LAKE FOREST, Ill. (AP) — Geno Smith and the Seattle Seahawks need a win to help keep their flickering playoff hopes from getting extinguished.
Caleb Williams and the Bears need a victory to end their long losing streak.
The Seahawks will try to regroup and stay in the playoff chase when they visit struggling Chicago on Thursday night.
Seattle (8-7), coming off back-to-back losses, trails the NFC West-leading Los Angeles Rams (9-6) by one game with two to play. The Seahawks were in control of their postseason fate before Minnesota beat them 27-24 last week.
“The destiny’s out of our hands right now. That stings,” coach Mike Macdonald said. “But we’ve got a lot to play for, still. We’re just gonna keep hammering away until this thing cracks. I think it’s right there. We want to be ready when that happens. Hopefully, we get an opportunity to get into the dance and go do some damage.”
The Seahawks need help.
Their best path to the playoffs is by winning their final two games, starting with a Chicago team that’s reeling with nine straight losses after falling to NFC-leading Detroit, and having the Rams lose to Arizona on Saturday night. Seattle then visits Los Angeles to close the regular season.
The Bears (4-11) simply need a win. It’s been nothing, but losses for them since they beat Jacksonville in London in Week 6.
First, Chicago fired offensive coordinator Shane Waldron. And then its head coach during a season for the first time when the Bears let Matt Eberflus go the day after a Thanksgiving loss at Detroit. They’re 0-3 with interim coach Thomas Brown.
If the Bears drop this game, they’ll have their second double-digit losing skid in three seasons under general manager Ryan Poles. They lost the final 10 games two years ago as part of a franchise-worst 14-game slide that stretched into 2023. Chicago has never lost more than 10 in a row in a single season.
“I think it would just be good for morale,” tight end Cole Kmet said. “Obviously, it doesn’t mean much for playoffs or anything like that. It really won’t have any indication on anything going into next year. But just good for morale. It would just be I think an uplifting thing for the locker room at this point.”
The run game continues to be a sore spot for Seattle.
The Seahawks are averaging 91.9 yards rushing. Only the New York Jets (88.7) and Las Vegas Raiders (77.5) are worse.
Against Minnesota, the Seahawks threw the ball on 45 of their 60 offensive plays. Their 15 rushes produced just 59 yards.
Running back Kenneth Walker III left last week’s game with an ankle injury after sitting out the previous two because of a calf problem. He also missed two weeks in September with an oblique issue.
The Seahawks have also had to deal with a host of issues on the offensive line, including injuries and the sudden retirement of starting center Connor Williams in the middle of the season.
Things seemed to improve in Week 14 when Zach Charbonnet ran for 134 yards and two touchdowns in a win against Arizona. But the issues surfaced again in losses to Green Bay and Minnesota.
Williams has a chance to set the Bears’ single-season passing record, assuming he plays the final two games.
The No. 1 overall draft pick is sixth on the Bears’ list with 3,271 yards. Erik Kramer holds the franchise record of 3,838 in 1995.
A more immediate concern is that Williams finishes the season on a stronger note. To that end, he shrugged off several shaky outings by throwing for 334 yards and two touchdowns last week.
Williams’ 326 consecutive attempts without an interception are an NFL rookie record and the most ever by any Bears player. But he has also been sacked a league-leading and club-record 60 times.
Seahawks cornerback Riq Woolen was benched for the first series last week after breaking an unspecified team rule.
“There’s some team rules throughout the week, and just felt like it was the best thing for the team and for him to not start the game,” Macdonald said. “He was great, he understood, took accountability in that moment with his teammates.”
Woolen, a Pro Bowl pick as a rookie in 2022, is having an uneven season.
The Bears could have their hands full trying to contain Seahawks receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba.
Besides the fact that Smith-Njigba became the 10th Seahawks player last week with 1,000 yards in a season, Chicago is struggling to defend the pass. That wasn’t the case earlier in the season.
The Bears had a top-10 pass defense as recently as Nov. 17. It’s now 23rd. The Bears have given up 865 yards passing and 102 points in the three games since Eberflus was fired.
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