 59-year-old coach

  and a shaggy backup QB

1:39 AM a weird finish to a weird regular season

9 minutes

1:49 AM me: Yep. Big deal in Seattle. Gonna be a week, though, of the national media mocking the team and calling for “correcting” the playoffs procedure.

1:50 AM Friend: why?

  seriously

  it’s something like 70+ division winners since ’02

  only ONE 7-9 team

  correct it when it becomes a trend

1:51 AM me: Because we have a 7-9 team in the playoffs and at least one 10-6 team NOT in. … Gonna be calls for “division leader isn’t at least 8-8, then no one goes and you add a wild card.” Various schemes. It will go away, because it’s unlikely anyone is gonna win a division at 7-9 again, but just be ready, is what I’m saying … if you read national media.

 Friend: it’s silly.

 me: 7-9, in the playoffs?

1:52 AM Friend: no, the second-guessing of the system.

  and that’s not my Seahawk bias talking….

1:53 AM We were a much different team, a better team before all the injuries

  we went 4-2 in the division

 me: You’ve got two 10-6s from the NFC not in the playoffs. Giants and Bucs. Chargers, Jax, from the AFC, were 9-7 and 8-8 and they’re not going anywhere. I think the Seahawks lost to the Chargers, right?

  Nothing will come of it, but it will be remarked upon.

 Friend: we beat the Chargers

  and the Bears

1:54 AM back when we were at full strength

  it’s a bad division, yes

 me: Those are good wins, then. … At the least, there will be a call about 7-9 division winners NOT getting the home game.

1:57 AM Friend: Week 1 starters who didn’t play tonight vs. the Damned Rams …

1:58 AM LG Hamilton (injury), RG Unger, QB Hasselbeck, WR Butler, DE Bryant

  LB Hill

1:59 AM the national media could care less about such things

  the stuff that Pete Carroll managed out of our 2nd string scrubs, Paul …

 me: Every team in the league is missing a half-dozen guys, and most are missing more.

 Friend: those SAME scrubs that lost with Mora.

2:00 AM true….

 me: Thing is … 7-9, and routed, destroyed about six times.

  Only way to make this go away is to win that first game.

  And even then …

  Who do you get? New Orleans?

 Friend: yep.

  again gulp

 me: OK. Beat the defending champs.

2:01 AM Friend: upset the defending champs.

  unlikely, but the only the option.

2:02 AM what ticks me off, PaulO …. is that the national media cares more about the 7-9 crap than what Carroll did with my beloved Squawks.

  we’re a young, rebuilding, in limbo, 7-9 division winner

  such weirdness

2:05 AM i watched many of these dirtbags last year

2:06 AM yeah, they’ve been routed just like in ’09

  but there’s a different vibe with Pete Carroll

 me: 7-9 won’t get it done very often. maybe never again …. though the whole NFC west is poorly run.

 Friend: yeah….

2:07 AM not to mention with all 4 teams having QB “issues/growing pains”

  Bradford= rookie, Hall=rookie, San Fran=indecision central, Hawks=aging Hass

2:08 AM is there another division devoid of at least 2 productive veteran QBs

2:09 AM Whitehurst looked good today

18 minutes

2:27 AM me: AFC West kinda sucks. But not like the NFC West, and it has for quite some time now. Somebody might have gone 10-6, but only because the other three went 4-12.

2:29 AM Friend: and yet the Seahawks, Cards and Rams have all made Super Bowl appearances since Jan 2000….

2:33 AM a crapshoot, i say

2:35 AM the NFC West also sent wild-card teams to the playoffs in ’03 and ’04

2:40 AM me: Let’s look up the NFC West for the past five seasons. 2010 — Sea 7-9, Rams 7-9, SF 6-10, Az 5-11. … 2009–Az 10-6, SF 8-8, Sea 5-11, Rams 1-15. … 2008–Az 9-7, SF 7-9, Sea 4-12, Rams 2-14. … 2007–Sea 10-6, Az 8-8, SF 5-11, Rams 3-13. … 2006–Sea 9-7, Rams 8-8, SF 7-9, Az 5-11. That’s five seasons of horrible, a collective 126-194 with nobody going better than 10-6 and each team getting to play the other three six games.

2:41 AM Friend: ick

  it was better the earlier part of that decade, though

2:42 AM me: It’s almost as if everyone in the NFC West knows they don’t have to be very good to win the division, and they don’t push for excellence. And they’re right, they don’t have to be excellent. Or even good.

 Friend: hHAAHAHAHAHAH

  i like that.

2:43 AM me: Though the actual nadir, in terms of division wins, total, was 22, two years ago. Up to 24 last year, and 25 this year. Things are looking up!

  Of course, from playing each other they’re guaranteed 12 wins …

2:44 AM Anyway, the NFC West won 13 games this season against anyone who wasn’t in the NFC West. Making them … 13-39 outside the division, a winning percentage of .250. Just did the math on this.

2:45 AM If one of these teams can get up and running … they could win 4-5 straight titles. Maybe go 12-4 regularly.

 Friend: it’ll happen.

  Bradford’s going to be great.

  Carroll is restless.

  shoot,

2:46 AM the 49ers WERE a QB from winning that division

 me: Let’s say Pete is a good coach … we seem to agree the Seahawks have very little talent. This ain’t USC where he can stockpile it in one year. It will take him 2-3 years.

  49ers have coaching issues, too.

 Friend: indeed.

  such a waste of talent in San Fran

2:47 AM me: Well, congrats, anyway. You’re in, and maybe you can get lucky against the Saints, and then you’d get a game at Atlanta, and who knows …

 Friend: Seattle has Pete Carroll fever.

2:48 AM and, honestly, we shouldn’t even be here. I picked this team to finish 5-11, tops.

  my best friend thought 4-12.

2:49 AM it’s a shame that our improvement gets lost in the wash of our division’s suckiness

  truly hard to believe that he’s 59.

  Pete, that is.

 me: Sure. 7-9 would be nice, considering, but it’s more impressive if someone went 10-6 ahead of you.

2:50 AM Friend: yeah.