Football · Seattle

Bears beat Seahawks 34-17 on 2 November as Caleb Williams and Jeffery Simmons lead

Chicago led from its 17-play opening drive and never gave up the advantage in Seattle. Jeffery Simmons, traded in from Tennessee last week, made an immediate impact on a unit that had been short of players who change games.

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In brief

Photo: All-Pro Reels from District of Columbia, USA, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons, cropped)

How it came to this

Early fourth quarterDarnold 7-yard touchdown pass to Cooper Kupp, Seattle trails 20-17
Fourth quarter, 8:28Swift 5-yard touchdown run around right end
Fourth quarter, 4:41Swift 5-yard touchdown run after a Darnold interception, final 34-17

Opening drive sets the tone

Chicago needed only one possession to take the lead. The Bears covered 80 yards on 17 plays, using up 8:32 of the clock, before Caleb Williams rolled to his right and found Luther Burden III for a 1-yard touchdown. That scoring march also snapped a run of 16 straight games in which Seattle had kept opponents from scoring on their opening possession. Williams finished 24 of 34 for 247 yards and a touchdown, with no turnovers and only one sack taken.

Simmons rebuilds the defense

Jeffery Simmons, acquired last week from Tennessee in a deal that included two first-round picks, made an immediate impact in his Bears debut. He recorded a sack on Seattle's opening drive, finished with six tackles, two of them for loss, and broke up a pass. Chicago held the Seahawks to 252 yards and one third-down conversion on 11 attempts. Seattle managed only 81 rushing yards even after trading for three-time All-Pro guard Quenton Nelson and getting Zach Charbonnet and Jadarian Price back from injury.

Simmons told ESPN:

“I'm so excited to be a Chicago Bear man.”

Jeffery Simmons

Field goals, a blocked kick and the late swing

The first half was tight. Seattle's Jason Myers kicked a 27-yard field goal with 12:50 left in the second quarter, before Cairo Santos hit a 44-yarder with 6:07 left and a 38-yarder with 1:08 to go that put Chicago ahead 13-3. Darnold then found Jaxon Smith-Njigba on a 43-yard touchdown down the left sideline on third-and-10 with 30 seconds left, and Myers missed the extra point, so Chicago led 13-9 at halftime. Swift's 1-yard run with 5:38 left in the third quarter made it 20-9. Austin Booker blocked Myers's 33-yard attempt with 14:09 left in the fourth quarter, which kept the lead at 11 points. DeMarcus Lawrence then forced a fumble that Seattle recovered at Chicago's 25 after a catch by Colston Loveland. Darnold hit Cooper Kupp for a 7-yard touchdown, and Tory Horton caught the two-point conversion, cutting the margin to 20-17. Swift scored again on a 5-yard run around right end with 8:28 left, and after a Darnold interception he added a 5-yard run up the middle with 4:41 to play that made it 34-17.

Seattle's comeback stalls and the wider picture

The defeat ended a 30-game streak in the regular season and playoffs of not losing by more than four points, the fourth longest for any team in the Super Bowl era. Seattle has now lost three of its last four games and trails in the NFC playoff standings. Leonard Williams left the Seahawks' defense in the third quarter with a stinger and did not return. The Bears (6-2) now sit a half-game behind the Minnesota Vikings and San Francisco 49ers for the top spot in the NFC, according to The New York Times.

Key yardage totals in the 2 November gameyards

Data from the article text

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