The Seattle Seahawks saved 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 here are 4 takeaways from the Seahawks win.
Model factors don’t matter for Seahawks
They need to even be very grateful for that.
After dropping two video games in a row and dealing with 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 may not have been fairly.
It might need been ugly.
They may have misplaced to nearly some other workforce in soccer.
It may not have been an encouraging efficiency late within the season with every thing on the road.
However they obtained it accomplished.
Now at 9-7 they must get some assist to win the division. If the Rams don’t lose to the Cardinals on Sunday, the Seahawks wouldn’t solely must 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 to be able to safe the energy of victory tiebreaker the Seahawks would want to win the division.
Seattle’s protection got here via
Whereas Seattle’s offense had a dud of a efficiency, the protection was in a position to put the workforce on its again and carry it with a dominant effort towards a Bears workforce that seemed as dysfunctional as an NFL workforce 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 large number
It’s tough to place into phrases simply how unhealthy 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 sphere to a refrain of boos and chants of “promote the workforce.”
It isn’t laborious to know the frustration of the followers.
It isn’t simply that the Bears hold dropping. It’s that they hold 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 unhealthy 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 exhibits flashes of brilliance, however every thing round him is so unhealthy 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 Discipline and created a festive, playoff ambiance the place no one left early.
That doesn’t occur in every single place 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.
