Nearly every NFL observer has recognized Carolina’s Steve Smith this season as football’s best receiver. In yesterday’s 29-21 win over the Bears, Smith made the case that he is the NFL’s best player at any position.

Smith had 12 catches for 218 yards in the Panthers’ 29-21 win, an extraordinary performance against the Bears, who boast the league’s stingiest defense. Smith’s performance earned the Panthers a spot in the NFC Championship next Sunday in Seattle, a day after the Seahawks beat the Washington Redskins 20-10.

Seattle has the league’s most valuable player, Shaun Alexander, but this weekend’s games showed that Smith is more important to Carolina than Alexander is to Seattle. Alexander left Saturday’s game early with a concussion after compiling just nine yards on six carries. He will be back for the NFC championship, and Seattle, which had the best record in the NFC, will be a heavy favorite.

But even if Alexander is at 100%, Smith will be the best player on the field. He made his presence felt immediately yesterday, catching a touchdown pass 55 seconds into the game. On that play, Chicago blitzed, Carolina picked it up, and Bears cornerback Charles Tillman was left alone covering Smith. The two collided, Tillman fell, and Smith grabbed the ball and ran it in for a 58-yard touchdown.

That play was far from the only time Carolina picked up Chicago’s pass rush yesterday. the Bears sacked Jake Delhomme eight times in the regular-season meeting between the two teams, but the Bears sacked Delhomme only once yesterday. When Delhomme has time to find Smith, the Panthers’ offense is almost impossible to stop.

Carolina will need the 5-foot-9 inch Smith more than ever against Seattle because starting running back DeShaun Foster broke his ankle early in the third quarter yesterday. The running game has been a weakness for the Panthers all season, but Foster is their best back, and they’ll lose a big-play threat without him. Seattle held Washington to only 59 yards on 25 rushing attempts, so the Carolina running game will have a tough time moving the ball on Sunday.

Seattle’s run defense will be the biggest matchup problem for Carolina. Seahawks defensive tackle Craig Terrill had an excellent game against Washington. Despite recording just one tackle, he routinely forced Washington to double-team him thanks to his remarkably quick step, which gave middle linebacker Lofa Tatupu more room to roam in the middle of the field.

For Carolina’s running game to succeed against Seattle, the Panthers won’t be able to afford to devote two blockers to any of Seattle’s linemen because they need to block Tatupu. A rookie out of USC, Tatupu was in on 10 tackles against Washington, including six on gains of three or fewer yards.

Carolina’s defense looked equally good early yesterday, as Chicago gained only 34 yards on its first five drives. But the Bears kept the game close because quarterback Rex Grossman, making only the eighth start of his young and injury plagued career, finally settled down. He found receiver Bernard Berrian five times for 68 yards and led Chicago on three touchdown drives, but in the end completed just 17 of 41 passes for 192 yards and an interception.

Carolina won’t be able to hold the Seahawks’ passing game to such paltry numbers. Seattle wide receiver Darrel Jackson, who missed 10 regular season games with a knee injury but is finally healthy, was, like Smith a day later, the best player on the field Saturday. When throwing to Jackson, Seattle quarterback Matt Hasselbeck was 9-for-9 for 143 yards. When throwing to his other receivers, Hasselbeck was 7-for-17 for 72 yards. Seattle frequently uses three receiver formations, but when Jackson is healthy, he’s clearly Hasselbeck’s primary target.

Mack Strong, the Pro-Bowl fullback who has been with Seattle 13 years, had a big game Saturday and will have an important matchup with Carolina middle linebacker Dan Morgan. Alexander gets most of his carries from the ‘I’ formation, with Strong as his lead blocker, and Strong will take on Morgan on most of those plays.

Alexander and Hasselbeck get most of the credit for Seattle’s offensive out put, but it’s the blocking of players like Strong and left tackle Walter Jones that makes the Seattle offense go.

For the Bears, the concept of offense will take a central role in the off-season. It wasn’t enough to win, though, so Chicago’s attention will turn to next season. The Bears’ loss showed they can’t win when their defense doesn’t bring it’s A-game, and they will head into the off-season with some major decisions to make. Nearly every important player on the best defense in the league is already signed for the 2006 season. But neither of the Bears’ young quarterbacks – Grossman and Kyle Orton – has shown he can be a legitimate NFL starter. The Bears likely will sign a veteran and give him a chance to compete with Grossman for the starting job next year. Orton, who started most of this season for the injured Grossman, likely will be relegated to third string.

But for the two teams remaining in the NFC playoff race, the passing game is in good shape. The combos of Matt Hasselbeck-to-Darrell Jackson and Jake Delhomme-to-Steve Smith will determine which team gets to the Super Bowl.

Mr. Smith is a regular writer for FootballOutsiders.com.