The Seattle Seahawks saved their slim NFC West division hopes alive on Thursday evening 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.
Model factors don’t matter for Seahawks
They need to even be very grateful for that.
After shedding 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 evening was ending with extra factors than the Bears.
They did.
It may not have been fairly.
It may need been ugly.
They may have misplaced to virtually another group in soccer.
It may not have been an encouraging efficiency late within the season with every thing on the road.
However they acquired it executed.
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 might 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 in a position to put the group on its again and carry it with a dominant effort in opposition to a Bears group that seemed as dysfunctional as an NFL group might presumably look.
Seattle entered the sport permitting 22.7 factors per recreation, thirteenth within the NFL, and never solely restricted the Bears to simply three factors in a must-win recreation, 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 unhealthy the Bears seemed on this recreation 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 group.”
It isn’t exhausting to know the frustration of the followers.
It isn’t simply that the Bears preserve shedding. It’s that they preserve discovering new methods to lose, particularly late in video games.
On Thursday, it was baffling clock administration late within the recreation that noticed interim head coach Thomas Brown and rookie quarterback Caleb Williams look to be utterly 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 honest to marvel if the present entrance workplace can really construct round him and provides him the help he must develop.
Bears followers deserve higher than this
Though the Bears entered the sport 4-11 and on a nine-game shedding streak, and although it was the day after Christmas, 40 levels and raining, Bears followers nonetheless utterly packed Soldier Area and created a festive, playoff environment the place no one 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.
