Over the past two seasons, losses have been rare for the Seahawks, and even when they did lose, it almost always came down to a play or two making all the difference.

Coming into Monday night's game against the Bears, the Seahawks were 21-6 dating back to the start of last season, playoffs included, and those six losses were all by four or fewer points, including a 2-point loss and a pair of 3-point losses this season.

Monday night's loss had a different feel for the Seahawks, who as head coach Mike Macdonald put it, were beaten in all three phases in a 34-17 defeat to the Bears. And yes, there were some critical plays -- none bigger than a 39-yard screen pass on third-and-9 midway through the third quarter in what at the time was a three-point game, a play that happened after the Seahawks appeared to have a stop on third-and-4, only to have that tackle for loss negated by a delay-of-game flag, which came in as play was already unfolding -- but there is no getting around the fact that the Bears were just the better team on this night.

"Tip of the cap to the Bears, they won the game, they won it fair and square, and they won it in all three phases," Macdonald said after his team's worst loss since 2024, his first year in Seattle. "We got beat. There's no other way to sugarcoat it. When you look at the things that it takes to win in our league, we didn't do those things, and they did, so credit to them. Obviously, we have some work to do, and that's what we intend to do—get back to work and attack the heck out of it. We've got a short week, this is the first of I think maybe four or five throughout the season, so it's really important that we get our bodies back and get our minds ready to go on Wednesday."

Looking to assign blame for this loss, one could point to an offense that went just 1 for 11 on third down and 1 for 4 in the red zone while also committing a turnover late that set up a Bears touchdown. One could also point to the usually stingy defense, which gave up 363 yards and 22 first downs, both season-highs for Seattle opponents, while allowing the Bears to go 7 for 15 on third down and a perfect 4 for 4 in the red zone. Or, one could point to special teams, where Seattle left four points on the field in the form of a missed extra point and a blocked field goal, had a pair of 15-yard penalties that made a big difference in field position, and misplayed a punt that should have been downed inside the 5-yard line into the end zone for a touchback. In other words, it was just a tough day all around for the Seahawks.

"They made it happen, and we didn't," Macdonald said. "It's a team effort; we lost as a team. In all three phases, we can have better plans, we can coach it better, prepare our players better, and we can play better. We'll go back to work and go attack the heck out of it. The margins in our league are too small, and when you don't do the things that it takes to win, that's how a game like that shapes up.

"It was a team effort. We lost in all three phases."

But while Macdonald and his team were unhappy with Monday's performance, they also aren't going to let a bad loss define their season.

"What I told the team, 'This is what we do -- we find solutions, we move forward, we stay together, and go make it happen from there,'" Macdonald said, later adding, "The sense of urgency for us to improve right now is high."

Seattle's defense, which has been so good this season, still had some positives in this game, including limiting the league's leading rushing attack to a 3.6 yard-per-carry average, and that was with the crucial 39-yard screen pass being classified as a rush. The Seahawks also had a takeaway and forced three three-and-outs, but there were also multiple long touchdown drives, a rarity against Seattle, too many big plays for Caleb Williams and the passing game, and the aforementioned red-zone struggles.

The Bears deserve a lot of credit for the way they played on offense, but the Seahawks defense also knows it wasn't at its best.

"It could just be ego or whatever, but I feel like we go into a lot of games knowing that if we play our brand of football -- clean, efficient, on the same page -- then we play well," safety Julian Love said. "Kudos to them, for sure, but we've got to go to work, man. People need to step up, guys need to get together here, and just play better football together."

On the other side of the ball, the offense couldn't find much of a rhythm all night outside of feeding Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who had 118 yards on six catches, including a 43-yard score.

"Not our best tonight," said quarterback Sam Darnold, who threw for 188 yards and two touchdowns along with one interception on a ball batted at the line of scrimmage. "Offensively, I feel like we couldn't get anything going. We had a couple of good drives. I feel like early on I had a third down where Jax was there, and I should have gotten it to him early. Credit to those guys. They had a good plan and executed at a high level, but again, there was a lot of things that we can do better and need to do better moving forward."

Receiver Cooper Kupp, who had a touchdown in the fourth quarter to make it a one-score game, said he'd need to see the film to know what went wrong on offense, but added, "Obviously, not good enough. Way too many three-and-outs. Way too many short drives and just put our defense back out on the field. Just not holding up our end, I guess. We've got to be better than that and find some solutions. The Bears have a very good defense, but we got to be better. We've got to be able to execute better. At the end of the day keep the ball moving forward and make the plays that are there for us."

Yet for all the disappointment the Seahawks felt coming out of this loss, they also know they are capable of so much more over the final nine games of the season, so they don't plan on this loss being their undoing.

"I would say lesser team would be really frustrated, pointing fingers, turning on each other," Love said. "The guys in the room are like, 'Man, there's so much out there for us.' We play a good brand of football. Teams know what we're about, we play tough, we're connected, but we're still chasing efficiency, on both sides of the ball and teams. We know there's so much more for us to be, and it's exciting because have a bunch more games to go out and prove that. We're still in identity-finding mode. We want to get this thing moving and grooving in the way that you guys have seen it before. We know how it's supposed to look, right now it doesn't feel how it's supposed to work. So we're just going to go to work, attack the process."

And with a 4-4 record leaving them with work to do to stay in the NFC playoff race, the Seahawks know they need to get things cleaned up in a hurry.

"We've got to play better, it's a results business," Love said. "We've got to win games, 4-4 is not a great spot to be, but I'm optimistic that we're going to get things right. We're going to catch our stride here, and once this thing gets going, it'll be tough to stop."