Bears defeat Seahawks 34-17 in Seattle

The Chicago Bears defeated the Seattle Seahawks 34-17 on Monday night in Seattle. The win marks the second consecutive prime time victory for Chicago against a team that participated in last year’s Super Bowl. The Bears improved their record and solidified their position as contenders in the National Football League.

Caleb Williams completed 24 of 34 pass attempts for 247 yards and one touchdown. He became the first quarterback to throw for more than 200 yards against Seattle in a game this season. Williams took short passes early in the game before exploiting gaps for explosive plays later. Head coach Ben Johnson stated that the team used an elaborate game plan to counter Seattle’s pass rush and secondary.

“It’s awesome,” Williams said in Seattle after the game. “The work that you put in, when it shows up and you can find ways to be consistent, it’s another motivating factor for me that I’m doing something right, that we’re doing something right as a team, as myself. It’s just another moment for me to realize that I need to keep going. I need to keep finding ways to get better. I need to keep finding ways to deliver a better ball.”

The Bears scored on all four trips to the red zone. Williams threw a touchdown pass to Luther Burden III in the first quarter. Running back D’Andre Swift scored the remaining three touchdowns on the ground. Swift now has a career-high 10 rushing touchdowns in eight games. Nine of those touchdowns came on runs of fewer than six yards. Swift has not rushed for more than 100 yards in a game since Week 1.

“I mean, everything we doing, everything Ben is preaching is working,” Swift said. “One week at a time. We’re going on the right track.”

The Bears faced a close contest in the fourth quarter. Seattle cut the lead to 20-17 with just under 12 minutes remaining. Chicago responded on the next drive with a six-play, 61-yard scoring run. Later, defensive end Austin Booker batted a pass that was intercepted by defensive end James Lynch deep in Seattle territory. Swift scored a few plays later to extend the lead to 34-17.

“When the pressure is high, we want to be at our best,” Johnson said. “All three phases did that. I think you find out more about your identity as a team when you get put in those situations. You talk about it as much as you want and yet to go through it, to live it and to see us come out on the others side, I think that’s good for building our team.”

The Bears opened the game with a 17-play, 80-yard drive. The defense started the game with a three-and-out before the offense took over. Williams completed 10 passes and the team ran the ball seven times on the drive. They finished with a one-yard touchdown pass to Burden. Chicago picked up six first downs on the sequence.

“That’s us reverting back to our training,” Williams said. “We do these long drive drills that in training camp and OTAs that you hate, that you dread at the end of practice. It’s hot, all of that. They show up in big moments for us like today and we got to keep going. We got to keep believing. We got to keep trusting each other.”

The defense allowed a late second-quarter score after holding a 13-3 lead. Cornerback Jaylon Johnson was called for pass interference on an incomplete pass. Seattle then completed a pass to Jaxon Smith-Njigba for a first down. Smith-Njigba broke past cornerback Tyrique Stevenson for a 43-yard touchdown. The score made it 13-9 at halftime. It was the second consecutive game the Bears allowed a score late in the first half. New England had scored on a 48-yard completion as time expired in Week 7.