Don’t let the standings fool you: the Chicago Bears are the darling of the loaded NFC North, and they proved why on “Monday Night Football” against the Seattle Seahawks.
Lumen Field and the “12s” never make it easy for a road team to play against the Seattle Seahawks, and it doesn’t help that this group just gave the Kansas City Chiefs its first loss of the season in Week 7.
But the Bears, led by head coach Ben Johnson and quarterback Caleb Williams, don’t seem to care where their games are held each week.
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Their offense, and a defense that saw All-Pro Jeffery Simmons show out in his first game with the club since he was traded, made problems for the reigning Super Bowl champions in a 34-17 victory to improve to 6-2 on the season.
The Minnesota Vikings are still in first place in the division at 6-1, but there are a lot of questions about their offensive struggles compared to a suffocating defense that has kept them on the right side of close games thus far.
The Detroit Lions gave the Vikings their first loss to move to 5-2, while the Green Bay Packers got the job done against the Carolina Panthers on “Thursday Night Football” to get to 5-3.
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It’s loaded from top to bottom, but the Bears appear to be the most complete team out of this pack.
Just look at what Williams and company accomplished against the league’s best defense in terms of yards allowed per game (233.9). The Bears totaled 363 yards, 237 of which were through the air on big chunk plays including a 23-yarder to Luther Burden III, who caught Williams’ only touchdown pass of the contest, and a 24-yard strike to Rome Odunze, who led the team with 87 yards on four receptions.
Williams became the first quarterback to eclipse 200 passing yards against this vaunted defense.
Then, there’s the ground game, Johnson’s bread and butter as he continues to draw up the right concepts with a disciplined offensive line that executes who D’Andre Swift can plow his way into the end zone three times in the game.
But the Bears’ defense are no slouches either, coming into the game ninth in yards allowed and points allowed. With Simmons on board, Chicago was proving there are all-in for this championship window, and the veteran defensive tackle was present throughout his first-ever Bears game.
He finished tied for the team lead in combined tackles (6), while collecting a sack and two tackles for loss. James Lynch also forced a key interception when it was 27-17 with six minutes to play, leading to Swift’s third touchdown of the game.
Meanwhile, Sam Darnold and the Seahawks have shown spurts of that Super Bowl-level play that got them the Vince Lombardi Trophy last season. However, it hasn’t been as consistent as they would like.
They made a trade themselves before the Bears landed Simmons, acquiring left guard Quenton Nelson from the Indianapolis Colts to beef up their offensive line, help the run game and keep Darnold upright. And with rookie Jadarian Price back from injury, and Zach Charbonnet making his season debut after recovering from an injury last season, the run game was supposed to be better heading into Week 8.
The Seahawks had just 81 yards rushing, and if it weren’t for another 100-yard-plus game for receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who scored just before the first half ended, this game may have gotten out of hand.
The Seahawks are still in the hunt with a lot of season left to play, but the Bears made a clear statement in a hostile Seattle environment on Monday night.