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• WHERE: Soldier Field (Chicago)
• WHEN: 8:15 p.m. ET | Prime Video

The final Thursday night game of the 2024 NFL season will pit two desperate teams.

One is barely in the playoff mix, one out of it, but each of them has something to play for.

The visiting Seattle Seahawks can clinch a winning campaign in their first season under head coach Mike Macdonald by prevailing, even if they don’t end up with a miracle playoff bid.

For the host Chicago Bears, it’s more about stopping the bleeding. Their losing streak has hit nine games, dating back to before their Week 6 bye. They won their first four games at Soldier Field this season but have dropped the past four there heading into their final home game of the season.

Here are four things to watch for when the Seahawks visit the Bears on Thursday night on Prime Video and �鶹����:

1) NFC West is Seattle’s only hope. The Seahawks cannot get in as a wild card. Their only path to the playoffs is winning the NFC West, which will be an uphill battle. They’ll need to beat the Bears Thursday and hope for the Arizona Cardinals to take down the Los Angeles Rams on Saturday. If that were to happen, it would set up a winner-take-all showdown between the Rams and Seahawks in Los Angeles in Week 18. Seattle won four straight after the bye to take control of the division briefly, but two straight losses have hurt its chances. However, there’s no question about the effort. The Seahawks lost a hard-fought game against the Vikings Sunday that came down to a Geno Smith interception in the final minute. That dropped the Seahawks to 3-6 at Lumen Field, but they’ve been surprisingly good on the road this season at 5-1.

2) Are Bears still motivated? Keenan Allen had some interesting comments after the Bears’ 34-17 loss to the Lions. When asked if Chicago still had something to prove for the remainder of the season, Allen said, "You’ve got to prove it to all 32 teams. At the end of the day, that's what it's about. The last name on your back is really what matters." Allen started slowly in his first season in Chicago, but he’s two touchdowns shy of a career high and might be motivated to reach that mark prior to hitting free agency for his age-33 season in 2025. Last week, when asked what he most was looking forward to (with three games still remaining then), WR DJ Moore said, “vacation,” later . Interim coach Thomas Brown is 0-3 since replacing Matt Eberflus and badly wants a victory, but it’s not clear if the entire team is quite as motivated in the same ways.

3) Geno Smith hopes to end on a high note. Smith’s season has been a topsy-turvy affair. He’s completing a career-best 70.1% of his passes and is 346 passing yards shy of a career high. But he’s also been hindered recently by a knee injury and has 15 interceptions -- the most in his 11-year career since the 21 Smith threw as a rookie. On Sunday he tossed two more picks, his fourth game this season with two or more, and the Vikings had chances to make a few even more. The 34-year-old quarterback has been under fire from a leaky pass rush but has been supported by Macdonald consistently, which could lead to the QB’s return in 2025. Still, Smith finishing strong might have to be part of that equation as the Seahawks figure out their path forward this offseason. The Bears defense started the season strong but has turned downward in recent games, giving Smith another solid opportunity to bolster his already respectable numbers, especially with Seattle’s run game lagging.

4) Caleb Williams going for Bears history. There have been debates about whether the Bears selected the right quarterback in the 2024 NFL Draft, given what Jayden Daniels has done in Washington this season (and against the Bears in Week 8), but it’s hard to blame Williams for all the Bears’ issues this season. According to NFL Research, Williams has now lost nine starts in which he threw zero interceptions, which is the most such losses in a single season since QB starts were first tracked in 1950. Williams’ streak of passes without an interception also has reached 326, which is over 100 attempts longer than the previous longest rookie streak in NFL history and more than 100 longer than the previous longest Bears streak. He’s also 572 passing yards shy of breaking Erik Kramer’s single-season franchise mark of 3,838.