The Seahawks kept their division title hopes alive with Thursday night’s 6-3 victory over the Bears. But Seattle still needs some help to capture the NFC West and make the postseason.
That starts with Saturday night’s matchup between the Cardinals and Rams. If Los Angeles wins, the team can clinch the NFC West by also capturing the strength of victory tiebreaker through the rest of the Week 17 slate.
That’s part of why Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith shouted out Arizona’s quarterback in his postgame press conference on Thursday.
“Honestly, we shouldn’t be in this position,” Smith said. “That’s the main thing. Understanding that we got to control our destiny when we can, yeah, I’m going to be a big Kyler Murray fan on Saturday. If they get it done, they get it done.
“We’re going to go into the last week of the season with the same mindset no matter what.”
The 7-8 Cardinals have been eliminated from postseason contention, but as Murray put it, that doesn’t change the approach.
“I love this game. I take pride in every snap I play,” Murray said earlier this week. “There won’t be any foot off the gas or going out there just playing for no reason. I personally have a reason to play, and I know the guys will feel the same way.”
We’ll see if Murray and the Cardinals can play spoiler on Saturday night.
Thursday night’s 6-3 Seahawks win was ugly, but it beat the hell out of the alternative.
Seattle’s playoff hopes have been shrinking by the week and no result guaranteed their playoff hopes would be alive heading into Week 18, but winning gave them the best shot and that was what quarterback Geno Smith focused on after the game. Smith was sacked three times while leading the offense to two field goals, six punts and a turnover over the course of their game against the Bears, but the final score called them winners and that was a happy enough ending for the quarterback.
“It’s not always going to be sunshine and rainbows,” Smith said, via the team’s website. “Gutting out a 6-3 win feels just as good as winning the Game 44-41. It’s all good getting wins.”
If the Rams lose to the Cardinals on Saturday, the Seahawks will be playing for the division title in Week 18. That will also be the case if the Rams win and don’t get a combined 3.5 wins from the Bengals, Bills, Browns, Vikings, Commanders, and 49ers this weekend.
The Seahawks can’t control those outcomes, but they could control what happened Thursday night. Ugly or not, they got the result they needed and no one will be crying about it if things go their way the next two weekends.
The Rams can clinch the NFC West this week. But it won’t be easy.
After the Seahawks’ win on Thursday night, the Rams’ only path to a Week 17 clinching scenario is both to beat the Cardinals on Saturday night, and to clinch the strength of victory tiebreaker over the Seahawks.
So how do the Rams clinch the strength of victory tiebreaker? They need at least 3.5 wins (i.e., at least three wins and a tie) from the following six teams: Vikings, Bills, 49ers, Commanders, Bengals, Browns.
Four of those teams are favorites: The Bengals are 3.5-point favorites to beat the Broncos, the Bills are 9-point favorites to beat the Jets, the Commanders are 4-point favorites to beat the Falcons and the Vikings are 1-point favorites to beat the Packers. The 49ers are 3.5-point underdogs against the Lions. The Browns are 6.5-point underdogs against the Dolphins.
So can the Rams get a win and four other games to go their way? If the betting odds are right, they can, and they’ll be celebrating an NFC West title on Sunday. If not, the NFC West will come down to Week 18, when the Seahawks will travel to Los Angeles to take on the Rams.
The Seahawks and Bears played the NFL’s lowest-scoring game of the season on Thursday Night Football.
The final score of Seahawks 6, Bears 3 gave a total of just nine points, a full touchdown less than the previous lowest-scoring game of the 2024 season, which was Jaguars 10, Titans 6 in Week 14.
The Seahawks’ six points were the fewest for a winning team this season; the Bears were the 10th team this season to score three or fewer points in a loss.
NFL offenses have been particularly ugly during Christmas week: The first shutout of this season happened on Monday night, when the Saints lost to the Packers 34-0. And the second-fewest points scored by any team this season happened on Wednesday, when the Texans lost to the Ravens 31-2.
The last time two NFL teams combined to score less than nine points in a game was Week 14 of 2023, when the Vikings beat the Raiders 3-0.
On a rainy night in Chicago, the Bears and Seahawks combined for 10 sacks, 13 punts, 444 yards and nine points. The Seahawks won 6-3 in one of the worst games in the NFL this season.
Seattle moved to 9-7 in ending a two-game losing streak, and Chicago fell to 4-12 with a 10th consecutive loss.
The Bears’ last chance came with 5:12 left on their own 11. They drove to the Seattle 40, converting a fourth-and-5 with a 14-yard pass from Caleb Williams to DJ Moore and a third-and-14 with a 15-yard throw from Williams to Rome Odunze.
But the Bears, who mismanaged the clock, had their comeback hopes dashed when Williams threw the ball up for grabs while under pressure, and Riq Woolen intercepted it with 11 seconds left.
The Bears’ only points came after Williams’ 17-yard touchdown throw to Odunze on third-and-10 was negated by offensive lineman Jake Curhan’s holding penalty. Kicker Cairo Santos kicked a 42-yard field goal with 2:32 left in the first half.
They also had a defensive touchdown overturned by replay assist after Kyler Gordon forced a Pharaoh Brown fumble that he returned 62 yards. Brown, though, was down by contact at the Chicago 38, and the Bears went three-and-out.
Chicago had 179 yards, and Williams took seven sacks, including two by Leonard Williams. Caleb Williams now has taken 67 sacks, which is nine short of David Carr’s NFL record for sacks in a season.
Moore caught six passes for 54 yards, and D’Andre Swift had 12 carries for 53 yards.
The Seahawks had 265 yards and punted six times.
Geno Smith was 17-of-23 for 160 yards, with Noah Fant catching four for 43. Zach Charbonnet had 15 carries for 57 yards.
