The Seattle Seahawks have been the most dominant team in the NFC over the last two seasons by far. Back-to-back Super Bowl appearances and a Super Bowl victory back that claim up. Pete Carroll's squad is trying to become the first team since the 1990s Buffalo Bills to make three consecutive championship appearances.

But this year is going to be a little different. The road to the Super Bowl doesn't run through CenturyLink Field like it did the previous two years.

The Seahawks have been the single most dominant home team in that stretch with a perfect 4-0 record at home in the playoffs. The Seahawks only playoff loss in the last two years was the Super Bowl defeat against the New England Patriots.

Not only will the Seahawks not be playing at home this postseason, but they will have to play an extra game in the wild card round. In each of the last two seasons, the Seahawks earned the No. 1 seed, thus giving them a bye week in the first round. That's not going to happen this year.

As of now, the Seahawks are the No. 5 seed in the NFC. If the season were to end today, the Seahawks would play the No. 4 seed Washington Redskins. That should be a victory for Seattle, but that's no short trip to the east coast.

After that, Richard Sherman and the Seahawks may have to travel all the way back west to face the Arizona Cardinals, and then all the way back east to Charlotte to take on the No. 1 seed Carolina Panthers. That's a lot of frequent flyer miles.

The only way the Seahawks will play a single home playoff game this postseason is if the No. 6 seed Minnesota Vikings advance by beating the No. 3 seed Green Bay Packers. Don't bet on that happening.

Let's also not forget the Seahawks haven't been their usual dominant selves this year at home. They lost to the Cardinals and Panthers at home this year, both of whom are higher seeds.

Still, this is a very resilient squad with a lot of experience. Russell Wilson is playing better than we've ever seen him perform before. Wilson now has 29 touchdowns and seven interceptions with an exceptional 111.4 passer rating.

The Seahawks are leaning more on their offense this year than we've seen in the past as well. Protection for Wilson has also been improving steadily over the last month and a half, as sacks have decreased big time.

The Seahawks entered the last two postseasons as the favorites, but this is going to be a different journey. If they can win in Arizona, Green Bay and Carolina against divisional winners and then go on to win the Super Bowl, they would prove so many doubters wrong. Many NFL experts don't think the Seahawks can win three road games to get to the Super Bowl.

Follow Damon Salvadore on Twitter @DamonSalvadore1