In his fourth season, Sean McVay has become part of the woodwork in the Seahawks-Rams division rivalry. It's easy to take the Los Angeles Rams coach for granted, mostly because he's not a cartoon character, as were NFC West coaching predecessors Jim Harbaugh and Jeff Fisher.

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Apparently, the Seahawks can't count on Josh Gordon. Again.

A day after the NFL allowed him to return to the 53-man active roster ahead of the biggest game of the season Sunday against the Rams, the league stunned the club by disclosing that Gordon had not satisfied the terms of his conditional reinstatement, according to the Seattle Times Tuesday afternoon. Later, the league's house organ, the NFL Network, reported that Gordon, 29, “had a setback in his battle with substance abuse and now won’t be allowed to practice or play indefinitely.”

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The game of the season is upon the Seahawks Sunday. But since the previous meeting with the Rams in Los Angeles Nov. 15, the menu for the holiday weekend has changed: From #LetRussCook to potluck.

In the five games since the 23-16 loss, in which Russell Wilson was the victim of six sacks, 12 QB hits, two interceptions and a fumbled snap, he has nine touchdown passes, three interceptions and 10 sacks, including no sacks the past two games. And the Seahawks were 4-1: Beating the Cardinals 28-21 and the Eagles 23-17, losing to the Giants 17-12, and beating Jets 40-3 and Washington 20-15.

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Some young fans growing up in the Seattle-area market probably take the achievement of the NFL playoffs as a birthright. Jamal Adams, a 24-year-old kid, is not among them.

"Hell, yeah!" he shouted from the Zoom podium. It was plain to see it was his first time on the NFL zipline thrill ride.

"Man, where I come from, man . . . come on, man. I'm excited, man."

We hear you, man. Three seasons with the New York Jets. Man, this is Seattle stuff is different.

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In December, there's two kinds of bad luck in the NFL -- the draw, and health. The draw is the schedule -- who (and where) the games are played. Health is, of course, who on the roster remains ambulatory after months of cudgeling, thumping and clobbering.

For the final three games of the 2020 regular season, the Seahawks have the misfortune of drawing three of the top five defenses, based on yards allowed, starting Sunday in Washington.

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Apart from the fact of a four-game winning streak (combined score, 107-57), which includes the first defeat of the Steelers and beating the 49ers Sunday without the benefit of an offensive touchdown, the haggard Washington Football Team (6-7) abruptly and improbably has become a NFL-wide recipient of admiration, even affection.

This is like Rudy Giuliani being cast as the next James Bond.

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The only drama of the Seahawks-Jets game Sunday at Lumen Field was afterward, when SS Jamal Adams met up with his former New York coach, Adam Gase. Spoiler alert: They did not slug it out. They hugged it out. End of drama. Which, for the New York tabloids, was a pity.

They had to toss away the preparedness back-page headlines for the hoped-for fight: Adams gets Ja-mauled. Adam-ic bomb goes off. Gase of hit-and-run.

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As regards December, the essential directive for the Seahawks is to do all that it takes to win the Dec. 27 game home game against the Los Angeles Rams, who have won five of the past six in the series. Everything else is a means to that end.

Yes, fans have been schooled as recently as Sunday that it is unwise in the NFL to overlook the underdog. But it is part of human nature. Pete Carroll has said a few times that one of his principal tasks is to coach against human nature. He seems to have done it well.

The rest of us can play two games ahead.

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Many are the ways to pick apart one of the worst losses in the Pete Carroll's Seahawks coaching tenure. But one seemingly minor misplay stuck in my head as perhaps the most WTF moment in the 17-12 loss Sunday to the New York Giants, which still has fans wiping off entrails as if they were at Monty Python's cinematic restaurant when Mr. Creosote ate the final "wafer-thin" mint.

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Somewhere between the 5-0 start when he was the darling of the NFL, and a spray of 10 turnovers that bore the brunt of the blame for three losses in four games, Russell Wilson lost a little something.

Not sure what it was. Swagger, edge, arrogance, something ineffable and immeasurable like that. It's probably not irretrievable. But its absence was mainly why the Seahawks scored only one touchdown Sunday against the New York Giants, after a modest two on Monday night in the win at Philadelphia.

