A little luck goes a long way

Ahh, those tiebreakers, they can be a lot of fun, can’t they?

After spending the past week listening to all kinds of different scenarios, numbers and what-ifs, all that stuff takes a backseat now.

TO BE fair, there might not be a lot of different ways to settle a tie for a league title in soccer.

Total goals, that might not work. Head-to-head matches, maybe?

In the case of the tie between Post Falls and Coeur d’Alene, it came down to a coin flip.

Yes, a coin flip.

After a season of playing games for 80 minutes a day, sometimes in rain, others in the heat, all it took was someone to call heads or tails to determine seeding for today’s 5A Region 1 semifinal matches.

So today, after a week in limbo, Coeur d’Alene hosts Lewiston and Post Falls likewise with Lake City, both at 2:30 p.m., with today’s winners clinching berths to the state 5A tournament Oct. 24-26 in the Meridian and Eagle area. State seeding will be determined with the regional championship match next Thursday.

No word if a suggestion to have the opposing athletic directors take penalty kicks will be adopted to the tiebreakers next year.

Some sports, such as football with its Kansas tiebreaker, let the players settle it on the field.

If you haven’t seen or heard of one of those, in the teams line up at the 25-yard line and try to score on the other team. Both teams get a chance to possess the ball, and the teams play until someone makes a stop on defense.

Not sure if that kind of tiebreaker is the best way to determine a league champion, but I’ll admit, that one in the snow between Mullan and Kootenai all those years ago in a snowstorm might still be the best 25 minutes of football I’ve seen.

They don’t make basketball teams shoot free throws to determine seeding to a postseason tournament.

Though if it gets to that point, that might not be the worst thing I’ve ever heard of.

TO SAY that the NFL season has played out exactly as some believed, you’d be lying.

Especially in the case of the Seattle Seahawks, and a 4-1 start.

Seattle is 2-0 on the road and 3-1 at home. Seattle likely should be 1-2, or 0-3 at home — imagine losing three straight games at CenturyLink Field — had it not been for a few lucky breaks against the Bengals and Rams.

But on the road, the Seahawks have played like the Super Bowl contender that some believed they could be when the team acquired Jadeveon Clowney in a trade from the Texans.

Sure, those wins came against a Pittsburgh team without its quarterback and Arizona with a first-year quarterback learning on the job, but they still have been a lot better on the road than at home this year.

Amazing to think that with the way Seattle has played at home in the last decade it would better off on the road than home.

Then again, if that’s the weirdest thing that happens with the Seahawks this year, that might be fine.

It’s better to be lucky than bad.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at (208) 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @JECdAPress.