In the Week 8 edition of "Monday Night Football," the Seattle Seahawks host the Chicago Bears. Seattle enters this game fresh off a victory over the previously undefeated Kansas City Chiefs, snapping a two-game losing skid. The Seahawks' defense is settling in and once again looks like one of the best units in the league, but faces one of its toughest tests of the season on Monday night.
Chicago enters having won both of its games since starting quarterback Caleb Williams returned from injury, improving to 5-2 in the process. The Bears have looked like one of the best offenses in the NFL whenever Williams has been on the field, but they, too, face arguably their toughest test of the season on Monday evening. Will Seattle make it back-to-back wins, or will the Bears ruin their evening with a road upset?
Chicago has scored, 59, 31 and 30 points in the three Caleb Williams starts that were not played against the Minnesota Vikings in a driving rainstorm. The Bears piled up 552, 368 and 405 yards in those three games, and turned the ball over only twice in those contests. For the season (including the game against Minnesota), Williams has completed 71% of his passes at an average of 8.2 yards per attempt, both of which are career-high figures.
He has thrown five touchdowns against one interception and rushed 24 times for 128 yards and two additional scores. Williams has generally thrown short passes, with an average depth of throw of only 7.0 yards, according to Tru Media. Despite that, he has created explosive passing plays at the third-highest rate in the league (10.7% of dropbacks).
That's thanks in large part to the fact that the Bears are averaging 6.4 yards after catch per completion on his throws, the fourth-best mark in the league. The Seahawks, though, limit YAC as well as just about any team in football. They've allowed only 4.5 yards after catch per completion, which ranks third-best in the NFL.
They play shell coverages a lot of the time, and they rally to the ball and tackle as well in the secondary as anybody. Their defensive backs and linebackers rarely miss opportunities to bring ball-carriers to the ground. The Bears generally want to run the ball more often than almost any team in the league, with a 48.7% rush rate, according to Tru Media.
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