Minnesota VIKINGS at Seattle SEAHAWKS, 1:15p (Fox)

Of course, the Seahawks need to win this game.

I've said for a while now that the two things the Seahawks need to do are run the table at home and sweep their NFC West games.

Sweeping division play and defending the home turf would get the Seahawks 11 wins. The win in Detroit figures into neither of those criteria, but you could say the Seahawks could end up with 12 wins.

Though it wasn't a division loss, the embarrassment in Chicago was a conference game, and that's not good. The Seahawks have that win against the Giants, which was nice, but that win was also the only one against what could be considered a tough conference (non-division) opponent, though I know the season is still young.

The point is, the Seahawks need to win a game like this, one against a formidable conference opponent.

They just need to win a ton of games in general. It might be tough with Shaun Alexander out, but they need that #1 seed again so they don't end up playing playoff games in Chicago or some horribly hostile environment.

The first immediate step to that, of course, is to win this game. It'd also be nice to prove Vic Carucci completely wrong, since he's saying a whole lotta Chester Taylor will end the Seahawks' 12-game home win streak. I'm more afraid of deep balls to Marcus Robinson, as anyone remembering the 2003 game in Baltimore might. That Baltimore team that year also had Taylor.

Let's hope Taylor doesn't run roughshod and Robinson racks up 100 yards and three touchdowns or anything stupid like that.

And let's hope the return of Jerramy Stevens helps this offense look more like itself. Of course, it may have looked more like itself last week, but that whole earthquake thing (more like statewide hours/days-long power outage) happened here, and I kind of never heard or watched the entire game, though I have means with which to listen to it.

Anyway, game on...and I didn't even mention a certain former Seahawk offensive tackle or how the Vikings' new uniforms are hokey and too CFL-y.