The 2026 Seattle Seahawks are the 16th team of the Super Bowl era to hold opposing teams to under 200 passing yards and under 100 rushing yards at least five times in their first seven games.
They are the only one of those 16 teams to have a losing record (2-3) in those contests.
This hasn’t happened at all since the Ravens and Steelers both did it in 2008, with Pittsburgh actually doing it six times in their first seven games—and the only exception was when they allowed 103 rushing yards to Baltimore…in overtime!
The Steelers ended up going 12-4 that season with the number one ranked defense across the board (points, yards, passing yards, yards per carry) but in many ways they were no different than the Seahawks:
Despite their defensive dominance, the 2008 Steelers went 0-4 that season when they turned the ball over at least three times.
When they turned the ball over 2 or fewer times, Pittsburgh went 15-0, including the playoffs. Anything worse than that, the Steelers beat themselves.
The 2008 Ravens lost to the Steelers in the AFC Championship game and they ranked first in points per drive allowed. Baltimore went 0-2 when they turned the ball over more than twice and 10-1 when they turned it over zero or one time; their only loss was to Pittsburgh.
The 2008 Steelers and Ravens had two of the best defenses of the century and only one of them could go to the Super Bowl — or even win the AFC North — but neither of them could overcome turnovers.
The Seahawks are no exception to the rule.
Seattle is 4-0 when they don’t turn it over more than once and 0-3 when they’ve turned it over three or more times. If there’s anything truly special about the Seahawks this season, it’s that they’re almost 7-0 in spite of those mistakes.
—We’re talking about a team that gives up 33 points to the Moons despite not allowing a single drive longer than 60 yards — and only one drive longer than 43 yards — but the score is still 33-31 when Seattle scored a touchdown with 2:51 remaining. They had two third-down opportunities to get the ball back and credit to Washington for not allowing it to happen.
—We’re talking about a team that travels to Denver to play a top-five defense on four days rest and even though Sam Darnold throws an interception when down 14-11 with 1:30 remaining, still finds a way to force overtime. The Broncos were gifted the ball again in OT and were basically in field goal range after Darnold’s final pick.
—We’re talking about a team that turns it over four times to “the best team in football this year” but is still driving to tie or win the game in the final minute, when Cooper Kupp picks up 9.9 yards instead of 10.
It’s tough to win any game when the offense turns it over at least three times, but the Seahawks almost won three.
If they had turned it over one fewer time each game, they would probably be 7-0. Thanks to a defense that hasn’t allowed more than 176 passing yards in any game and only more than 94 rushing yards twice, including 50 rushing yards to the team that has the top running back in the league:
So when I hear about the Chicago Bears offense and how this is a matchup that Mike Macdonald isn’t ready for, it reminds me of what people were saying about the Chiefs last week, or the 49ers in Week 18/playoffs last year, or what people would’ve been saying if the Bears had beaten the Rams in the divisional round and reached the NFC Championship game.
And maybe this is the most difficult game of the year for Seattle so far. Ben Johnson has managed to grind teams down with the most rushing attempts and rushing yards this season, ranking second in plays per drive and time of possession … but also first in defensive plays per drive, creating one of the widest disparities we’ve ever seen in offensive plays vs. defensive plays:
However, part of the reason for that disparity is that the Bears are 31st in net yards per pass attempt allowed and they have one of the worst secondaries in the NFL, statistically speaking. Before the season, Johnson said he wanted to be the highest-scoring offense of all-time and win with “shutouts”, but instead he’s getting “shootouts”.
“You’ve got 31 other teams coming to training camp saying, ‘Our goal is to win the Super Bowl.’ I want more than that,” Johnson told The Athletic.
“I want to have the highest-scoring offense ever, which happens to be the 2013 Denver Broncos. I know how many points per game they scored [37.9], and I want to surpass them. I want shutouts. I want blowouts.”
Well, sometimes he’s getting shootouts.
The Bears are seventh in scoring — a far cry from the most points ever — because they scored single digits against the Vikings and Packers. To be fair, in Caleb Williams’ three starts that weren’t against Minnesota, Chicago scored 59, 31, and 30. One of those teams fired their defensive coordinator on Friday.
And Johnson’s defense is kidding themselves if they’re expecting shutouts.
The Bears have allowed six touchdowns this year of 30 or more yards — all passes — including a 51-yard bomb by Bryce Young, a 58-yard touchdown by Geno Smith, two 40+ yard passes from Jordan Love to Christian Watson, and two 30+ yard passes by Drake Maye last week.
This is not a bomb, just defense so horrible it would scare Halloween:
In comparison, the Seattle Seahawks have allowed ONE touchdown longer than 11 yards. One. It wasn’t longer than 30 yards.
Can you name that touchdown?
What I expect on Monday
If there is a cabal of secret overlords running the NFL, they must work at Disney/ABC/ESPN because out of nowhere we got a Quenton Nelson vs. Jeffery Simmons matchup on MNF after both All-Pros escaped hopeless teams in the AFC South.
Nelson isn’t the only change to Seattle’s offense this week:
Quenton Nelson replaces Grey Zabel
Grey Zabel replaces Anthony Bradford/backups
Zach Charbonnet WILL play
Jadarian Price is “REALISTIC” to play
The Seahawks are essentially getting two new starters on the offensive line, both should be significant upgrades even though one of those “new guys” is just moving over, and Seattle’s getting two more running backs right after Emanuel Wilson had the best game of his season.
When the Seahawks average more than 3.2 yards per carry, they’re 3-1. Even an adequate rushing attack by Seattle calms the nerves of everybody else on the team, including Darnold (who should throw fewer passes/turnovers in those games), Jaxon Smith-Njigba (who won’t have to carry the whole offense), and the defense.
If the Seahawks can run the ball better on first and second down, they’ll convert a higher rate of third downs and score more points.
Seattle converts over 50% of their third down attempts under 7 yards to go, but 29% on anything longer than that.
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(We’ll stick with Emanuel Wilson as the RB for now, and then re-evaluate if it should switch to someone else; I don’t think “team” rushing yards is as exciting to monitor but I could be questioned.)
To what degree Simmons will help the Bears on Monday is harder to forecast. Surprisingly, half of his four sacks this year came in a single game against the Colts!
Surely Simmons is as much of an upgrade over Chicago’s current defensive tackles as Nelson is over Seattle’s guards (if not more) but at least the Seahawks were lucky enough to acquire Nelson first. As if they have a time machine, in fact.
But what I do know is that few defenses of the Super Bowl era have been as good as the 2025-2026 Seahawks have been and the Bears offense is not the “best of all-time” that Johnson expected it to be. So Monday’s game could come down to how well Seattle runs the ball, as that will set the tone for everybody else.
I hope Nelson brought a horseshoe with him.
Hawks 77, Da Bearsss 3
My only concern is all the changes on offence. Can they get it together and gel as well as we think they will (eventually) in such a short time. As SJ pointed out, they’re essentially a new OL. And the RB’s might take a bit to settle back in.