CHICAGO - Don't ask, "Why didn't they ... ?" Ask instead: "Howinhell did they take the Bears into OT?"

Twice in the final two minutes of regulation Sunday, the Seahawks had the ball in Bears territory, within a few yards of the range of ace field goal kicker Josh Brown as well as one of the largest upsets in NFL postseason history.

They had their former conquerors in a backpedaling tremble, they had us media experts in full stutter, they had Chicago fans re-imagining two decades of postseason failure.

They had the New Orleans Saints asking, "Who dat?"

The team with no business in this matchup, not much carryover from the 2005 vibe and little left in the tank, was on the threshold of dropping a Buster Douglas haymaker on the heavyweight bully.

One punch.

"We were one play away," said quarterback Matt Hasselbeck.

"Everyone thought we'd get blown out," said receiver Darrell Jackson. "We should have won. We were the better team."

They never landed the big one.

Toe-to-toe in the best tradition of football in January, the Seahawks nevertheless had no knockout blow.

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The 27-24 triumph in overtime by the Bears will be hailed in the Midwest as a breakthrough and lamented in the Northwest as a breakdown -- mistakes, dubious play calls and the misfortune by now traditional for the 2006 Seahawks.

That impression would unfortunately marginalize the accomplishment on a blustery afternoon at Soldier Field.

No sports outfit believes in moral victories, and this wasn't one. This was a team playing the best it could under adverse circumstances that included a road game against a well-rested 13-3 opponent that was the conference's No. 1 seed and a winner by 31 points in the first meeting between the teams.

We hesitate to mention the injury saga because it is well-worn, but when backup tight end Will Heller spent a good chunk of the game as a fullback, replacing injured Pro Bowler Mack Strong, the final turn of that screw made the denouement all the more diabolical.

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Yet the Seahawks found themselves in the game throughout, with a fourth-quarter lead and with the possessions necessary to win the game outright without needing Bears screw-ups, as was the case against Dallas the previous week.

Instead, Robbie Gould's 49-yard field goal off the Bears' first chance in overtime was the tiebreaker in a game as dead-square as it was dramatic.

"You gotta love it," said Seahawks receiver Bobby Engram, a former Bear and one of the few voices that rose above the locker-room pall to appreciate the spectacle. "The atmosphere, two good football teams slugging it out on a nasty, gray day, an NFC playoff game. It was a good game to be a part of.

"I just wish we would have had the last field goal instead of them."