Improbable as was the Seattle Seahawks’ fourth-quarter rally to beat the Rams on Thursday night, it won’t rank as the most improbable of this NFL season.
Recall that the Broncos came back from a 26-8 deficit with 6:38 remaining to beat the New York Giants 33-32 in October.
Thursday’s comeback also probably can’t be called the biggest in Seahawks’ history.
Given the stakes of the game, that title might always go to the 2015 NFC Championship Game when Seattle rallied from a 16-0 deficit in the third quarter and 19-7 late in the fourth quarter before winning 28-22 in overtime to advance to the Super Bowl.
But in terms of Seahawks’ regular-season history, Thursday’s comeback ranks among the best, and if Seattle goes on to take the No. 1 seed in the NFC might be considered right at the top in terms of drama, wow factor and importance.
Only six times in the 797 games the Seahawks have played have they rallied from more than the 16 points they did Thursday to win a game.
Here’s a look at each of those games in order of the deficit they faced — and how Matthew Stafford played a role before Thursday night:
21 — Seattle 27, Tampa Bay 24 (OT), Nov. 3, 2013
While the 2013 team had the greatest margin of victory in team history at 11.6, it also pulled off two of the six greatest comebacks in team history.
This one tops the list — a game that in some ways is more inexplicable for the fact that Seattle had to come back from three touchdowns in the first place than the comeback itself.
The Seahawks, who entered the game at 7-1, were 14.5-point favorites against a Tampa Bay team that entered 0-7.
But with the whole team seemingly in sleepwalk mode after beating the Rams the previous Monday, Russell Wilson threw an interception on the first series of the game, which set a tone.
The defense for some reason couldn’t stop an offense led by Mike Glennon. Two long scoring drives by the Bucs and a fumble by Jermaine Kearse on a kickoff return led to another quick score and had Seattle down 21-0 late in the second quarter.
But Wilson and Kearse made up for it, connecting on a TD pass right before halftime that began to turn the tide as the defense stiffened.
A Wilson TD pass to Doug Baldwin with 1:56 left forced overtime. After the defense got a stop on the first series of OT, Marshawn Lynch carried six times for 44 yards to set up a 27-yard Stephen Hauschka field goal to win it.
In a season in which the Seahawks got the No. 1 seed by one game over the Panthers and 49ers, every game was critical.
20 — Seattle 31, Denver 27, Dec. 10, 1995
The Dennis Erickson era didn’t have a lot of highlights overall. But it did have the biggest comeback in team history through its first 38 years.
The Broncos led 20-3 early in the third quarter and had a first-and-goal at the Seattle 5 when the game turned suddenly. Cornerback Robert Blackmon blitzed and hit John Elway hard to force a fumble that Antonio Edwards picked up and returned 83 yards for a touchdown. That was the longest fumble return in team history until Rayshawn Jenkins’ 102-yarder last season.
Seattle still trailed 27-17 with just over seven minutes left when QB John Friesz — taking over for an injured Rick Mirer — led consecutive TD drives of 76 and 56 yards, the winning TD coming on a 20-yard pass to Chris Warren with 49 seconds remaining. Friesz completed 12 of 20 passes for 157 yards and two TDs in the fourth quarter. The win kept alive faint playoff hopes that would end two weeks later.
18 — Seattle 22, Raiders 21, Dec. 14, 1997
Maybe give Erickson credit for rallying the troops. Having lost four in a row to derail a promising season, a Seahawks team that would finish 8-8 fell behind 21-3 on a rainy day in Oakland in a game that was also the first career start for Jon Kitna.
But after a shaky first quarter or so, Kitna rallied and finished with 283 yards as Seattle clawed back.
The Seahawks also benefited from a dubious decision by the Raiders to pass up a short field goal that would have put them up five midway through the fourth quarter to go for the dagger on a fourth-and-one. A Jeff George pass instead fell incomplete and Kitna led a drive capped by a 49-yard Todd Peterson field goal with 2:20 left that won it against a Raiders team that finished 4-12.
18 — Seattle 24, Pittsburgh 21, Nov. 8, 1981
The Seahawks were already in the midst of a lost season at 2-7 when they fell behind the Steelers — who were on the downside of the Steel Curtain era — 21-3 late in the second quarter.
But the Seahawks picked off Terry Bradshaw twice while Jim Zorn got hot and Seattle scored 21 unanswered points, including two 1-yard TD runs by Theotis Brown, to take a 24-21 lead midway through the fourth quarter.
In the final moments, Bradshaw led the Steelers to the Seattle 5-yard line facing a fourth down and “about a foot,’’ according to The Seattle Times’ account the following day.
Chuck Noll could have tried to go for the win and hand the ball to Franco Harris, who earlier in the game had passed the 10,000-yard mark for his career, becoming the third running back to do so.
Instead, he called on rookie David Akers to try a 22-yard field goal and force overtime with 19 seconds left.
Only, somehow the kick missed and Seattle escaped.
Making matters worse for the Steelers — who would finish 8-8 — their charter flight got fogged in and they couldn’t leave until Monday.
With the night free, backup quarterback Cliff Stoudt “fractured the ulna bone in his right forearm in a Seattle bar on a punching bag that measures strength,’’ according to a newspaper story the next day and was sidelined for the year.
17 — Seattle 23, Houston 20 (OT), Sept. 29, 2013
A 3-0 Seahawks team coming off back-to-back routs of the 49ers and Jaguars by a combined 74-20 score, hardly looked like future Super Bowl champs at Houston, falling behind 20-3 at halftime and still trailing 20-6 early in the fourth quarter.
But the Seahawks used a 98-yard drive in which they converted a fourth-and-three to cut the lead to 20-13. A Wilson interception on the next drive seemed like a killer.
But then in one of the most memorable plays of the season, Richard Sherman stepped in front of a Matt Schaub pass on an out route and while losing a shoe, returned it 58 yards for a tying TD with 2:40 left.
Houston had two possessions in OT but never got out of its own territory before the Seahawks on their second possession of OT got in position for a 48-yard Hauschka field goal that won it with just 3:23 left.
17 — Seattle 32, Detroit 20, Nov. 8, 2009
The dreary end of the one-year Jim Mora era offered one highlight when the Seahawks rallied from an early 17-0 deficit — keyed by two Seattle turnovers that led to short-field TDs — to beat a Lions team that was coming off an 0-16 season and would finish 2-14.
It helped that Detroit’s quarterback — none other than a rookie named Matthew Stafford — threw five interceptions. That remains his career high.
Seattle scored 25 straight to take the lead and clinched the game when Josh Wilson returned the last of Stafford’s picks 61 yards for a TD with 22 seconds left.
Seattle has two 16-point comebacks — Thursday night and the 2015 Packers game and no others of more than 14.
Big comebacks, of course, tend to be followed by claims of a team’s heart, grit and perseverance, which makes it interesting that four of the biggest six in Seattle history came in non-playoff, nonwinning seasons.
More tangible themes are big plays that suddenly turn the tide and often on special teams — Jon Ryan’s fake field-goal pass for a TD equals Rashid Shaheed’s punt return for a TD? — and usually a few things that just aren’t easily explained.