NO; the Seahawks defeated the San Francisco 49ers 13-3
How Bad Was the Curse?
Can it really count as a Curse against the Eagles if Coach Sirianni rest all their starters? Actually, probably! See, the 11-5 Eagles and 11-5 Chicago Bears were in a battle for the #2 seed, but Sirianni undoubtedly expected the Bears (who WEREN’T resting their starters) to defeat the depleated Detroit Lions and maintain their #2 position. However, turns out the Lions had a little roar in them left and managed to defeat the Bears 19-16. Had the Eagles played a bit smarter, they could’ve defeated the Commanders and edged over the Bears for the #2 seed. Now it looks like they’re playing the #6 49ers in the Wild Card. Good luck!
Jauan Jennings had a poor game (4 receptions on 6 targets, totalling 35 yards), but maybe his curse infected the San Francisco 49ers overall.
But it doesn’t explain why the Seahawks survived the curse in their game against the 49ers. They scored first and kept the 49ers from anything more than a sole field goal, thus locking in their #1 seed in the NFC playoffs.
Ok but seriously, I don’t think the Curse Wheel was ever THIS wrong about a single team all season. Many of the other times I considered a curse to have failed still had some kind of residual effects (Joe Burrow got turf toe a week after the Bengals got cursed, two of the Steelers curses involved injuries to major players) but I don’t think anything happened to the Patriots that was remotely curse-worthy.
Drake “Drake Maye” Maye threw five touchdown passes. The Patriots’ win percentage was already at 98% by the end of the 1st Quarter. Patriots QB Joshua Dobbs took over with 5:31 left in the 3rd Quarter. This was absolute domination by the Patriots.
OH! Patriots Kicker Andy Borregales doinked a field goal attempt at the end of the 3rd quarter, that counts for something, right??
UPDATE: Patriots players Christian Barmore and Stefon Diggs have since been charged with assault in or around this week’s curse. Personally I don’t see it as the team being cursed, unless you consider the team’s curse involves star players being handed the idiot ball that week. I’ll leave that for you to decide.
With 9:48 left in the 4th quarter, the Seahawks were down 30-14 when Seahawks QB Sam Darnold got intercepted. This brought the Rams up to a 98.8% win chance, their highest win percentage in the game.
The Rams drive immediately after goes nowhere and so they punt, but Seahawks WR Rashid Shaheed runs it in for a punt return touchdown, bringing it to 30-20. The Seahawks go for a two-point conversion and succeed, now 30-22.
The Rams next drive after that Seahawks touchdown also ended in a punt with 7:09 left in the 4th Quarter, only for the Seahawks to score another touchdown in two plays, now 30-28.
The Seahawks go for another two-point conversion to tie the game. This one was initially ruled incomplete but was overturned, with how it was overturned being a rather bizarre set of specific circumstances:
Darnold unintentionally threw a backwards pass.
The pass was blocked by Rams defender Jared Verse, which bounced forward towards the end zone.
Rams Safety Kam Curl leaps forward to try to catch the bounced pass but doesn’t, arguably helping move it even further into the end zone.
However, since Darnold threw a backwards pass, that blocked pass was therefore technically a fumble.
The ball was finally just chilling out in the end zone since everyone thought it was a dead ball, so Seahawks RB Zach Charbonnet simply recovered the ball… but inadvertantly (and officially) scored the two-point conversion, tying the game, 30-30.
At 2:11 left in the 4th Quarter, the Rams try to kick a field goal to potentially make it 33-30, but Rams kicker Harrison Mevis kicks it wide right.
Overtime! Rams get the ball first and get a touchdown, now 37-30, giving the ball to the Seahawks. The Seahawks then get a touchdown themselves… and they go for two points AGAIN. That attempt is successful and the Seahawks win, 38-37.
Stat-wise, the Rams outperformed the Seahawks. The Seahawks also suffered three turnovers while the Rams had none. But in the end, the Curse Wheel had spoken.
YES; the Chiefs lost to the Los Angeles Chargers 13-16
NO*; the Steelers defeated the Miami Dolphins 28-15
How Bad Was the Curse?
Another week where the primary cursed team decisively beat the curse. The Chiefs’ curse was a pre-show spin by Perna, where it landed on the “Fuck KC” slot (previously assigned to “Me Personally”)
At worst, the curse did give the Dolphins a bit of an edge against the Steelers in the first half, letting them score first and keeping the Steelers from scoring anything more than a touchdown by Halftime. But in the second half, all bets were off.
The “NO*” rating is due to Steelers linebacker T.J. Watt suffering a partially collapsed/punctured lung after a physical therapist botched a dry needling attempt. I’d say at worst this is a draw, since the Steelers still mightily defeated the Dolphins. Regardless, I’m still counting it as a failed curse overall, mostly because I don’t want to be like “well this week it’s only half a curse, and then Week 8 was only 1/3rd of a curse”… but I wouldn’t disagree if you want to think of it as a half curse.
Meanwhile, the Chiefs were doing well in the first half against the Chargers, reaching an 85.5% win percentage in the 2nd Quarter. However, not only did they collapse in the second half, but the game ended with Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes tearing his ACL. Finally, this loss meant they were officially eliminated from the post season.
