'Fighting to Stay Alive': Seahawks Must Rally Amidst Short Week

The Seattle Seahawks have to stay focused during Christmas and have to quickly shake off a tough loss to the Minnesota Vikings.

Dec 22, 2024; Seattle, Washington, USA; Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith (7) walks off the field after the game against the Minnesota Vikings at Lumen Field. Mandatory Credit: Steven Bisig-Imagn Images / Steven Bisig-Imagn Images

While millions of Americans will be celebrating Christmas this week, the Seattle Seahawks will be primarily focused on playing for their playoff lives with a Thursday Night Football game against No. 1 overall pick Caleb Williams and the Chicago Bears.

After a crushing loss to the Minnesota Vikings at home, the Seahawks have to move past the loss quickly and focus on beating the Bears.

"We've worked incredibly hard," Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald said. "We have been through a ton of adversity as a team. We're going to stick together and go back to work. So we're fighting for the right to stay alive, on a short week."

That message permeated across the locker room moments after yesterday's loss to the Vikings, and quarterback Geno Smith is leading the team with that in mind as well. The Seahawks' playoff hopes took a massive hit with the loss to the Vikings, which amplifies the need to beat the Bears on Thursday.

"We got to win two, but it starts with one. We got a tough Chicago team on the road. I know their record isn't the greatest, but if you watch film on those guys they got a tough team ask with a lot of the talent. We got to be ready coming off a short week, traveling on Christmas. Guys got to get their minds right and get ready to go," Smith said.

Other players in the locker room are following suit with their coach and quarterback and looking to get a win back.

“Yeah, we got to go in and put it behind us now," Seahawks linebacker Ernest Jones IV said. "We got to get ready for Chicago. On these short weeks, you can’t really bask in this, especially when you lose, you can’t really bask in the previous game, because in three days we’ll be lining up against a whole ‘nother team that doesn’t care that we just lost the game. For us, the focus is move forward, handle business in Chicago in prime time, and then we’ll see what happens with that matchup against the Rams.”

"It's just a short turnaround," Seahawks rookie linebacker Tyrice Knight said. "We've just got to put this game behind us right now, start prepping for the Bears, just get our bodies back healthy, and just keep keep going ahead."

A win keeps the Seahawks alive in the NFC West race, but a loss opens the door for the Rams to clinch the division on Saturday night when they host the division rival Arizona Cardinals.

The Seahawks and Bears are set to kickoff on Thursday at 5:15 p.m. PT. The game can be streamed on Amazon Prime Video or watched locally on FOX.

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