But even if Seattle beats Chicago on the road, that’s no guarantee that last week’s season finale at SoFi Stadium will be a winner-take-all battle. If Los Angeles beats Arizona, they will improve to 4-1 in the NFC West, meaning the best they can do is finish the season with a 4-2 record, which would be a tie with Seattle after a loss in the season finale.

Aside from the fact that the Seahawks and Rams were tied in this tiebreaker and split their head-to-head series, they would both have identical 4-4 records against similar opponents and the same conference record, so the strength of the Victory would be the next tiebreaker to determine who would win the division. Entering Week 17, Los Angeles has a nine-game lead in this category, having held Buffalo and Minnesota earlier in the year. That means this weekend, Seattle needs teams it beat earlier in the season to step up and win games to stay alive in contention for the title and close the gap.

Specifically, according to an official NFL memo, the Seahawks will need four wins from Packers, Jets, Lions, Falcons, Broncos or Dolphins from six games this weekend to stay in the NFC West hunt if both they and the Rams win Week 17 . In other words, they would need a lot of help from other teams to ensure that the season finale becomes a division title game.

With an easier path to the division title and a home playoff game, the winner of their Week 18 rematch would be the NFC West winner if the Seahawks and Rams both lose this weekend, regardless of what else happens around the league.

Given all of these scenarios and the possibility that the Seahawks may be out of contention next week regardless of whether they beat the Bears or not, 12s had better buckle up as the next few days are going to be quite interesting with the playoff race probably the last stop during the holiday season.

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