SPORTS
Friday, December 21, 2018
East Oregonian
B3
Plenty of implications at stake as Chiefs visit Seahawks
By TIM BOOTH
Associated Press
NFL
SEATTLE — From the
time he entered the league
in 2012, Russell Wilson for
the most part has thrived late
in the season with playoff
berths or playoff positioning
at stake.
What about potential
MVP candidate Patrick
Mahomes?
For all the brilliance
Mahomes has shown this
season in leading Kansas
City to the cusp of a division
title and possibly the No. 1
seed in the AFC, he’s never
been in the situation of show-
ing he can win a late-season
game in a hostile environ-
ment that could ultimately
help determine how far the
Chiefs go in the postseason.
That unknown about
Mahomes makes Sun-
day night’s matchup with
Kansas City visiting Seat-
tle fascinating. Should the
second-year
quarterback
enter one of the most diffi -
cult venues in football and
come away with a Kansas
City victory, Mahomes will
have answered those ques-
tions and put Kansas City
potentially in position to
never leave home during the
postseason.
But a loss to Seattle and
wins by the Chargers and
Texans this weekend could
put all that in peril for the
Chiefs — the division title,
home-fi eld advantage and a
Seattle
Kansas City
Seahawks
Chiefs
(8-6)
(11-3)
Sunday, 5:20 p.m., at
Century Link Field, Seattle
TV: NBC
fi rst-round playoff bye.
“I think the message for
the whole team is we’re not
satisfi ed with where we’re
at. We wanted to put our-
selves in this position, but at
the same time, we know we
still have a long way to go,”
Mahomes said.
“We’re going to keep in
that mentality the rest of this
season and into the playoffs
(of) not being satisfi ed with
just being here. We want to
make sure we can go and win
the big games whenever we
need to.”
Kansas City (11-3) could
have made the importance of
Sunday’s game signifi cantly
less if it could have held on
at home last week against the
Chargers. But the 29-28 loss
to Los Angeles left open the
chance Kansas City could
miss out on the division title
and fall all the way to being
a wild-card team depending
on how the fi nal two weeks
play out.
“You can hang your head
AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File
In this Dec. 2, 2018, fi le photo, Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson passes against the
San Francisco 49ers during the second half of an NFL football game in Seattle.
and mope and do all those
things you want to do, but
that doesn’t get anything
accomplished,” Kansas City
coach Andy Reid said.
“You get in, you learn
from it the best you can, and
you go do better. That’s the
approach I am taking. That is
the approach I felt from the
guys.”
Seattle (8-6) also had an
unexpected thud last week
losing in overtime to lowly
San Francisco on the road.
Ultimately what Wilson and
the Seahawks do against
Kansas City doesn’t matter
in the big picture of Seattle
trying to wrap up a wild-card
spot in the NFC. A win over
Arizona in Week 17 would
be enough to put Seattle in
the playoffs no matter what
happens against the Chiefs.
With losses by either
Washington or Minnesota
and a win over the Chiefs,
the Seahawks would be back
in the postseason after miss-
ing a year ago. But they
know beating the Chiefs
won’t be easy.
“They have such a diverse
attack that you’ve got to be
ready for a lot of stuff. Our
guys, they’re up for it, they’re
ready for the challenge and
all of that,” Seattle coach
Pete Carroll said. “We’ve
got to do a great job on their
really classy receivers. (Tra-
vis) Kelce and (Tyreek) Hill
are just unbelievably talented
guys having great years. So,
there’s a lot of issues here. I
think our guys will be ready
to do this.”
Here’s what else to watch
for:
By committee
After leaning heavily
on Damien Williams last
week, the Chiefs are likely
to go with a bigger com-
mittee among their running
backs especially if Spencer
Ware is healthy enough to
play. Williams had 123 yards
from scrimmage last week,
but Ware has proven to be
a more durable and consis-
tent runner in the past. Ware
missed last week with a ham-
string injury.
Run away
Seattle’s No. 1 ranked
rushing attack could end up
having a big day against a
Chiefs defense that is allow-
ing 5.0 yards per rush. Seat-
tle is averaging 154.9 yards
per game on the ground
led by Chris Carson, who
is coming off a career-high
119 yards last week against
the 49ers. Seattle’s running
back depth is a question as
rookie Rashaad Penny may
not be available because of a
knee injury and both Carson
and backup Mike Davis have
been banged up. The Chiefs
are averaging 161.3 yards
rushing allowed in the past
three games.
Welcome back
Seattle expects to have
linebacker K.J. Wright back
after missing the past fi ve
games and 11 games total
this season because of knee
problems. Wright probably
won’t get a heavy dose of
plays, but his return will be
important in trying to keep
Kelce under control. Wright
has been strong during his
career defending tight ends
in the pass game.
Hirscher earns Austrian-record 63rd World Cup ski win
SAALBACH-HINTER-
GLEMM, Austria (AP) —
Marcel Hirscher returned to
a hill where he raced as a kid
to become the most success-
ful Austrian skier of all time.
The seven-time overall
champion won a World Cup
slalom in his native province
of Salzburg on Thursday
for his 63rd career victory,
overtaking Annemarie Mos-
er-Proell, who had 62 wins
when she retired in 1980.
“As a kid I have com-
peted in regional races on
this hill. The course was
just a bit more to the right,”
Hirscher said. “These are
great memories. The circle
closes here.”
Only Ingemar Stenmark
(86) and Lindsey Vonn (82)
have won more World Cup
races.
Moser-Proell was full of
praise for the new Austrian
record-holder.
“We have never seen such
a perfect ski racer before,”
she told Austrian broadcaster
ORF. “When I see Mar-
cel now, I am amazed that
I achieved something simi-
lar back then. But you can’t
really compare the two eras.
Everything is much more
professional nowadays.”
Defying diffi cult course
conditions, Hirscher held
on to a big fi rst-run lead to
fi nish 0.38 seconds ahead
of Loic Meillard of Swit-
zerland, who was only 12th
after the opening run and
claimed his second podium
in two days.
Henrik Kristoffersen of
Norway was 0.47 behind in
third.
“I would have been
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happy with a top-10 result
and I can’t believe I am on
the podium for two days in
a row,” said Meillard, also
runner-up in Wednesday’s
GS. “To be on a podium
with Marcel and Henrik is
truly something special.”
It was the fourth straight
win in the discipline for
Hirscher, who has won nine
of the last 10 World Cup
slaloms.
“It sounds amazing but
it is very surreal,” Hirscher
said about his 63rd win.
“There will be a time when
I can really enjoy this but for
the moment it is really amaz-
ing to have another victory,
in one of the hardest slalom
races I have ever skied in.”
Many racers struggled on
the Schneekristall course,
which had patches of weak
snow in the icy top layer on
the lower part of the slope.
The second run had to be
delayed for 15 minutes to
give organizers more time
to harden the surface with
water and salt.
Kristoffersen called it
“the worst conditions I have
skied on in my World Cup
career.”
“It was really on the
limit. It was tough, incred-
ible,” said the Norwegian,
who still led Meillard by
eight-tenths at the fi nal split
but trailed the Swiss skier by
0.09 at the fi nish.
“Normally that would not
happen,” Kristoffersen said.
Hirscher started his fi nal
run with an advantage of
2.13 seconds over then
leader Meillard, allowing
him to take a conservative
approach.
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