Seattle Seahawks outside linebacker Bruce Irvin
Dec 28, 2014; Seattle, WA, USA; Seattle Seahawks outside linebacker Bruce Irvin (51) celebrates after intercepting the ball and scoring a touchdown against the St. Louis Rams during the second half at CenturyLink Field. Seattle defeated St. Louis 20-6. Reuters

The Seattle Seahawks defeated the St. Louis Rams on Sunday to clinch the best record in the NFC and the home field advantage all throughout the NFL Playoffs. Russell Wilson passed for 239 yards on 17-of-25 completions to help the Seahawks net their ninth victory in the last 10 games of the regular season. Marshawn Lynch (60 yards on 14 carries) and Bruce Irvin, who returned an interception for 49 yards, made key plays in the fourth quarter to turn what was a close game to a blowout win for Seattle.

St. Louis led 6-0 at halftime, courtesy of two field goals, after a lethargic effort from the Seahawks in the first half. Seattle turned up the heat defensively by the start of the third quarter when the Seahawks also got two field goals to tie the game entering the fourth quarter. Paul Richardson had 60 yards on 5 catches while Doug Baldwin had 43 yards on 3 catches for Seattle.

The Rams wrapped up their regular season with a lowly 6-10 record and 3-5 on the road. They also have lost 17 of 20 games to Seattle in their head to head match-up. Shaun Hill had two fourth-quarter interceptions for St. Louis, which just had 42 rushing yards and couldn’t convert on third downs.

"All you guys kept talking about how you can't do this and you can't get to this point again and you can't come back and all this stuff. You can. You can do it. And we did it to this point. And we'll see how we'll do in the playoffs," Carroll said via ESPN.com. "We got back to division champs and that's pretty rare. I'm really proud of that."

Seattle improved to 12-4 sharing the same record with the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys. However they own the tiebreaker win over both based on win percentage in the conference. The Seahawks earned the first round bye and awaits the winner of the wild card game and will play on Jan. 10, 2015, Saturday. The Seahawks are the defending champions defeating the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII last February.

To reach the author of this article, email j.gloria@ibtimes.com.au

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