What the Seahawks need to stay in the NFC West Race

If the Seahawks had lost on Thursday, the Rams, who host the Cardinals on Saturday night, would have clinched the NFC West with a win, but they avoided that scenario by beating the Bears.

If the Rams lose to the Cardinals, the Week 18 matchup between the Seahawks and Rams will be for the NFC West, regardless of the Seahawks’ win against the Bears. That’s because if both teams were to lose, the Seahawks would be one game behind the Rams entering Week 18, and if they were to win that game, they would win the tiebreaker with the better NFC West record again, assuming a Rams -loss to the Cardinals.

If the Rams join the Seahawks in winning this week, though, it’s not that simple, because in that scenario a Seahawks Week 18 win would leave both teams with the same record, a head-to-head split, the same NFC West record , the same record in joint games and the same conference record. The fifth tiebreaker after all of this is strength of victory, and heading into Week 17, the Rams have the edge there thanks largely to the fact that they have wins over the Bills and Vikings.

And thanks to that strength of winning streak, the Rams could win this week with a win even with the Seahawks’ win in Chicago, making it if they get 3.5 or more wins from the Vikings (vs. Packers), Bills (vs. Jets). ), 49ers (vs. Lions), Commanders (vs. Falcons), Bengals (vs. Broncos) and Browns (vs. Dolphins).

So basically for the Seahawks to still be in the NFC West race after Sunday, they need either a Cardinals win over the Rams, in which case Week 18 is for the division title no matter what, or if the Rams win on Saturday, the Seahawks need for four wins by the Packers, Jets, Lions, Falcons, Broncos or Dolphins out of the above six games.