Illinois product Devon Witherspoon keeps Seahawks alive in NFC West

Flip a coin and get heads twice in a row, then tails on a third flip. After a defensive 6-3 win over the Bears on Thursday night, those are the Next Gen Stats odds the Seahawks face to win the NFC West — 14 percent.

Now just a half game behind the Rams (9-6), Seattle (9-7) is hoping Arizona can flip Los Angeles on Saturday night. A Cardinals victory would set up a season-finale showdown between the Seahawks and Rams but Los Angeles – not Seattle — controls its own fate over these final weeks. The Rams could even clinch the division on Sunday should the right combination of teams win their games.

“We’re in the mode of control what we can control,” said Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald. “We know what’s coming next week. We’re going to spend this weekend getting our minds and bodies and spirits right to go play a game. We’re praying that it’s for the division championship.”

If they get there, they can look back at Devon Witherspoon’s performance Thursday night. Returning to Illinois, where he earned consensus All-America honors in college, Witherspoon led the Seahawks with six tackles — three for loss — and registered his first 2024 sack.

“He was so disruptive last night,” said analyst and former NFL player Brian Baldinger in breaking down film of the win. “One negative play after another. Nobody could block him. …First-and-10 just became second-and-17. He was all over the place.

“One loss after another … You can always find him because he’s the guy that just sees everything. … One negative play after another by Devon Witherspoon. He’s telling everybody in Chicago, like, ‘You can’t block me, you can’t stop me. That’s what I do.’ That’s what he does.”

What Witherspoon did in Champaign, about two hours from Chicago, was rise from zero-star recruit to the No. 5 overall selection in the 2023 NFL draft. He’s well on his way to adding All-Pro status to his resume after Thursday’s performance. The cornerback dropped D’Andre Swift for a 7-yard loss late in the first quarter, then cut down DJ Moore 3 yards behind the line of scrimmage on the next Chicago series. His sack came on the first play of the second half, running Caleb Wiliams out of bounds.

Witherspoon played a starring role in Seattle’s defensive effort that allowed only 179 net yards and produced seven sacks, two by team leader Leonard Williams. On Chicago’s final play, Coby Bryant’s corner blitz pressured Williams into a game-sealing interception by Riq Woolen. Per Josh Dubow of the Associated Press, Seattle’s six points on Thursday were its fewest ever in a franchise victory. Chicago lost a game in which it allowed six-or-fewer points for just the fourth time in the last 90 years, the Bears’ first such loss since 1999.

Including the Seahawks-Rams game, the NFL is expected to set dates and times for all Week 18 games as early as Sunday night, depending on what figures to be a wild batch of games with significant playoff implications.

Chicago (4-12) has now lost at least 12 games for the third time in nine seasons. The Bears, who lost a 10^th consecutive game on Thursday, have just three winning campaigns over the last 18 years (2007-24). They close the season next week with the Packers at Lambeau Field. Chicago now has reported interest in former Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll, who would seem to fit well in the Bears’ organizational structure.

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