Sure, you're frustrated, but do you really want the Seahawks to lose Sunday?

No one aspires to be the first nine-loss playoff team.

And it's fair for you to wonder whether an NFL team that has lost all nine games by 15 or more points has any business saying "postseason" let alone playing in it.

So it's understandable that most of you who responded to a poll on The Seattle Times' website Sunday and Monday said you'd prefer Seattle lose the regular-season finale to St. Louis. You've had a bellyful of the Seahawks' belly flops. You'd rather clean gutters than spend another Sunday in the woodshed. Better for the Seahawks to move along into the offseason with a better draft pick and without the ridicule that would come from making the playoffs at 7-9.

But to hope for the team to lose? Really? You want the Seahawks' division rival to come to Qwest Field and clinch that franchise's first playoff berth in six years?

Rams rookie Sam Bradford has had a heck of a rookie season, the best of any quarterback in the division. He looks very much like the franchise quarterback the Rams picked him to be. Would it be good for Seattle in the long run if his first visit to Qwest Field results in a prime-time victory that cinches a playoff berth?

Now, there is a draft consideration. Should the Seahawks make the playoffs at 7-9, they could choose no better than No. 21 overall in the first round because playoff teams are allocated the final 12 spots of the first round, even if a non-playoff team has a better overall record.

Only five teams are guaranteed to have a worse record than Seattle, but as many as 10 teams could finish with more losses than the Seahawks even with a loss to the Rams.

Are 10 draft spots worth foregoing the excitement and momentum of a playoff game, especially when you consider that Randy Moss, Nate Clements and Vince Wilfork are all players chosen No. 21 overall in the past 12 years?

This isn't the NBA, where one player can make all the difference and every draft has a steep dropoff from the two, maybe three, franchise players to the next tier of serviceable players.

The Seahawks won't be in position to have their choice of quarterbacks no matter what happens this weekend. This franchise is not one player away from being a finished product.

Making the playoffs won't erase what has happened the past two months. It won't change the fact there is drastic improvement and upgrades needed on both sides of the ball.

But didn't everyone know that entering the season? Considering the expectations for this team, the surprise isn't that Seattle stands at 6-9 now, but that it ever stood at 4-2.

Now the Seahawks stare at the possibility of becoming a playoff team without being bowl eligible. But winning this finale would do more than offer an historical footnote to Pete Carroll's first season with Seattle. It would be a step in the right direction, however small, against a team Seattle is going to be competing against for years.

It wouldn't change everything about this season, but it would mellow the bitter aftertaste of these past two months.

Danny O'Neil: 206-464-2364 or doneil@seattletimes.com