Another Seattle scoring binge

There have been 10 instances this season in which an NFL team has scored 30 or more points in a half.

The Seahawks are responsible for four of them.

I had to look at that graphic twice and then go back and research it before I believed it, but it’s true.

The most recent example occurred Sunday in Atlanta, when Rashid Shaheed returning the second-half kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown to kickstart an avalanche. A game that was tied 6-6 at halftime wound up a 37-9 blowout.

Here are four facts that you can use to impress your friends.

1. Nick Emmanwori was an outright demon, blocking a field-goal attempt, intercepting a pass, sacking Atlanta quarterback Kirk Cousins and recording an additional tackle for loss.

2. Jaxson Smith-Njigba caught seven passes for 92 yards and two touchdowns. By my count, five of those receptions can when he was matched up against Atlanta’s A.J. Terrell, who is one of the best cornerbacks in the league.

3. Seattle’s defense has not allowed a touchdown for eight consecutive quarters.

4. Five of Seattle’s 10 victories this season have come by 20 or more points.

We’ll get back to the Seahawks after a quick digression.

You may not know this, but I was a fairly devout Notre Dame fan right up until the time I decided I was going to attend the University of Washington. 

This, however, is not the primary reason that I will abstain from any snotty comments about the Irish getting left out of the college football playoff. I have a couple cousins who attended the school and many more family members who love the Irish, and honestly, I can understand why Notre Dame feels a little hosed right about now. 

The Irish have won 10 in a row. They have one fewer loss than Alabama, and neither of its defeats looks as bad in retrospect as Alabama’s loss to Florida State.

That doesn’t mean I think the Irish should have gotten in over Miami, though. The ‘Canes beat Notre Dame in a head-to-head meeting, and while I personally feel that Notre Dame should have gotten in ahead of Alabama, I can understand the argument that you shouldn’t punish the Crimson Tide for playing in a conference title game against a team they’d already beaten. Also, Notre Dame lost to the two best teams it played. 

Here’s what I know for sure: Any attempt to impose a playoff system on college football will result in an annual uproar about the abject unfairness of the existing system.

It happened when it was a two-team format. It happened in a four-team format. It happened last year, when Alabama was certain it got hosed, and it’s happening this year with Notre Dame. 

I’m not going to tell you the current system is good, but the system is just a reflection of the actual problem: There is no national structure for the sport. I’m not saying there should be, either, but the lack of a central organizing body makes it impossible to concoct a totally fair format for a national playoff.

Top-level college football is best understood as a feudal enterprise in which local lords enter into tentative regional alliances, each with its own scheduling norms and television contracts. It is, honestly, quite medieval when you think about it, and Notre Dame exists as its own walled city that is unencumbered by such alliances.

For years, I was told that college football went out of its way to placate Notre Dame because of the breadth of its fan base. Now, I’m supposed to believe that Notre Dame is being punished because it’s not part of a conference?

Nah. I don’t think it’s that complicated. When you try to create a playoff system in college football, someone is going to wind up feeling hosed. This year, it was Notre Dame, and any attempt to “fix” the system to prevent this particular scenario is going to result in someone else feeling equally hosed.

I don’t gamble on sports. This is not a moral position in any way. I simply don’t have the temperament for it. Self-loathing is enough of an issue that I feel no need to provide myself with additional things to regret.

Also: Gambling on sports leaves you subject to the inexplicable whims of strangers who may be thousands of miles away.

Here’s an example from Sunday’s NFL schedule:

This decision had no effect on the actual outcome of the game. The Raiders lost just as they would have lost if backup quarterback Kenny Pickett had thrown a Hail Mary into the end zone.

Who cares you if you lose by 10 points, seven points or three points?

Gamblers care. The reason they care is the MGM Grand had the Broncos favored by 7.5 points on Sunday. So Carroll’s decision to kick an otherwise meaningless field goal totally upended the result.

Back to the Seahawks … who will be the No. 1 overall seed in the NFC if they win their final four games.

Each of those four games will be against an opponent who currently has a winning record, though. If you go by cumulative winning percentage, the Seahawks’ remaining schedule is tied for fourth-most difficult in the league.

However, while the Indianapolis Colts are 8-5, they will be missing starting quarterback Daniel Jones, who suffered a torn Achilles tendon in Indy’s loss to Jacksonville on Sunday.

The Seahawks host Indianapolis on Sunday before facing the Rams on Thursday night in a game that will also be played in Seattle.

As mentioned earlier, this was the fourth time the Seahawks scored more than 30 points in a half this season. It was, however, the first time that such a scoring binge happened in the second half.

The Seahawks hung 38 points on New Orleans in the first half of a Week 3 meeting …

They put up 31 points in the first half against Washington in Week 9 …

And they scored 38 in the first half against Arizona in Week 10.

While it has been duly noted that the Seahawks offense found its footing in the second half, it’s worth noting that it had some help. The defense had two interceptions and recovered a fumble, leading to 17 of the 31 points.

Seattle’s defense now has eight takeaways in the past two games. Those takeaways have led to 34 points.

Seattle did not recover a single opponent’s fumble in the first seven games. The Seahawks have recovered six over the past six games. The moral of the story: Things even out over the course of a season.

The Seahawks have 21 takeaways, tied with the Rams for fifth-most in the league.

Check back tomorrow when I’ll post a list of everything we learned from this week’s game and some stuff we’re still trying to figure out.