Seahawks defense gets another test from Bears, Caleb Williams | Analysis

by · The Seattle Times

The season for Chicago quarterback Caleb Williams started with being carted off with a hamstring injury in Week 2. It might end with him being in the middle of the MVP conversation.

The former No. 1 overall pick appears to be growing into the QB everyone expected coming out of USC.

The last two games have been mighty impressive from Williams in wins over Atlanta and New England. He threw for more than 300 yards in both victories — the first time he’s done that in consecutive games in his young career. He completed 75% of his passes.

In the three full games he’s played this season, Williams is aggressively pushing the ball downfield at the some of the highest rates of his young career and with success.

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But, he’ll face maybe his toughest test of the season next Monday when the Bears visit the Seahawks, and it can’t be ignored that the one elite defense he faced this season, Williams struggled badly. Before getting injured against Minnesota in Week 2, the Vikings made the day miserable for Williams.

And now he must face another top defense, this time on the road.

The last time these teams met was two years ago in a game that deserves to be forgotten — a 6-3 showcase won by the Seahawks the day after Christmas in Chicago.

This time, it’s a matchup that could have major playoff implications by the time December and January roll around with the way things are shaping up in the NFC.

What happened last week

Chicago won its second straight game, beating New England 30-24 at home on a short week. Williams was terrific, throwing for 308 yards and two touchdowns, while D’Andre Swift rushed for 78 yards and his seventh rushing TD of the season. Williams’ favorite target has become Luther Burden III, who had four catches for 130 yards against the Patriots, but Williams did turn to former UW star Rome Odunze in the fourth quarter when the Bears needed a couple of big plays in the pass game.

On the defensive side, Drake Maye threw for 321 yards, but the Bears stymied New England in the run game as the Patriots managed just 70 yards rushing. Chicago has held each of its last four opponents to 70 yards or less on the ground and just 87.6 yards per game rushing. But those numbers come with a caveat as the Bears are allowing 4.4 yards per carry.

Who to know

The big names on the offensive side for the Bears are all well known. Swift gets the bulk of the carries, but was sharing time with Kyle Monangai, although he’s out with injury putting more on Swift’s plate. Burden and Odunze are the primary targets out wide, but Williams likes feeding his tight ends. Colston Loveland has 26 catches, but Cole Kmet was lost for the season with an injury suffered against the Patriots.

The Bears’ offensive line has a couple of standouts in right tackle Darnell Wright and right guard Jonah Jackson, but they can be breached. Chicago has allowed 18 sacks in seven games, eighth-most in the league.

Defensively, who else would lead the Bears in sacks other than former Archbishop Murphy and UW cornerback Kyler Gordon. Yes, Kyler Gordon is tied for the team lead with four sacks, along with defensive lineman Austin Booker. Booker is the most effective disrupter among the front-seven for Chicago, but it’s a group that lacks some major impact players. Despite their success at stopping the run, the Bears are last in the NFL giving up 6.6 yards per play.

Stat of note

The Seahawks are allowing 4.0 yards per play defensively. No team has allowed 4.0 yards per play or less since Pittsburgh in 2008. The Steelers allowed 3.9 yards per play in 16 games that season.

Around the NFC West

Three thoughts from around the NFC West after Week 7:

— The bye could not have arrived at a better time for the 6-1 49ers. There is only so much depth an NFL team can put together and it was evident in San Francisco’s 29-20 loss at Atlanta. The depth of that roster was being pushed to the limit. Brock Purdy was completing passes to Jacob Cowing and Jordan Watkins, not Mike Evans and Deebo Samuel. Kaelon Black had nearly double the rushes and yards of Christian McCaffrey.

McCaffrey was the latest player to pick up a knock as he came out of the loss with a hamstring injury. But head coach Kyle Shanahan was optimistic that McCaffrey, Evans, Samuel, Nick Bosa, Marques Sigle, Demarcus Robinson and a handful of others would have the chance of playing in Week 9 when the 49ers host the Raiders — unless the Santa Clara Electrical Substation has other ideas during the week off.

— That looked a lot more like the version of the Rams we all expected before the season began in a 35-21 whooping of the Raiders. Matthew Stafford threw for three touchdowns. The Rams rushed for nearly 200 yards and Kyren Williams and Blake Corum found the end zone. Los Angeles led 28-3 before the Raiders briefly pushed back.

The 35 points for the Rams were a season-high and the 28 first downs were the most in a game that didn’t go to overtime. While the Raiders are improved under first year coach Klint Kubiak, that is the kind of dominance that should be expected from the Rams against a lesser opponent. And if they don’t play down to their next three opponents — Chargers, Washington, Arizona — the Rams should be 6-4 by the time their bye week arrives.

— There was a moment last Sunday when TV cameras caught Arizona coach Mike LaFleur with an enunciated ‘wow’ following a hook-and-lateral on a fourth-down early in the fourth quarter that failed to pick up the needed yardage.

His ‘wow’ was for that play, but it could have been for the 62-yard TD run allowed to Denver QB Bo Nix, or the 52-yard TD pass from Nix to RJ Harvey, or any other assortment of mistakes made by the Cardinals in their 30-16 loss.

Outside of Trey McBride, who might be the best tight end in the NFL, there’s little to be excited about regarding the Cardinals.