The Seahawks’ defense dominated in a 6-3 win over the Bears

There are no ugly wins in the NFL, especially for a team that traveled two time zones on Christmas for a Thursday night game, so the Seahawks will take the 6-3 victory over the Bears they earned on Thursday gladly receive and fly home happy They knew they improved to 9-7 to keep their NFC West chances alive.

Here are five quick reactions to Thursday night’s win:

1. The Seahawks’ defense and especially the pass rush made life difficult for rookie quarterback Caleb Williams.

The Bears had allowed 60 sacks entering Week 17, the second-most in the NFL, and on Thursday the Seahawks were more than happy to add to that total.

Thanks to a mix of pressure from Mike Macdonald and players who had just won their matches in the four-man rush, the Seahawks were able to sack Williams seven times, with six different players entering the game. Leonard Williams added two sacks, giving him nine sacks on the season, while Derick Hall picked up one, remaining one behind Williams for the team lead. Jarran Reed had a sack for the second straight game and three players, Rayshawn Jenkins, Uchenna Nwosu and Devon Witherspoon, each recorded their first sacks of the season.

The Seahawks didn’t finish the game-winning play with a sack, but the pass rush was a big factor here too, forcing Williams to make a desperation throw on fourth down that was intercepted by Riq Woolen. The takeaway ended a streak of nine straight games without a pick for the rookie QB.