A taloned thumb in the eye

Back in October, when we beat the Bears on the road, we were coming off a bye.

This time, it is Chicago that has enjoyed an extra week to rest, heal, and prepare.

Back then, Seattle entered the contest as a .500 team, having lost its last game in St. Louis.

This time, we are 8-9, but riding a two-game winning streak over supposedly superior opponents.

The Bears came into that October game 4-1, having just crushed Carolina.

Now they are 11-5, having dropped their last regular season game in Green Bay.

One thing remains constant: No one gives us a chance to win.

Certainly, we face daunting odds.

Seattle is 2-6 in away games this year.

Chicago is 5-3 at home.

We haven't won a road playoff game since 1983. That's seven straight road losses, though we took three of those contests into overtime before failing.

Moreover, the Seahawks tend to play poorly in road games that kick off at 10 a.m. PST. According to Mike Sando of ESPN, Seattle is 7-24 (.226) in nondivision early road games since 2003.

Vegas lists us as 10-point underdogs.

So, the numbers say we're probably going to lose.

Nevertheless, here are some reasons to be hopeful:

1. The Bears offense isn't very good.

During the regular season, Chicago ranked 24th in scoring, 30th in total yards,

Over the same span, Seattle ranked 23rd in scoring and 28th in total yards,

So, their offense wasn't much better than ours for most of the season.

However, the Seahawks offense has come together over the last two weeks, while the Bears sputtered in their regular season finale, managing a mere 3 points against Green Bay.

2. We have the better quarterback

Jay Cutler and Matt Hasselbeck have both been to Pro Bowls.

The Chicago quarterback went more recently (in 2008), and in 2010, he compiled a statistically superior season to Seattle's starting passer.

However, Cutler will start his first playoff game tomorrow.

It will be Hasselbeck's 12th postseason start. He is 6-5 in the playoffs. (OK, so that's 6-0 at home, 0-4 on the road, and 0-1 in technically neutral sites, though Super Bowl XL seemed like a Pittsburgh home game.)

Moreover, if you compare their most recent games, the bald veteran vastly outshined his hirsute junior counterpart.

Hasselbeck played the game of his life against New Orleans, hurling four touchdowns. The interception charged to Matt was an on-target throw that his receiver bobbled into the defender's hands. Matt didn't throw a bad ball all day.

By contrast, Cutler laid an egg in Green Bay, throwing for two picks and no scores, while getting sacked six times.

3. We've done this before

Back in 2006, we nearly beat the Bears on the road in the divisional round. The contest went into overtime.

And, of course, we beat the Bears in Chicago earlier this year.

The Monsters of the Midway appear to be a better team now than they were in October. Back then, Chicago offensive coordinator Mike "Mad" Martz was still trying to bring the Greatest Show on Turf to Soldier Field. Since then, he has learned to tailor his offense to his personnel, so the Bears are running the ball more and giving Cutler fewer chances to throw interceptions.

Back then, our "Bandit" defense befuddled Chicago's offense. In the Bandit, we field six or seven defensive backs, and send one or two of them to blitz the quarterback on nearly every obvious passing down. The Bandit worked largely because of its novelty. Now offenses have learned how to fight it. (Audible into a run, because welterweight defensive backs struggle to tackle power runners.)

So, we'll need a new game plan this time. The old one won't work anymore.

But that's OK. For two straight weeks, we have outcoached our opponents. Caroll and his staff have designed clever game plans and dialed up the right schemes at the right times, and our players have executed those plans and schemes in inspired fashion.

In terms of personnel, the Seahawks were probably a better team in October, because at that point, we still had Red Bryant, Junior Siavii, and Deon Butler on the active roster.

However, in terms of chemistry and performance, we seem to be a better team now. After much suffering, we have emerged from a dark tunnel of midseason and late-season misery to emerge, over the last two games, as a team to take seriously. For the first time in years, our offensive line has manifested competence, allowing our running backs to find some daylight. Our no-name receiving corps is finally getting open. Our patchwork defense is getting fired up and making some stops.

Certainly, the Bears will be eager to avenge their regular season defeat at our hands, and they'll have home field advantage.

But a desire for revenge at home doesn't always translate into success on the field. Remember the 2004 season, when St. Louis swept us during the regular season, and then we got to host them in the wild card round? Surely, we thought, our 9-7 team and the 12th Man would not permit the 8-8 Lambs to beat us again. And yet they did.

This time, we are the sub-.500 upstarts, returning to the scene of the crime in the playoffs to repeat an act of grand larceny we pulled off in the regular season.

4. We have absolutely nothing to lose

Seattle has already exceeded everyone's expectations this season.

Two weeks ago, we achieved our coach's stated season goal of winning the division.

Last week, we ladled on some gravy by eliminating the defending Super Bowl champions.

So, let's go out there and get some more gravy.

Hit hard. Wrap up. Play loose. Play smart.

Let's jam a taloned thumb in the eyes of everyone who continues to underestimate us.

Go, Seahawks!