Seahawks had to know Blair Walsh issues would surface, but will they keep Seattle out of the playoffs?

Only six NFC teams make the playoffs, so the Seahawks are on the outside looking in. Fortunately for them, Blair Walsh has only temporarily kicked them wide left of the playoff picture.

The duck-hook is a little more deadly in the finality of mid-January.

Seattle would be sitting in the fourth seed if Walsh hadn't missed wide left three times in the first half of a 17-14 loss to Washington on Sunday. The third miss closed the first half, sending Walsh to the locker room under a shower of boos from an angry 12th man at CenturyLink Field.

Walsh had started the season so well, making 12 of 13 attempts. But, let's face it, he was going to remain a risky signing for a perennial playoff contender regardless of how his regular season went. And if any team knew this, it's Seattle, which benefitted from Walsh missing wide left from 27 yards in the closing seconds of the Vikings' 10-9 wild-card playoff loss in January of 2016.

Walsh never recovered mentally from that playoff miss. After months of saying all the right things to try and support Walsh, the Vikings had no choice but to release him and sign Kai Forbath after nine games last season.

The words out of Seattle since Sunday sound familiar. Coach Pete Carroll said he has confidence in Walsh and isn't bringing in kickers to try out. Walsh said the elements weren't a factor and that he just needs to make the kick. Teammates were supportive.

"Nobody's perfect," running back Thomas Rawls said.

The first miss from 44 yards was way left. The next two from 39 and 49 were near misses that hooked late.

Knowing Walsh and how he overanalyzed every minute detail of the wind patterns at TCF Bank Stadium, he probably overcorrected for wind that never gusted. And now one has to wonder what Seattle is in for over the next eight games starting Thursday night in Arizona.

"I doubt he's going back into a struggle," said Vikings long-snapper Kevin McDermott, who stays in touch with Walsh. "People just sometimes have off games. That happens."

Forbath didn't watch any football on Sunday, but heard about Walsh's first-half nightmare.

"You feel for him," Forbath said. "It's tough. You want to see him bounce right back after a miss. But I'm sure he'll be fine. He's a great kicker. I'm sure he'll be just fine."

The Rams have the best situation with Greg Zuerlein, who has made an NFL-high 24 of 25 field goal attempts and all 27 PATs.

Forbath is tied for second in the league with 21 made field goals in 22 attempts.

But …

He remains a mystery.

Sunday will be his 16th game as a Viking. He has made 36 of 37 field goal attempts. Yet he's missed seven of 30 PATs, including four of 16 this season. Two of his PATs were blocked, including one this year.

Makes sense. After all, as a Viking, Forbath is 9 for 9 from 40 to 49 yards and 5 for 5 from 50 and farther.

But I asked him if playing mind games like that can backfire. Can trying to deemphasize something cause one to overemphasize it?

"I don't know why it would," Forbath said. "It doesn't when I kick field goals."

Either way, as Forbath wrestles with the one-pointers his predecessor has three times the problem for a team that had to know this day of uncertainty was coming sooner or later.

Mark Craig is an NFL and Vikings Insider. Twitter: @markcraigNFL