After winning the first playoff game in the Russell Wilson era, the Seattle Seahawks have advanced to the divisional round of the postseason to face-off against the number one seeded Atlanta Falcons at the Georgia Dome.
Unfortunately, despite moving on in the playoffs, the Seahawks suffered a few setbacks in the win over the Washington Redskins. The biggest injury of the day last Sunday was rookie quarterback Robert Griffin III going down with partially torn ACL and LCL that required surgery on Wednesday, but the Seahawks suffered a few potentially major injuries of their own in the process.
Defensive end Chris Clemons suffered a torn ACL in the win over the Redskins on Sunday and will miss the rest of the postseason. Clemons’ absence will be a huge blow for the Seahawks’ pass rush. Clemons led the team in sacks this season with 11.5.
Another injury that will impact the team moving forward is kicker Steven Hauschka’s calf injury. The injury wasn’t thought to be severe enough to end his season or seriously jeopardize his playing status against the Falcons this weekend, but it has done just that.
Hauschka was placed on the team’s injured reserve on Wednesday according to ESPN.com:
The Seattle Seahawks placed kicker Steven Hauschka on injured reserve because of a calf injury and signed veteran kicker Ryan Longwell, the team announced Wednesday.
As a precautionary measure due to Hauschka’s calf injury, the Seahawks signed veteran Ryan Longwell earlier in the week. Longwell was thought to be nothing more than a backup plan, but now will be thrust into the starting role heading into the matchup with the Falcons on Sunday.
Hauschka only missed three of the 27 field goal attempted this year for the Seahawks. Although Hauschka will be missed, Longwell is a formidable replacement and will likely fill the void nicely for the rest of the playoffs.
