Sport end result: In a daft show, the Seattle Seahawks squeezed out a thrilling 6-3 win on Thursday evening to lengthen their playoff hopes. Seattle’s playoff hopes now hinge on Saturday and Sunday’s outcomes. The most important recreation is the Rams on Saturday.

Week 17 of the 2024 NFL season received off to an early begin, with a pair of video games that includes a number of the prime groups within the AFC. Within the early recreation the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs knocked off the Pittsburgh Steelers by a ultimate rating of 29-10, whereas the Baltimore Ravens saved their AFC North goals alive within the later recreation with a win over the Houston Texans.

The motion continues Thursday, because the Seattle Seahawks journey to the Windy Metropolis to tackle the Chicago Bears.

Whereas Chicago has already been eradicated from the playoffs, the Seahawks can both maintain their playoff hopes alive with a win, or be eradicated themselves relying on how tonight’s recreation unfolds.

A couple of weeks in the past the Seahawks managed their very own playoff destiny.

Now, their destiny is essentially out of their very own management.

Seattle can’t clinch a playoff spot in Week 17, however they’re going through elimination. Seattle could be eradicated from the playoffs if any of those eventualities occur:

• They lose to the Bears on Thursday Evening Soccer and the Los Angeles Rams win Saturday towards the Arizona Cardinals, OR
• The Seahawks tie towards Chicago, and the Rams beat the Cardinals, OR
• The Rams win and 4 of those groups additionally win in Week 18: The Washington Commanders (who play the Atlanta Falcons), the Minnesota Vikings (who play the Inexperienced Bay Packers), the San Francisco 49ers (who play the Detroit Lions), the Buffalo Payments (who play the New York Jets), the Cincinnati Bengals (who play the Denver Broncos), or the Cleveland Browns (who play the Miami Dolphins). How does this come into play? There’s a wild tiebreaker state of affairs that would invoke the fifth tiebreaker — power of victory — between the Rams and the Seahawks. We could have extra on this in a second.

Bears playoff image

The Bears have already been eradicated from the playoffs. In the mean time, the Bears maintain the ninth decide within the 2025 NFL Draft.

Tiebreaker implications

With the Bears already eradicated from the playoffs, this recreation won’t have tiebreaker implications for Chicago.

As for the Seahawks a win towards Chicago would enhance their convention file to 5-6. Why may this matter? There’s a wild state of affairs the place the NFC West title may get deep into the tie-breaking procedures, which we referenced earlier. Assume for a second that Seattle wins towards Chicago, after which once more in Week 18 towards the Los Angeles Rams. That might see Seattle end at 10-7, with a 6-6 file within the NFC.

Then if the Rams win in Week 17 towards the Arizona Cardinals, then lose to Seattle in Week 18, they too would end at 10-7. That might additionally imply that the Seahawks and the Rams spilt their season collection, kicking in an unimaginable set of tiebreakers.

Actually, we’ll simply let the Seahawks’ workforce web site clarify this wild state of affairs:

If each the Rams and Seahawks win this week, nonetheless, it’s not as easy, as a result of in that state of affairs, a Seahawks Week 18 win would go away each groups with the identical file, a head-to-head break up, the identical NFC West file, the identical file in widespread video games, and the identical convention file. The fifth tiebreaker in spite of everything of that’s power of victory, and heading into Week 17, the Rams have the sting there, thanks largely to the truth that they’ve wins over the Payments and Vikings.

And because of that power of victory lead, the Rams may clinch this week with a win even when the Seahawks additionally win, doing so in the event that they get 3.5 or extra wins from the Vikings (vs. Packers), Payments (vs. Jets), 49ers (vs. Lions), Commanders (vs. Falcons), Bengals (vs. Broncos) and Browns (vs. Dolphins).

So mainly for the Seahawks, to nonetheless be within the NFC West race after Sunday, they want both a Cardinals win over the Rams, through which case Week 18 is for the division title it doesn’t matter what, or if the Rams win Saturday, the Seahawks have to win, they usually want 4 wins from Packers, Jets, Lions, Falcons, Broncos or Dolphins out of the above six video games.

Obtained it?

Good.