SEATTLE _ So much for waiting to raze Arizona next Sunday to get to the playoffs.
The Seahawks gave themselves room to spare _ and maybe a week to rest _ with a rousing 38-31 win over the Kansas City Chiefs to clinch a spot in the NFC playoffs in front of an electric crowd of 69,067 at CenturyLink Field.
Pending the outcome of next Sunday's games, the Seahawks will be either the fifth or sixth seed in the NFC playoffs the first weekend of January.
Seattle trailed only once against a team that came into game sporting one of the most explosive offenses in NFL history, time and again responding with some magic of its own to hold off every Chiefs comeback effort.
Seattle finally put the game away with Chris Carson's 1-yard TD run with 2:29 left after first Tyler Lockett, and then Doug Baldwin, turned in catches to remember forever to get the Seahawks deep. Baldwin's bobbling one-hander figures be part of highlight reels for years to come.
The Seahawks finished with a season-high 464 yards, needing every one to fend off the Chiefs and dynamic second-year QB Patrick Mahomes, who threw for three touchdowns.
But if Mahomes is the presumptive NFL MVP, Russell Wilson matched him throw-for-throw and run-for-run on this day, tossing three touchdowns with no interceptions, while also rushing for 57 tough yards. Along the way, Wilson tied Dave Krieg for the franchise career record with 195 career touchdown passes.
Seattle appeared in good shape when Wilson hit Ed Dickson for a 2-yard TD to make it 31-20, with 7:31 left.
But the Chiefs, who spent most of the night serving as their own worst enemy with missed tackles, untimely penalties and a few off-target throws, needed only 2:55 to drive 72 yards, with Mahomes' run to convert the two-point conversion cutting the led to 31-28, with 4:36 remaining.
After getting one first down, Seattle then made maybe its play of the season with Wilson firing deep to Lockett down the right sideline to pick up 45 yards to the Kansas City 21, with 2:51 remaining.
Actually, the play of the season came a play later when Wilson _ after being sacked _ lofted a pas to Baldwin, who bobbled the ball twice with his right hand before reeling it in as he was tackled at the 1-yard line.
A play later, Carson rumbled into the end zone.
A long kickoff return led to a Kansas City field goal that made it 38-31 with 1:20 left. But the onside kick went out of bounds and Seattle could finally celebrate a return to the playoffs after a year's absence
The game went back and forth throughout, with nary a dull moment _ 883 yards in offense in all.
After the Chiefs tied the game at 17 in the third quarter, Seattle retook the lead on just an amazingly athletic play by Baldwin, who twisted in midair to haul in a 27-yard TD pass from Wilson, hitting the pylon as he was pushed to the ground by Kansas City's Steven Nelson.
That put the Seahawks up 24-17 with 45 seconds left in the third quarter, kicking off some furious activity the rest of the way.
The Chiefs drove to the 4 early in the fourth quarter. But Shaquill Griffin broke up a second-down pass in the end zone after a penalty had pushed the Chiefs back, and Kansas City had to settle for a 29-yard field goal by Harrison Butker to cut the lead to 24-20 with 10:28 remaining,
That might have been the key sequence of the game.
Seattle then drove 70 yards for the Wilson-to-Ed Dickson TD that made it 31-20 and gave the Chiefs a tough hill to climb.
Seattle opened the game about as well as it could have hoped.
The Seahawks won the toss and deferred, which some might have questioned going against the Chiefs offense.
But Seattle made it look like a genius move when the Seahawks got a three-and-out _ K.J. Wright and Shaquill Griffin each batting down passes on second and third downs.
The Seahawks then drove 78 yards in 11 plays to open the scoring on a Chris Carson 4-yard TD run with 8:55 left. Wilson jumpstarted the drive with a 19-yard scramble to pick up a third-and-13. He then hit Doug Baldwin for 16 yards while Carson had a 17-yard run and then Mike Davis reeled off a 10-yarder to set up the TD, which came on a third-and-1 play.
After a Kansas City field goal made it 7-3, the Seahawks wasted a golden opportunity when a second-and-7 at the 15 turned into a 36-yard field goal attempt two plays later.
Sebastian Janikowski's kick, though, clanged off the right upright.
Still, Seattle led 7-3 at the end of the first quarter with Mahomes looking off his game _ he was 2-of-8 for just 25 yards in the first quarter, at one point simply overthrowing a wide-open Travis Kelce in the end zone.
But Mahomes found his stride on Kansas City's third drive, hitting Kelce on a 17-yard pass to the 2 that then set up his TD toss to Williams on the next play.
That put Kansas City ahead 10-7 with 11:21 to play in the second quarter.
It began to look ominous when the Seahawks had to punt on their next series.
But then the Seahawks got a big break when Dion Jordan forced a fumble of Kansas City's Damien Williams that Jarran Reed recovered at the 21.
A few plays later, Seattle got another break when Kansas City cornerback Charvarius Ward was called for a pass interference penalty on Doug Baldwin in the end zone on a third-and-4 play.
The Chiefs challenged that the pass had been tipped, but the original call stood. The Seahawks scored two plays later on a 1-yard pass from Wilson to Nick Vannett that put Seattle up 14-10 with 5:26 left in the first half.
That's where the half ended, with each team ruing a blown chance.
Seattle got to Kansas City's 38 on its last possession before being stopped and punting.
Mahomes then hit Chris Conley on a 23-yard pass to the Seattle 47 with time running down in the half before Justin Coleman forced a fumble that bounded far into Seahawks territory, and Delano Hill recovered it at the 22 with 10 seconds left.
Seattle had 126 yards rushing on 24 carries in the first half holding the ball for 17:23, the kind of formula the team knew it needed against the Chiefs' high-flying offense.
