The Seattle Seahawks have recovered from a slow start to the season and are in the thick of the playoff race. The Baltimore Ravens started slow and never recovered after being hit by too many crucial injuries. On Sunday, these two teams will meet in a game that lost its luster over the past few months. NBC originally had this set as the Sunday Night Football matchup before flexing it to the 1 p.m. ET slot.
Seahawks vs. Ravens 2015 live stream: Time, TV schedule and how to watch online
The Seahawks are one of the hottest teams in the league. The Ravens are starting Matt Schaub. Needless to say, only one of these teams are in playoff contention.
Since starting the season 2-4, the Seahawks have won five of their last six games, with the only loss a 39-32 heartbreaker to the Arizona Cardinals. Seattle picked up one of its biggest wins of the season last week, demolishing the Minnesota Vikings 38-7 on the road. At 7-5, Seattle currently has the No. 6 seed and holds an important tiebreaker win over the Vikings.
A big part of the Seahawks’ resurgence has been the play of Russell Wilson. Wilson has been on fire in the past three games, throwing for 879 yards, 11 touchdowns and zero interceptions. The running game hasn’t missed a beat with Marshawn Lynch out. Undrafted rookie Thomas Rawls is 10th in the league with 786 rushing yards, averaging 5.6 yards per carry. Doug Baldwin is having the best stretch of his career, catching five touchdown passes in the past two games.
While the Seahawks are playing well of late, things couldn’t have gone much worse for the Ravens this year. Joe Flacco, Justin Forsett, Steve Smith and Terrell Suggs are just a few of the major names sitting on injured reserve. The Ravens have sunk to 4-8 and one more loss would guarantee the first losing season in John Harbaugh’s eight-year tenure.
With Flacco recovering from a torn ACL, the Ravens have been reduced to starting Jimmy Clausen under center due to Matt Schaub’s shoulder injury. Clausen, who was signed just two weeks ago, has already suffered a loss to the Seahawks earlier this season when he was with the Bears. He has a chance to be the first quarterback in league history to get shut out by the same team twice while playing for different clubs, which is possible given Baltimore’s depleted receiving corps.
There has been at least one bright spot on offense, though. Rookie Buck Allen has done a fine job filling in for Forsett, rushing for 367 yards on 91 carries and catching two touchdown passes. He’ll have a tough test against the Seahawks’ defense, which did a masterful job shutting down Adrian Peterson last week (eight carries, 18 yards). With Peterson out of the picture, the Legion of Boom teed off on Teddy Bridgewater, holding him to 118 passing yards, picking him off once and sacking him four times.
On paper, this looks like one of the biggest mismatches of the season, but we’ve seen stranger things happen, particularly when Seattle travels to the East Coast for a 1 p.m. game. Pete Carroll and company will need to avoid a letdown game if they are to further solidify their position in the playoff hunt.
How to watch
When: 1 p.m. ET
Where: M&T Bank Stadium, Baltimore
TV: Fox
Announcers: Thom Brennaman, Charles Davis, Tony Siragusa
Online: NFL Game Pass
* * *
SB Nation presents: Seahawks fans show what makes the 12th man so special
See More:
