It was one of the worst games the Chicago Bears played all season, at home against Matt Hasselbeck and the Seattle Seahawks.  They made Ma Hass feel like it was 2004 and made Mike Williams look like a cross between Cris Carter, Tim Brown and Jesus of Nazareth.  The Bears gained nothing on the ground.  Jay Cutler was sacked six times by a mediocre Seahawks front, including a Jordin Babineaux game-altering safety.  After their opening drive, the only touchdown scored by the Bears was on an eighty-nine yard Devin Hester punt return in the fourth quarter.

Now the Seahawks return, this time the stakes raised higher than the 2-2 vs. 3-2 game of early season.  This time the winner goes to the NFC Championship Game.  This time the winner will find themselves an hour of good football from playing in the final game of the season, hosted by Jerry Jones in Dallas, Texas.  The Super Bowl is the stake this time around and the Bears can not afford the type of lackluster, lethargic effort that led to their 23-20 defeat at the hand of Pete Carroll’s then winless-on-the-road club.  (Their only other road win was at Arizona.)

The Bears could not have asked for a better opponent and they now have no excuse to not either move on to Atlanta or host the cheese at Soldier Field for the right to play for the whole ape.  The full orangutan.  Every piece of the chimpanzee pie.  The events of Wild Card weekend have laid fresh asphalt on Destiny Highway.  The only question remaining is whether the Bears will get in their car and ride.

The post-Wild Card Fantasy Playoffs standings on the B-side.