Monday Night Football: Seattle Seahawks @ Chicago Bears

Coming off of heartbreaking losses in week one, both the Seattle Seahawks and the Chicago Bears are looking for win number one in week two. For the Seattle Seahawks, it was a 27-24 loss to the Denver Broncos in week one after trading blows for all four quarters.

For the Bears, it was a brutal collapse in the second half, one in which a gimpy Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers ran roughshod over them, erasing a 17-0 halftime deficit en route to a 24-23 Packers victory. Both teams are looking to start fresh, though, and both will be hungry as they play in front of a national audience for Monday Night Football when the Seattle Seahawks (0-1) travel to Soldier Field to take on the Chicago Bears (0-1). Kickoff is scheduled for 8:15 pm ET.

The spread comes in with the Chicago Bears as 4.5-point favorites in this one. The over/under on total points scored comes in at 43.

Seattle Seahawks Creating New Identity Without the Legion of Boom

Everywhere you look, there are new faces for the Seattle Seahawks. Richard Sherman, Sheldon Richardson, Jimmy Graham, Michael Bennett, Cliff Avril are all gone as they are either retired or playing on other teams. To make matters worse, Earl Thomas is back, but disgruntled, after returning to the team just prior to week one after holding out for either a new contract or a trade.

Then there is the injury bug. The Seahawks have ruled out Bobby Wagner, K.J. Wright and Doug Baldwin for week two with an assortment of injuries. In fact, to fill the void of depth at linebacker, the Seahawks signed, and plan to play, Mychal Kendricks, who is awaiting trial for insider trading charges. Needless to say, the Seahawks will have their hands full, and that is before they even look across the field.

One player who does remain, though, is Russell Wilson. Last week, he went 19 for 33 with 298 yards and 3 touchdowns. His 3 touchdowns went to Will Dissly (3 receptions, 105 yards), Tyler Lockett (3 receptions for 59 yards) and Brandon Marshall (3 receptions for 46 yards). While the passing game wasn’t too bad, one thing that does have to improve is the offensive line play. Wilson was sacked 6 times, and with a Bears defense headlined by Khalil Mack, the matchup doesn’t get any easier for the Seahawks.

Bears Looking To Play All Four Quarters

For the first two quarters last week, the Bears looked like they had the makings of being one of the best teams in the NFL; unfortunately for them, there are four quarters to a game. Despite their resounding success, especially on defense, in the first half, they just couldn’t get much going against the Packers in the second half.

Credit a lot of that to halftime adjustments, most notably a shift to trying to get the ball out of a hobbled Aaron Rodgers’ hand much quicker. Still, the Bears just couldn’t seem to get to the quarterback in the second half like they did in the first. For a couple of the players, though, an extra week of practice should help. Khalil Mack played despite only having a couple days of practice and 1st round pick Roquan Smith didn’t have too much more than that. With those two additions, though, a pretty good defense from last year might end up being downright frightening.

On the other side of the ball, Matt Nagy and the Bears are hoping for another step in the improvement of quarterback, Mitch Trubisky. Last week he went 23 for 35 with 171 yards. He also added 32 yards on 7 rushes and a touchdown. With weapons all around him in Allen Robinson, Trey Burton, Taylor Gabriel, Tarik Cohen, and Jordan Howard, he shouldn’t have any excuses to not have a better game this week. Speaking of Howard, he also had a nice game last week going 82 yards on ground in 15 carries and 5 receptions for 25 yards.

Take The Bears

Despite how good Pete Carroll and Russell Wilson are together, I just struggle to see anyone be able to deal with as much adversity and turnover as the Seahawks have gone through. Especially with three Pro-Bowlers in Wagner, Wright and Baldwin out, I think the Bears are going to have success on both sides of the ball, but especially the defensive side. While I don’t think the Bears complete blow out the Seahawks, I do feel pretty comfortable taking the Bears even though they are giving up 4.5 points.