High-flying Seahawks earn playoff spot by rolling 49ers

• The Seahawks clinched a playoff spot with a 42-13 win against the 49ers on Sunday.
• Russell Wilson threw three touchdown passes, including two to Doug Baldwin.
• The 49ers fell a game behind the Packers for the NFC's No. 2 seed.

SEATTLE – No one in the NFL can be having any more fun right now than the Seattle Seahawks.

For three consecutive weeks, the Seahawks have played the type of games normally reserved for video games, with points upon points upon points, repeated you've-got-to-be-kidding-me catches, quarterback scrambles that seem to last forever.

Things have been going so right for the Seahawks lately that this is a team that even scores touchdowns on opponent's field goal attempts.

The Seahawks clinched a playoff spot Sunday night with a 42-13 win against the San Francisco 49ers in a game that was over as soon as 323-pound defensive tackle Red Bryant leaped to block a field goal attempt by David Akers less than a minute into the second quarter. Cornerback Richard Sherman scooped up the loose ball and ran 90 yards for at touchdown to give Seattle a 21-0 lead just 55 seconds into the second quarter.

The NFC West won't be decided until next week – San Francisco can still claim it with a win against Arizona – but there is no doubt who is the division's hottest team.

Seattle has scored 150 points in the past three weeks, 58 against Arizona, 50 against Buffalo and, most impressively, 42 against a San Francisco team that before Sunday had the league's top-ranked scoring defense at only 15.6 points per game.

The Seahawks have an elite running back in Marshawn Lynch, a dominant defense that has held opponents to an average of 11.75 points per game over the last month, and a quarterback in rookie Russell Wilson who just might be the league's most exciting player.

Sunday, just as it has been the previous two weeks, looked effortless, even though rookie quarterback Wilson was adamant that it hasn't been easy.

"I think it shows how talented we are, and how we're prepared for the rest of the season," Wilson said. "To be able to do that in the fashion we did is pretty special."

Bryant's block and Sherman's touchdown return were hardly the end of the Seahawks' fun as they beat the 49ers for the first time since Sept. 12, 2010. Wilson threw for four touchdowns, running back Marshawn Lynch rushed for 111 yards and scored twice (on a 24-yard run, and a 9-yard catch) and receiver Doug Baldwin caught two touchdowns.

After Baldwin's second score, on a six-yard pass from Wilson midway through the fourth quarter, Sherman sprinted onto the field to celebrate. Across the field, Jim Harbaugh, who coached both Baldwin and Sherman at Stanford, seethed.

"We didn't coach well enough, we didn't play well enough," said Harbaugh, who celebrated his 49th birthday on Sunday.

With the loss, San Francisco fell a game behind Green Bay for the No. 2 seed in the NFC, and needs to beat Arizona next week to win the NFC West. Seattle clinched at least a wild card spot, and could win the division next week by beating the Rams along with a 49ers loss to Arizona.

Between now and then, Seattle expects to learn the result of Sherman's appeal to the NFL for his four-game suspension for a violation of the banned substance policy.

Sherman flew to New York City on Thursday to attend Friday's hearing said Sunday night that he argued there was a "chain of custody mistake" with his urine sample that led to a positive test for Adderall.

"The league's argument was they are allowed to make mistakes, and they're allowed to break the rules and they can get away with it," Sherman said. "It's up to them. The appeal officer is paid by the league, so if he goes there way, that's what it is. It's not an even playing field in the appeal room."

Seattle will get cornerback Brandon Browner, serving his own four-game suspension, back for the first game of the playoffs, but losing Sherman would be a major blow. In addition to his special teams touchdown Sunday, Sherman's fourth-quarter interception was his seventh interception of the season, tied for second-most in the NFL.

But those are questions for later.

On Sunday night, nothing could bother the Seahawks, especially not a San Francisco defensive line that obviously missed defensive tackle Justin Smith, who was ruled out with an elbow injury.

Seattle called a running play right at Smith's replacement, Ricky Jean Francois, on their second play of the game. Lynch took that handoff 24 yards for the game's first touchdown.

Without Smith to help occupy blockers, San Francisco defensive end Aldon Smith was a non-factor. Aldon Smith was held without a sack for the second consecutive game, and remains at 19.5 sacks for the season, three shy of Michael Strahan's single-season record.

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