The NFC West wasn’t the only title the Seattle Seahawks locked up this weekend. For the first time in a decade, the Seahawks have won the scoring defense title. That was during a period in which Seattle led
the league in fewest points allowed from 2012 through 2015.
Heading into the weekend, Seattle and the Houston Texans had separated themselves from the rest of the league defensively, but it seemed unlikely that the Seahawks were going to catch the Texans for the scoring title. With the Seahawks traveling to San Francisco to take on a red hot 49ers offense, the Texans were hoping for a division title opportunity against Riley Leonard and the Indianapolis Colts.On Saturday, the Seahawks defense put together the defensive performance of the season, embarrassing the 49ers offense in a 13-3 beat down. With just three points given up, the Seahawks finished the regular season giving up just 17.2 ppg (292 points total).
Today, Houston had to give up less than 27 points to Indianapolis to claim the scoring title outright. As Seattle rose up, the Texans struggled on defense, and benched some of their starters as the AFC South title was comfortably in the Jacksonville Jaguars’ hands, but held on for a 38-30 win to finish out their season. With the win, the Houston Texans clinched the No. 5 seed and will take on the Baltimore Ravens or Pittsburgh Steelers next week in the Wild Card Round, something the Seahawks don’t know anything about.
For Seattle, this title is an exclamation point on a special regular season, and continues to show that Mike Macdonald is a wizard. After slaying Kyle Shanahan, the Seahawks will have improved from12th in scoring defense in year one under Macdonald (and from 24th in Pete Carroll’s last season), to now the best in all of football.
NFL scoring defense champs. NFC West champs. NFC top seed. The dream season continues.
