The Seahawks will say it makes no difference whom they host at 5:15 p.m. Saturday, and that's largely true. But since the choice heading into the playoffs' wild-card weekend was the 11-5 Detroit Lions or the 7-8-1 Carolina Panthers, they can thank the Dallas Cowboys -- and a bewildering officiating call -- for making their road a tad fluffier.

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As with most college bowl games but three, there was no tangible meaning to the Cactus Bowl game Friday night in Tempe, AZ., that matched middling teams from the Pac-12 and Big 12 conferences. But for the infant stewardship of Huskies coach Chris Petersen, a good outcome would have helped bury the player suspensions, dubious playcalling and ineffective play against serious opposition that pickled his first year.

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After the Seahawks won the Super Bowl, the NFL changed some rules regarding how defenders were allowed to engage ballcarriers. The Seahawks were certain it was because of their success. It didn't work -- the Seahawks are back in the playoffs, atop the defensive stats, with the shorter route to the Super Bowl.

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Half the attraction of sports rests in the attempt to forecast. Which means half our time with sports is purposeless, because so little is predictable.

For example: Seattle sports 2014. I did not expect to see:

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Feel free to rub your eyes in disbelief, but the Seahawks offense you saw get shut out in the first half Sunday against St. Louis was the ninth-best in the NFL this season, by the measurement of yards per game. That's right: The No. 1 defense in the NFL now is paired up with a top-10 offense.

Whoda thunk?

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Given the strife and tumult besetting NFL franchises in and out of the playoffs -- Lions All-Pro DT Ndamukong Suh, making a late run for Dumbest Sports Guy of  2014, was suspended for Sunday's playoff game against Dallas for stepping on Green Bay QB Aaron Rodgers -- the Seahawks figuratively are grinning by the fireside, surrounded by loved ones, on a bonus football holiday week wrapped around the civilian holiday week.

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Three signs that the Seahawks, one of the NFL's youngest teams, are maturing into an Alien-style, pitiless machine:

At the accomplishment of the only seasonal goal set by coach Pete Carroll,  Seahawks players Sunday afternoon were as nonchalant as a barber-shop chat about the weather;

New guys like WR Paul Richardson and DT Jordan Hill are nearly the equals of their predecessors in terms of dedication to relentlessness.

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The NFL fined him for silence. Now they fined him for gestures. And they did it on Christmas Day. Soon enough, the league will insist that Marshawn Lynch stop being mean to defenders he keeps throwing away, or risk being fined for littering.

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As the NFL playoff field sets up this weekend, the Seahawks have returned to the top of several national-media power rankings. If they beat St. Louis Sunday, they will be two wins shy of a return to the Super Bowl. So talk has begun of the team's place in history -- begun Sunday not by outsiders, but by locker-room sage DT Michael Bennett.

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It is usually the case that the Seahawks are in the position of outwitting the adversary. But not when the foe is the St. Louis Rams under Jeff Fisher, who may be the craftiest coach in the NFL. He outsmarted the Seahawks Oct. 19 in a 28-26 win in St. Louis, and he's back again Sunday in the regular season finale Sunday at the Clink to spoil the party.

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The Seahawks advanced their record in prime-time, nationally telecast games under coach Pete Carroll to 15-1 with the 35-6 rub-out of the Cardinals Sunday. Given that the networks' attempt to schedule what are anticipated to be quality match-ups, the record is nothing short of phenomenal.

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So many superlatives. So short are our arms to grasp them all. Instead, let's begin with the absurd: Coach Pete Carroll attempting to explain the digestive mysteries of RB Marshawn Lynch that kept him out of the starting lineup and first quarter of Sunday night's nationally televised evisceration of the Arizona Cardinals in Glendale, AZ.

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A day after LB K.J. Wright got his, DE Cliff Avril got his -- $28.5 million over four years, $16 million of which is guaranteed. NFL.com first reported the news of the contract extension Friday morning. The Seahawks are trying hard to keep together what has been over the past three years the most dominant defense in the NFL.

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As various teams around the NFL wobble, fall and convulse, the Seahawks keep striding in the December storm, attempting to outlast as much as outwit. Thursday, they outspent, securing LB K.J. Wright to a four-year extension worth a reported $27 million.

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As much giggling as is going on among the 12s imagining what might await Arizona's third-string QB, Ryan Lindley, against the NFL's best defense Sunday in Glendale, AZ., Cardinals fans may indulge a snicker or several themselves about the Seahawks attempting to protect Russell Wilson behind a beat-up offensive line that gave up seven sacks when the teams met in November.

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Earl Thomas, Kyle Seager, Clint Dempsey, Obafemi Martins, Shaq Thompson, the University of Washington crew and the Seattle Seahawks triumph at  the Super Bowl are among the nominees for the MTR Western Sports Star of the Year Awards at Benaroya Hall in downtown Seattle.

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For the biggest game of the season, and probably the past five years they've been absent from the playoffs, the Arizona Cardinals will start at quarterback third-stringer Ryan Lindley, who in his NFL career before Thursday completed 93 passes in 181 attempts. He also has seven interceptions, three fumbles and no touchdowns. That was in 2012.

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As did a young John Connor at the end of "Terminator 2," we wiped away tears as the beloved cyborg, Jim Harbaugh, was lowered Sunday into a molten vat of NFL playoff also-rans. Unless someone springs for a sequel, the Seahawks-49ers rivalry will take no shape we recognize.

"I am aware of it," said Ah-nold . . .um, Harbaugh. "I understand what it means."

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Advocates of pro athletes using their platforms to advance social causes are thrilled to see an awakening of conscience nationally regarding the deaths of young black men at the hands of police in dubious circumstances. The symbolism of their stances can be important.

It is also asking a lot.

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Please join me at 5 p.m. Tuesday for a couple of hours of good food, drink and dish from inside the Seahawks world. If you're a 12 and know others, you can get the must-have Christmas gift of the football season  -- "Russell Wilson: Standing Tall," Sportspress Northwest's book about QB Russell Wilson and the run to the Super Bowl championship.

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