2026 Week 8 MNF Recap: Simmons Makes A Statement

The toss to Swift, big push, cut back, up the middle, he is into the end zone, touchdown, touchdown, Swifty, he's got a hat trick baby, three touchdowns for DeAndre Swift, ten for the season. On a second and goal at the 5 with 4.41 to go in the game. And the Bears are up 33-17 here at Lumen Field.

That is Jeff Joniak on WMVP in Chicago. Wrapping up a Bears 34-17 victory over the Seattle Seahawks on Monday Night Football. I'm here live on YouTube talking with my friend Jordan Rodrigue and... In the course of these seasons, and we're doing a lot of these live, you know, post-game shows, and we have the Sunday recap shows, there are just moments in the season, and sometimes they're multi-week moments.

And I think back to last week, Thursday night football, we see two of the best young quarterbacks in the league. Forget it, just two of the best quarterbacks in the league, period, going back and forth. But it's Caleb Williams and the Bears that are better. And then tonight... Monday night football after trading for Jeffrey Simmons. The Chicago Bears let everyone in the NFL and everyone watching on TV know just who the hell they are. And that is a top shelf Super Bowl contending team in the year 2026. They dominate Seattle throughout the night. The score was closer than the game felt for much of it until a late Sam Darnold interception and that swift touchdown. But as my friend Jordan would say, it felt like an ethical winner,

Chicago getting it done on the road on Monday night.

Greg, I was looking everywhere for my orange sleeves. I couldn't find my orange sleeves, man. I feel like I'm not meeting the moment here.

That would have been great. You know, Jeffrey Simmons, we were wondering if he would show out in terms of what he wore and show out in terms of how he played. And he absolutely did. And let's not even mess around. It's time for the Player of the Week presented by Nationwide. We've got to give it to Jeffrey Simmons because he is the man of the moment. Caleb Williams, welcome.

played great. I think Ben Johnson had a great night, but the early sack that Jeffrey Simmons had on Sam Darnold helped to set the tone on a night where he got a lot of attention. Now, this was a one-on-one matchup against Gray Zabel, who had to move over to right guard, and it did get you thinking, man, this Seattle offensive line that was without Charles Cross at left tackle is and then have to flip their guards because Quentin Nelson's at left guard might take a little while to get together. And Simmons wasn't the only good defensive lineman for the Bears tonight, but he did finish with six tackles, two tackles for loss, a sack. He had a pass breakup, and he helped unlock the rest of the group. Montez Sweat also returning from suspension. And

this Bears defense is... just dominated their matchup in a way that wasn't even close to what Seattle's defensive line could do. It was the Chicago defensive line that just had Sam Darnold in all sorts of trouble and the running game also struggling.

Yeah, it was pretty incredible because Jeffrey Simmons not only dominated the line of scrimmage and helped the rest of his counterparts all around him, who already seemed to really have, maybe it's they can see his arms wherever they are. Like they can, they have this awareness of him already, which was cool. I was watching him the whole time and only one time did a stunt sort of get tripped up between two defenders. But they completely schematically changed what they do on defense because solely they added Jeffrey.

Simmons to the mix.

Dennis Allen's defense was blitzing at the seventh highest rate in the NFL so far this season, Greg. And adding Jeffrey Simmons early on, Dennis Allen, you could almost hear him in his mind going, oh... OK, seeing how much Jeffrey Simmons affected the front just by rushing for they only had to blitz Sam Darnold on six of his 34 dropbacks tonight, a dramatic and stark contrast to how they had to manufacture that.

Before pressure before. And why does that matter? Okay.

Because you saw the actual difference in when you can blitz, when you have to blitz like that and resort to the blitz like that versus when you can drop everybody back in coverage and only rush for, you saw it on the third and long where Jeffrey Simmons was not on the field. And so Dennis Allen says, okay, I need to get pressure here. So I'm going to walk up to defensive backs. It was Gordon and Thienemann And I'm going to blitz Sam Darnold here. And what does he do? He pops a long ball over to the far left of his progression. Good for Sam to touchdown to JSN, who looks wide open or at least single covered because they don't have enough players back there to bracket him.

That's what happens. That's the difference that Jeffrey.

Simmons can make in when he's on the field for this team because everything else was completely shut down.

Yeah, it is. It's funny because it's why it's great to watch the games versus just looking at the final numbers because the pressure numbers weren't that crazy. But Sam Darnold ultimately was frazzled by the quick pressure that was being given up. And Simmons is making an impact in every aspect of the game. The Bears also getting it done on special teams. Let's listen to the field goal block when this game was still close late in the early in the fourth quarter. This is a field goal.

And the snap. And the placement.

It's blocked.

The Bears block it and turn him away again. We'll have to check who got their hand on it. But I'll tell you, Jeffrey Simmons is on that crew.

