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Stamp the Bears True Title Contenders With Sweep of Super Bowl Teams

Caleb Williams and the offense piled up the points while Jeffery Simmons and the defense put the pressure on Sam Darnold in a 34-17 Chicago win.
Gene Chamberlain|
Caleb Williams scrambles looking for a receiver against the Seattle Seahawks in Monday's Bears win.
Caleb Williams scrambles looking for a receiver against the Seattle Seahawks in Monday's Bears win. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

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Chicago Bears

Were it not for one of Tyrique Stevenson's specialties and a fumble by Colston Loveland, the Bears could call this a perfect and total victory.

It wasn't half bad anyway.

They just played last year's Super Bowl teams back to back and with Monday night's 34-17 win at Seattle they swept in solid, convincing fashion.

They did it without a major weapon in their arsenal in both games, power back Kyle Monangai. They did it thanks to quarterback Caleb Wiliams and a resurgent pass rush behind new Bears defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons. They hammered a team that held Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs to three points last week.

This is what the league has to look forward to the rest of the way. The Bears are a legitimate Super Bowl contender, possibly NFC favorites. They are a powerhouse, thanks to Williams and the trade for Simmons.

If they just try not to blitz and leave Stevenson alone against one of the game's best receivers with a 10-yard cushion and they'll be fine.

It's time for all of the Williams haters and doubters to admit it. They were wrong.

Packers fans, when was the last time Jordan Love beat the two Super Bowl teams in consecutive weeks? Never would be the correct answer.

Williams had thrown for 227 yards and the Bears had a 285-yard to 117-yard advantage by the time they had piled up a 20-9 lead in the third quarter. He finished with 247 yards passing on 24 of 34 as the offense performed when necessary through the air, even with Seattle's vaunted defense making the running lanes microscopic.

Yet Loveland's fumble on a short pass set up Seattle to pull back within a field goal, jeopardizing the entire night.

No problem. Williams calmly directed yet another scoring drive, six plays, 56 yards and a 39-yard screen to Kalif Raymond made the drive. It's what championship type quarterbacks do. They answer back.

"When the pressure is high, we want to be at our best," coach Ben Johnson said afterward.

The Bears QB looked more the part of the Super Bowl quarterback more than Darnold, who spent the night running for his life from Montez Sweat, Jeffery Simmons and whoever else the Bears threw at him. Finally, James Lynch put the world champions out of their misery by picking off a deflected pass and setting up D'Andre Swift's clinching.

Yes, the "Green Bay sucks" chants broke out at this point as expected.

"We knew it was going to be a worthy challenge," Williams told ESPN after the win. "We think we're up there with them."

They are up higher than Seattle after this one.

At 6-2 and surging with three straight wins, the Bears face a Tampa Bay team on Sunday night at Soldier Field that didn't complete a single pass last week.

Apparently Simmons will need to find something else to do, but he showed he can stop the run fairly well Monday night, too.


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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.

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