What The Seahawks Need To Stay In 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’ve avoided this scenario by beating the Bears.

If the Rams lose to the Cardinals, the Week 18 game 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 a game behind the Rams going into Week 18, and if they were to win that game, they would win the tiebreaker of better NFC West record, again, assuming a Rams loss to the Cardinals.

If the Rams join the Seahawks in winning this week, however, it’s not as 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 common games, and the same conference record. The fifth tiebreaker after all of that 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 victory lead, the Rams could clinch this week with a win even with the Seahawks’ win in Chicago, doing so 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 Saturday, the Seahawks need four wins from the Packers, Jets, Lions, Falcons, Broncos or Dolphins out of the above six games.