Seahawks await Niners, hopeful Harvin will be back
It only seems natural.
The Seahawks will host the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday in the NFC championship game with a spot in the Super Bowl on the line.
Seahawks players were non-committal postgame Saturday night when asked which team, Carolina or San Francisco, they would prefer.
For at least one, that changed Sunday. Wide receiver Doug Baldwin tweeted, 'Wouldn't want it any other way,' just after the 49ers finished their 23-10 win in Carolina.
Baldwin is part of a Seahawks offense which continues to do just enough. His 24-yard third-down catch in the fourth quarter Saturday was a crucial play to help put the game away.
But, it was just one of eight completions for Russell Wilson against the New Orleans Saints. Part of that was because of strong winds and a conservative offensive approach by Seattle. Part of that was because Wilson was off at times. His counterpart Drew Brees was 24-for-43 for 309 yards in the same conditions against the league's No. 1 defense.
'It was one of those things; I wasn't my best all day,' Wilson said.
The last time the Seahawks played the 49ers, Seattle gained just 13 first downs. Only one came from running the ball.
The 17 points the Seahawks scored in Week 14 against San Francisco was their third-lowest total of the season.
Saturday against New Orleans, the Seahawks were conservationists. Playing into the wind in the third quarter, they gained just 25 yards in three drives. Two of those drives were three-and-outs.
'We didn't want to make crucial mistakes when we backed up,' Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll said. 'So, we just played good grind-it-out football, and kicked the ball and rely on the defense. It worked out.'
Wide receiver Percy Harvin had an impact until he left the game to be evaluated for a concussion at the end of the first half.
In just his second game of the season following Aug. 1 hip surgery, Harvin caught three passes. Despite playing only the first half, Harvin's three catches were enough for the team lead.
He twice left the field following big hits. Harvin did not return for the second half and will have to go through standard NFL concussion protocol this week to return for the NFC title game. In most cases, a determination whether a player is cleared is not made until Thursday of game week.
'The poor kid,' Carroll said. 'He finally gets to play, and he banged his head against the turf really hard. He was OK the first time, but the second one really rocked him.
'Hopefully he'll be able to make it back for next week.'
If he does, he'll face a San Francisco defense that held the Carolina Panthers to 10 points Sunday.
In the afterglow of advancing to the NFC championship game, Russell Wilson patrolled the Seattle Seahawks locker room making sure the message was still clear to his teammates.
They won by three touchdowns and they advanced to their third AFC Championship game in three years. Sure, Andrew Luck and the Colts showed some spunk for a while. Sure, the team that had staged the second-greatest comeback in NFL playoff history last weekend showed some spine on this Saturday night.
By design or not, the NFL took an exclusionary turn last year. And the commissioner noticed.
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