SPORTS
Thursday, December 5, 2019
East Oregonian
B3
Seahawks on the road with a chance at perfection
By TIM BOOTH
Associated Press
RENTON, Wash. — At
fi rst, Duane Brown and his
teammates weren’t aware of
the streak the Seattle Sea-
hawks were on.
Now, they want to see if
they can make a little fran-
chise history.
“It’s defi nitely something
we’re very proud of,” Seat-
tle’s veteran left tackle said.
“To go on the road and win
in this league is not easy. I
don’t care who you are play-
ing. We’ve had some very
tough opponents, playing
in some very tough envi-
ronments. We’re extremely
proud of that. We didn’t
even realize we were unde-
feated for a while.”
The Seahawks (10-2)
go into their fi nal two road
games of the season begin-
ning this Sunday at the Los
Angeles Rams with a chance
to join rare company. Seattle
has never won more than six
road games in a season but
is currently 6-0 away from
home, matching the mark
set in 2013 when the Sea-
hawks won the Super Bowl.
AP Photo/Ted S. Warren
With quarterback Russell Wilson at the center, Seattle Seahawks huddle before an NFL football game against the Minnesota
Vikings on Monday in Seattle.
A win on Sunday over the
Rams or next week at Caro-
lina would set a new fran-
chise mark. Wins in both
would make Seattle just the
fi fth team since 2000 to go
unbeaten away from home,
joining the 2001 Rams,
2007 and 2016 Patriots, and
the 2014 Cowboys.
For a franchise that for
years struggled when it was
asked to leave the Pacifi c
Northwest, being this good
away from home is a rarity.
“It shows how close a
group we are. When we
go on the road everyone
is connected, everyone is
together,” linebacker Bobby
Wagner said. “I think that’s
what makes a really good
road team is the connection,
the chemistry, especially
from the defensive side.”
Seattle’s schedule has
played in its favor as well. It
hosted Baltimore and New
Orleans — the Seahawks’
two losses — instead of
facing them on the road. It
won at Pittsburgh when Ben
Roethlisberger played just
one half. It won in Atlanta
when the Falcons were with-
out Matt Ryan.
But what Seattle has done
in its past two road games
has been impressive, win-
ning at San Francisco in
overtime and following up
with a 17-9 win at Philadel-
phia where the Seahawks
dominated.
“It’s important to be
really good on the road
because you might have to
do that in the playoffs ... it’s
just opportunities to be able
to kind of show what type of
team you are,” Wagner said.
“I like playing on the road
sometimes because at the
end of the game when our
fans take over the stadium
it’s kind of cool.”
Searching for upsets to scramble college football playoff
By RALPH D. RUSSO
AP College Football Writer
Championship weekend
rarely produces the type
of upsets that throw the
national championship race
into turmoil.
Heading into this year’s
slate of conference title
games, a case could be
made that No. 1 LSU (No. 2
CFP), No. 2 Ohio State (No.
1 CFP) and No. 3 Clemson
(No. 3 CFP) have all done
enough already to get into
the College Football Play-
off even if they lose this
weekend.
That’s no fun.
We remember major
upsets such as Kansas State
over Oklahoma in the Big
12 in 2003, LSU knocking
Tennessee out of a chance
to play for a BCS title in the
2001 SEC title game and
Michigan State’s victory
against Ohio State in the
2013 Big Ten championship
that cost the Buckeyes a
BCS title game appearance.
Memorable, but infre-
quent. Championship week-
end is typically chalky.
In four of the fi ve sea-
sons of the playoff, a team
ranked in the top four
heading into champion-
ship weekend did not reach
the playoff, but usually it
has not been because of
an upset.
Last year, Georgia was
in the same position it is
in this year: No. 4 going
AP Photo/Sean Rayford
Clemson running back Lyn-J Dixon (23) carries the ball
against South Carolina defensive back J.T. Ibe (29) during the
second half of a game on Saturday in Columbia, S.C.
into the SEC title game as
an underdog (Alabama last
year, LSU this year). The
Bulldogs put up a good
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fi ght against the Tide, but
lost and got the boot for
Oklahoma.
In 2017, Wisconsin was
undefeated and fourth
heading into the Big Ten
championship game, where
it lost to Ohio State, which
had lost twice but was a 6
½-point favorite over the
Badgers. That opened the
door for Alabama to get the
fourth spot without win-
ning its conference.
In 2016, championship
weekend only changed
the order of the top four
slightly, not the teams.
In 2015, Iowa was
unbeaten and fourth but
lost to Michigan State,
which was fi fth, in the Big
Ten title game. The Spar-
tans moved up and into the
playoff.
The biggest swing game
on championship week-
end came in the fi rst year
of the playoff. Ohio State,
a 4-point underdog after
quarterback J.T. Barrett
was injured against Michi-
gan, beat Wisconsin 59-0 in
the Big Ten championship
game in 2014. The commit-
tee jumped the Buckeyes
from fi fth to fourth, snub-
bing co-Big 12 champions
TCU and Baylor, which
were both 11-1. TCU was
dropped from third to sixth
and Horned Frogs fans have
still not gotten over it.
Will an upset toss the
committee a curve this
year?
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