Seahawks vs. Vikings

Few things are as great as the NFL playoffs, and nothing is as great as football in the snow and freezing cold, so Seahawks-Vikings on Sunday should be awesome.

For every one of us watching in the warm confines of our home, that is.

Seattle and Minnesota are facing sub-zero temperatures in what projects to be one of the coldest games in NFL history. Right now, Weather.com has a high of 0 degrees and a low of -9 for Minneapolis on Sunday. Of course, that’s before considering wind chill (fortunately, the game will kick off at 12:05 p.m. local time).

There have been only nine games in NFL history where the temperature never rose above 0.

The coldest home game ever for the Vikings was Dec. 3, 1972 against Chicago, per the Star Tribune, where temperatures were -2 degrees (the sixth-coldest game ever in league history).

Luckily, the Seahawks and Vikings won’t be making a run at the NFL record for freezing. The coldest game ever, of course, was the 1967 title game at Lambeau Field — the “Ice Bowl” — where the Packers and Cowboys faced -13 degrees and a wind chill of -48.

Something tells me Pete Carroll will still be running around the Seattle sideline like a kid no matter what the temperature is.

In a surprise move, the Seattle Seahawks have downgraded running back Marshawn Lynch to out for Sunday’s NFC wild-card playoff game against the Minnesota Vikings.

Lynch has not played in a game since Nov. 15, and he underwent abdominal surgery Nov. 25. He had been rehabbing in San Francisco but rejoined the team for workouts and practices this week.

But following the team’s final workout at its practice facility Friday, the Seahawks said, Lynch notified them that he could not play Sunday. He did not travel with the team to Minneapolis later in the day.

According to a source, Lynch did not suffer any kind of setback with his injury during Friday’s practice.

Signs had pointed to Lynch being the starter and getting the bulk of the carries against the Vikings, with coach Pete Carroll saying during his weekly appearance Friday morning on KIRO 97.3 FM that “he’s going to play.”

But Carroll toned down his comments following Friday’s practice.

“We’ve got to go tomorrow, make sure that he’s OK after today, that same old thing,” he said. “We’ll see how he’s taken to the week’s work and all of that. He looked good during the week and did some really good stuff, so we’ll just use all of the time that we have available.

“So I have not said yet that he’s playing. I know that’s been out there, but I don’t know really until we finish the week. He’s looked really good, and we’re hoping, so very optimistic about that.”

Lynch was listed as a full participant in practice all three days this week.

He appeared in seven games during the regular season, carrying 111 times for 417 yards (3.76 yards per carry).

The Seahawks now will go forward with running backs Christine Michael and Bryce Brown. Michael has carried 39 times for 192 yards (4.92 YPC) since rejoining the Seahawks late in the season. Brown has carried 25 times for 72 yards (2.88 YPC).

Lynch’s absence will mean a showdown against NFL leading rusher Adrian Peterson is all for naught. According to ESPN Stats & Information, Peterson has 93 career playoff rushes; the running backs available for Seattle on Sunday, including Michael and Brown, have none.