CHICAGO - Time and again, the Seattle Seahawks couldn’t come up with the big plays.

Matt Hasselbeck threw an interception and bobbled a snap. Shaun Alexander couldn’t deliver on fourth-and-one.

Fourth-quarter failures ended Seattle’s hopes to advance to the NFC title game, and the Seahawks were left stunned after a 27-24 loss to the Chicago Bears.

“It was right there for us,” Hasselbeck said, his eyes red and moist. “We just didn’t get it done.

“I think we’re in a little bit of shock right now.”

The Seahawks, who finished 10-8, still haven’t won a road playoff game since 1983.

With 2 minutes left in regulation, Hasselbeck bobbled a snap on fourth down, costing Alexander a chance at a first down and a potential touchdown.

“I think if that snap was smooth, I could have run for a touchdown,” said Alexander, who ran for 108 yards.

Hasselbeck was playing with an injured, non-throwing hand that has bothered him on exchanges with first-year starter Chris Spencer. Hasselbeck refused to use that as an excuse, though, and didn’t blame the snap on Spencer.

Hasselbeck, who finished 18-for-33 for 195 yards with one touchdown and an interception, said he simply bobbled the exchange.

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“As he goes, we go,” Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren said.

Hasselbeck began the second half 5-for-7 passing, as Seattle rallied from a 21-14 halftime deficit into a 24-21 lead entering the final period. But his eighth throw of the half, early in the fourth quarter, was his worst of the day.

He scrambled left and passed, hoping Bobby Engram would come back to the ball. Engram didn’t. That left Ricky Manning Jr. to make an easy interception at the Seattle 32 — one play after Pete Hunter intercepted a pass by Rex Grossman on a deflection off Mushin Muhammad’s chest to turn away Chicago.

It was Hasselbeck’s 18th interception in 14 games this season.

“Really, really bad play by me,” he said. “Very poor.”

The Seahawks’ final, fatal mistake came in overtime, when Jordan “Big Play” Babineaux was involved in a big play that helped the Bears.

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Last week, Babineaux saved Seattle’s season by tackling Tony Romo on a flubbed field goal snap to prevent a Cowboys’ game-winning touchdown. But in overtime Sunday, Babineaux turned the wrong way to allow Rashied Davis off the line cleanly on third-and-10. Davis caught Rex Grossman’s 36-yard pass that put Chicago in position for Robbie Gould’s game-winning, 49-yard field goal.

“My fault,” Babineaux said. “I’m supposed to knock him off his route. I retreated too fast.”

In the first quarter, Babineaux let a sure interception go through his hands for a 37-yard catch by Davis. That set up Chicago’s first touchdown.

“We had this game,” a dejected Babineaux said in a church-quiet Seattle locker room.