Instant Reaction: Seattle Seahawks hold off Bears for TD-less win

Regardless of how it looked, the Seattle Seahawks put one more in the “Win” column on Thursday night, holding off the lowly Chicago Bears 6-3 at Soldier Field in a game that featured no touchdowns.

Hawks win | Playoff scenarios | Observations | Stacy’s column | Stats

The win improves Seattle to 9-7 with one game left on the season, as attention now turns to what the NFC West-leading Los Angeles Rams (9-6) do on Saturday against the Arizona Cardinals.

As we do after every Seahawks game, we have collected instant reactions from the voices of Seattle Sports to the Week 17 victory. See what they have to say below, and tune in all day Friday to the station for even more reaction and analysis beginning at 6 a.m. with the pregame show, as well as a special Friday edition of The Mike Macdonald Show at 9:30 a.m. with the Seahawks head coach.

Seattle Seahawks reaction

Mike Salk – Brock and Salk (6-10 a.m. weekdays)

Al Michaels said that the Steelers’ Super Bowl win over the Cardinals was the most exciting he ever called. Something tells me he won’t be recalling this one quite as fondly.

The Seahawks and Bears set football back a couple of decades as Seattle slogged its way to a 6-3 win that didn’t prove much of anything. The Seahawks’ defense is pretty good, in case you didn’t already know, and it tortured Caleb Williams and the Bears’ offensive line for seven sacks and even more pressure. The Seahawks’ offense is… not as good. And after a strong start running the ball, it faded away to virtual non-existence by game’s end.

I think the strength of the defense (and ineptitude of the Chicago offense) likely caused the Seahawks to call plays in an incredibly conservative and risk-averse way, but the raw numbers were almost as ugly as the viewing experience. Offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb didn’t do himself any favors as he tries to show he is the right man for the job. Frankly, neither did Geno Smith nor DK Metcalf. The former nearly threw another red zone interception and later suggested the rain was responsible for the stagnant offense, while the latter could have been ejected for losing his cool once again.

Good thing this one didn’t matter. Root for the Cardinals and then take care of business in LA, and the playoffs will be back at Lumen Field.

Dave Wyman – Wyman and Bob (2-7 p.m.)/Seahawks Radio Network analyst

Video of Wyman’s reaction from Soldier Field will be added as soon as it is available.

Mike Lefko – Wyman and Bob

That was… something.

Three days between games, especially this late in the season, was never going to be the formula to produce a magnum opus, but this game may not have even surpassed the bare minimum for tolerable offensive performances by either team.

Everything just felt out of sync all night for the Seahawks’ offense. Luckily, they were playing a team that literally struggles to simply keep its quarterback upright. From Geno stepping on his running back’s foot, to DK’s unnecessary roughness sequence, and another near-interception in the red zone, the offense couldn’t find any rhythm.

The best drive of the game was undoubtedly the opening one, where the Seahawks hammered the run game on seven of the 11 plays of the drive, rushing for 53 yards (nearly matching what they rushed for in the entire game last Sunday). Yet even that was punctuated by the questionable decision to throw on third-and-3.

The defense was terrific, perhaps assisted by the inept Bears offensive line and a rookie quarterback who is struggling immensely. But any time you rack up seven sacks, it’s a terrific performance nonetheless. Devon Witherspoon continues to play with the turbo button permanently mashed down, while Uchenna Nwosu was everywhere with pressure, including his first sack of the season.

The flip side of a short week for this game is the extra rest on the back end before a more important regular season finale against the Rams. As for this weekend, I guess we’re all Kyler Murray fans.