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Improbably, Russell Wilson, Seahawks can be one game out of playoff spot with win Monday

Mediocrity remains the Seahawks’ best friend.

Not only have they been playing in a wholly mediocre way, or worse, for most of this season — much of their conference has, too.

The Seahawks sat in their hotel rooms on the edge of the University of Maryland’s campus Sunday realizing the improbable is true: Despite being 3-7, Seattle can move to just one game out of a playoff spot in the NFC it it wins at Washington (4-6) in suburban D.C. Monday night.

It’s as unbelievable as it is true: The team that entered Sunday 15th among 16 teams in the NFC, ahead of only winless Detroit, can still be in contention by ending Tyler Heinicke’s and Washington’s two-game winning streak Monday in Landover, Maryland.

“We need all the run game, the pass game. We need the third downs, red zones to light it up,” quarterback Russell Wilson said before his third game returning from finger surgery on his throwing hand. “We need everything.

“We can do it.”

New Orleans’ losing on Thanksgiving night at home to Buffalo made the winner of Sunday’s Minnesota-at-San Francisco game the sixth of seven playoff seeds in the conference. The 49ers improved to 6-5 by beating the Vikings.

Minnesota (5-6) is ahead of Atlanta (5-6) and the Saints (5-6) for the seventh and final, wild-card playoff seed. That’s because of the Vikings’ better conference record. Philadelphia and Carolina are both 5-7 and have yet to have their bye weeks.

So once again, the NFC has only six teams above .500 yet seven spots for the postseason.

Seattle is still behind in tiebreakers, such as having already lost to Minnesota and New Orleans. Yet as November ends, results elsewhere continue to break the Seahawks’ way — even though they’ve won just one game (over 2-9 Jacksonville) since the first week of October.

From coach Pete Carroll and wide receiver DK Metcalf through captains Wilson and Bobby Wagner, the Seahawks have spent the past week talking about going 7-0 to finish the regular season, which would put them at 10-7 and likely in the playoffs.

“Yeah, that’s what it is. You’ve got to win one game at a time, but that’s got to be your mentality,” Wilson said. “It’s kind of like an early playoffs. It’s like March Madness, but you’re in late November, December time.

“You’ve got to win them. The guys who have the right mentality, the teams who have the right mentality with that approach, that’s what it is. We don’t shy away from the conversation. I know we stay focused on one at a time, but that’s definitely a really thought process in our head. Let’s go. That’s definitely been a part of the conversation.”

Wilson says his middle finger on his right hand repaired in surgery Oct. 8 gets better each day. His deep passes looked better last week in Seattle’s home loss to Arizona than they did fluttering and floating in his first game back, at Green Bay Nov. 14.

The quarterback said he’s had his wife helping with his healing.

“I’m consistently every day doing stuff. Now it’s just part of my routine, part of my program, part of my system,” Wilson said. “Sometimes I’m like, ‘Ciara, can you run downstairs?’ or ‘Can you help me real fast?’ Every once in a while, I’ll have Ciara help me or whatever it may be.

“I’m just constantly working on it. That’s just the dedication to the craft and what you want to do, how you want to be able to dedicate to the game.”

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson (3) looks up at the video board as a play in reviews by the officials during the third quarter of an NFL game against the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday afternoon at Lumen Field in Seattle. The referee crew was reviewing the interception and return by Seattle Seahawks cornerback Sidney Jones (23). The interception was overruled by the officials and Arizona was retained possession of the ball.

Wilson and the Seahawks will be without starting left guard Damien Lewis Monday night. He is out after he dislocated his shoulder the previous week against the Cardinals. Kyle Fuller, benched as the starting center after seven games, is likely to start for Lewis at Washington.

Seattle promoted guard Phil Haynes from the practice squad on Saturday. But Carroll said the team likes that Fuller has been starting most of this season.