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Just in case you blocked it out, here's a Seahawks chronology from one year ago:

Dec. 8, RB Rashaad Penny was lost for the season after tearing an ACL. Dec. 16, WR Josh Gordon was suspended for the season for the fifth time in eight years for violating the NFL's substance abuse policy. Dec. 22, RB Chris Carson was lost for the season with a cracked hip, the same day RB C.J. Prosise broke his arm and was lost for the season.

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It's December. When, historically under Pete Carroll, the Seahawks get good. For the next three weeks, the opponents are so weak that Seattle's progress toward Super Bowl contention will hard to measure. But that likely is acceptable.

Unless, of course, they lose to one among the 4-7 Giants, the 0-11 Jets and the 4-7 Whose Former Nickname No Longer Shall Be Mentioned. Then Christmas lights in Seattle will go dark. Kvetching, harrumphing and angry gesticulation will commence.

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After he destroyed them in the playoffs in January with nine catches and an NFL rookie record 160 yards, the Eagles had to come up with a plan for DK Metcalf Monday night in Philadelphia. Part of it included a trade for CB Darius Slay, one of the NFL's best cornerbacks. Another part of the plan was to piss off Metcalf.

It was a plan. Just a dumb one.

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The good news over the weekend for the 7-3 Seahawks was that the Patriots beat the Cardinals (6-5), and the 49ers (5-6) beat the Rams (7-4), helping advance the cause of winning the NFC West as they head into the dessert portion of the 2020 menu: The next four opponents have a sugary combined record of 11-31-1.

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Russell Wilson was asked Wednesday on his weekly Zoom conference what he was thankful for. As those of us who chronicle regularly his Seahawks doings know, that's like asking Homer Simpson what he enjoys about beer.

Even Wilson, aware that some of his answers are longer than his deepest throws, lit up a grin: "Oh, man, good."

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First day of a new job rarely is easy. First day of a job on a commercial fishing boat in southwest Alaska is soul-scorching.

"I can handle cleaning," Jawanza Brown said. "I can handle heavy lifting. I can handle the hard work -- you constantly get slapped in the face by a fish because it's still alive and wants to swim away. But in the nitty gritty -- I don't know what it is -- when I have to bleed a fish and put it (in the refrigerated saltwater hold) 2,000 times day, then the slime builds up and eventually, you slip, and you’re on your knees.

"Then let's go out and do it again tomorrow . . . you just feel like, why am I out here? Why am I out here on my hands and knees?"

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The Fire Ken Norton Club members will have to convene an emergency meeting. They just lost, and now must figure out a way to overturn the result. Such intemperate behavior is a trendy thing now.

Or, the members could accept the fact that the Seahawks, with Norton continuing as defensive coordinator, are on their way to having an NFL-average defense, which would mean playoffs and fun and something normal in a world desperate for the familiar. A brutal price to pay, certainly.

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Three losses in four games for a team with high expectations is a great way to turn the innards of fans into knots worthy of a sailor's handbook. Thursday night, the Seahawks untied every one of them.

The 28-21 win over Arizona (box) was perhaps more an organizational triumph than any regular-season game in the Pete Carroll/John Schneider regime:

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The Clink is gone in a wink. Just in time to hype its new affiliate name in front of a national TV audience watching NFL Thursday Night Football, CenturyLink Inc., is renaming the home of the Seahawks and Sounders as Lumen Field.

Lumen Technologies, LLC became a  wholly-owned affiliate of CenturyLink, Inc. in September, and the re-brand debuts with the Seahawks-Cardinals game at 5:20 p.m.

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Furrows in the collective brow of the 12s over Russell Wilson run Grand Canyon deep. Is he hurt? Concussed? Mad at Pete Carroll? Worst of all -- is he actually Mr. Limited?

The likely answer to all is no. Well, maybe he's banged up, but he'll never admit it. He's like The Black Knight in Monty Python's Holy Grail. After getting his arm cut off in a sword fight with King Arthur, TBK says, "Tis but a scratch."

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