The Seattle Seahawks stored their slim NFC West division hopes alive on Thursday night time with a 6-3 win over the Chicago Bears.
Now they should get some assistance on Sunday within the type of a Los Angeles Rams loss to the Arizona Cardinals to arrange a possible winner-take-all Week 18 matchup between the Seahawks and Rams for the division.
Listed below are 4 takeaways from the Seahawks win.
Fashion factors don’t matter for Seahawks
They need to even be very grateful for that.
After dropping two video games in a row and going through lengthy odds to win the division (and make the playoffs), the one factor the Seahawks needed to concern themselves with on Thursday night time was ending with extra factors than the Bears.
They did.
It won’t have been fairly.
It may need been ugly.
They may have misplaced to nearly every other staff in soccer.
It won’t have been an encouraging efficiency late within the season with the whole lot on the road.
However they obtained it performed.
Now at 9-7 they need to get some assist to win the division. If the Rams don’t lose to the Cardinals on Sunday, the Seahawks wouldn’t solely have to beat the Rams in Week 18, they’d additionally want a number of groups across the league (a few of which aren’t even near the playoffs themselves) to win so as to safe the power of victory tiebreaker the Seahawks would want to win the division.
Seattle’s protection got here by means of
Whereas Seattle’s offense had a dud of a efficiency, the protection was capable of put the staff on its again and carry it with a dominant effort towards a Bears staff that seemed as dysfunctional as an NFL staff may presumably look.
Seattle entered the sport permitting 22.7 factors per sport, thirteenth within the NFL, and never solely restricted the Bears to only three factors in a must-win sport, it additionally allowed simply 11 first downs, 179 yards and solely 3.1 yards per play, whereas additionally recording seven sacks and much more pressures.
The Bears are a multitude
It’s troublesome to place into phrases simply how dangerous the Bears seemed on this sport and the way bleak the state of affairs is.
Not solely did Thursday’s loss drop the Bears to 4-12 total, it’s their tenth loss in a row and noticed them leaving the sector to a refrain of boos and chants of “promote the staff.”
It isn’t onerous to grasp the frustration of the followers.
It isn’t simply that the Bears maintain dropping. It’s that they maintain discovering new methods to lose, particularly late in video games.
On Thursday, it was baffling clock administration late within the sport that noticed interim head coach Thomas Brown and rookie quarterback Caleb Williams look to be fully out of their component. The Bears’ clock administration was so dangerous on their closing drive they used two timeouts with the clock already stopped (together with on a fourth down play the place the Bears initially lined as much as punt) and allowed 20 seconds to run off earlier than snapping the ball after they had a number of timeouts remaining.
Williams reveals flashes of brilliance, however the whole lot round him is so dangerous it’s truthful to surprise if the present entrance workplace can really construct round him and provides him the help he must develop.
Bears followers deserve higher than this
Regardless that the Bears entered the sport 4-11 and on a nine-game dropping streak, and regardless that it was the day after Christmas, 40 levels and raining, Bears followers nonetheless fully packed Soldier Area and created a festive, playoff environment the place no person left early.
That doesn’t occur in all places in those self same settings. They’re determined for a winner. They’re craving it. They demand it. They need it. All they get again in return is constant incompetence.
