Week 11: Chicago at Seattle

This game features the two previous NFC champions – Chicago (2006) and Seattle (2005) both advanced to the Super Bowl, only to lose there.

This season, either one of them would be thrilled if you could tell them right now they were guaranteed a spot in the playoffs. With Dallas and Green Bay looking like the class of the NFC so far, everyone else is just trying to find a spot in the playoff bracket and hoping for the best.

Seattle does lead the NFC West by a game after its 24-0 shutout of San Francisco on Monday night. Chicago, which beat Oakland 17-6 Sunday, sits in third place in the NFC North and probably needs to go 5-2 the rest of the way to compete for a wild card spot.

The Bears, plagued by QB problems for much of the season, now have another one. Brian Griese, who replaced an ineffective Rex Grossman five games ago, went out with an injured left shoulder against the Raiders. Enter Grossman, who threw a 59-yard bomb to Bernard Berrian with 3:11 left to put the Bears ahead and ultimately pace the victory.

Who starts this week? Coach Lovie Smith was coy about that early in the week, but he likes to go with the hot hand. So Grossman has likely won his old job back – temporarily. Don’t bet against Griese coming in to finish the game, however, if Grossman goes back to his high-risk, high-interception style of playing.

Seattle, meanwhile, has no QB controversy. In fact, Mike Holmgren has such confidence in Matt Hasselbeck right now that he has gone back to his West Coast roots and has decided to throw the ball about 60 percent of the time. Holmgren said that before the 49ers game and, although there was speculation that it was just gamesmanship, it turned out to be true. Hasselbeck threw on 16 of the first 19 snaps against San Francisco.

The Seahawks do have a bit of a RB controversy, however. Shaun Alexander is nowhere near the player he was in 2005, when he was the NFL’s MVP. He averaged just 2.4 yards per carry and 34.8 rushing yards per game in the four games before Monday night, and then he missed the Monday night game with a knee injury. He also must play the rest of the year with a cast on his left hand to protect a cracked bone.

So expect the Seahawks to have more of a two-back system the rest of the year, particularly since Maurice Morris (28 carries, 87 yards Monday night) is playing well.

The Bears beat Seattle both in the regular season and in overtime in the playoffs last year on the way to the Super Bowl. Chicago still has a good defense – Adewale Ogunleye had three sacks Sunday – but it is not running the ball well offensively and the QB issue has clouded the Bears’ offense much of the season. Unless the Bears get a really big play or two from Devin Hester in this one, the odds are that Seattle will avenge 2006.

Seattle by 6