And I'm sure, I'm sure.

That draws more attention than normal because he is a bull in a china shop.

I just like that call, and I like that he's getting credit for all sorts of things. That was, I believe, Austin Booker, who did get his hand up. Although, a little bit of push there on special teams from Jeffrey Simmons. So, as I mentioned, it wasn't just Simmons. Montez Sweat would have had a couple sacks, but had one taken back from penalty. There were a lot of good... defensive plays, including an interception that the Bears had that were taken back from penalties, which I think gave the feeling that this could have been even worse. Now, the Seahawks did miss an extra point. They had that field goal block.

They made up for it with a two point conversion later. And they still really had a chance in this game, Jordan. But I think about the two play sequence and we'll get into what the Bears offense did well in this game because they were really up for the challenge. I did not think the Seahawks defense played poorly in this game. Ultimately, like the Bears offense just made a few more plays in key spots and just kept getting possessions. But I think you could guess where I would go here, which is a two play sequence in the fourth quarter. where it's third and nine, the bears actually get some good fortune that they get a delay, a game called on what would have been an unsuccessful run. They would have

been set up for a fourth and six. They would have been kicking a field goal only up. I think at, you know, three points at that point and the bears would have given the ball back to Seattle, potentially, you know, just down one score with plenty of time remaining. This was a competitive back and forth game, but instead they get another shot at it at third and nine and And it's just a little it's one of the short passes that Caleb Williams had. It goes to Kalief Raymond.

It's actually ruled a lateral. So it's the most successful run of the game. And Kalief Raymond takes that third and eight and runs all the way down to the goal line. The ensuing play is the DeAndre Swift touchdown that you heard earlier in the broadcast. And I think it was just a typical night where or a typical example of you know, just gets over Demarcus Lawrence's hand on that throw to Kalief Raymond and it's executed to perfection and it's a lot of run after the catch.

And as well as Caleb Williams, I think played in this game, he didn't have to do too much. Like a lot of it was wide open and a lot of it was schemed up. And in the second half, especially it was plays like that where he just was taking the easy ones and they were getting it done. And eventually, as much as they struggled running the ball for about three quarters, the dam did sort of break and they get over 40% success rate and they run the ball pretty well to close out this game.

Yeah, that little lateral screen to Kalief Raymond to me was incredible. emblematic of such an incredibly solid response, obviously, from the Bears, who at that point, you know, could have teetered a little bit because Seattle had made it a game. At that point, they had forced a turnover finally and.

Capitalized off of it. But that little.

Pass to me showed so much about what makes this Bears team good. It's Caleb Williams not feeling like he has to take the whole shot all at once. It's these guys all collaborating together with this scheme to capitalize on a really well-designed play that empowers the speed and the technicality of these players. Kalief Raymond being so fast after the catch point as he is. And then the blocking there from Darnell Wright and Jonah Jackson at the catch, right at the catch point to make this happen. Into a big gain where normally when we see those plays, they're sort of considered like give up plays, not in the case of Ben Johnson, who to me, other than the other than the one play that ended up being

a forced fumble by DeMarcus Lawrence, it was a little like Colston Loveland screen that was sort of a cult play call reset play that we talk about sometimes that was really the only sort of quote-unquote give up play that ben johnson had this entire game his foot was on the gas the whole time you saw it in that khalif raymond play with the way that it was designed to quite literally spring him to bounce that 39-yard upfield.

Yeah, it was a great execution, great play. I'm glad you said that because there were a couple throws short of the sticks on longer yardage situations. Some worked, some didn't. I thought it was just a fascinating chess match when the Bears had the ball in this game. They start the game with a 17-play, 80-yard drive. Talk about omens, Jordan, the way this game starts. I mean, the first two, the second and third down in the first Seattle drive had massive hits by the Bears' defense, including Cam Lewis, and I think it was Torrey Gordon, setting a tone.

And then the Bears get the ball, and they go down 17 plays down. 80 yards. And it was a lot of taking the short stuff and taking what was there and Caleb Williams not needing to do too much and them not being able to run the ball, like I said, early in that drive. But eventually they do get it down. It's the first quarter. Let's hear the first touchdown of the game. It wound up being the only passing touchdown for Caleb Williams. Is that right? And this one was to Luther Burden.

Goal at the one. Caleb in the gun. Roshon Johnson to his right. Takes the snap. Greengrass will Caleb throw a run. He throws to the end zone. Pass is caught.

Touchdown. Touchdown Luther. Touchdown Luther Burden. Touchdown Bears.

A one-yarder with 5.25 to go in the opening quarter.

What a drive. That was a statement drive and really an accurate ball. What did you think about Caleb Williams' ball placement and accuracy on this night?

Yeah, you know, you mentioned a few minutes ago that you didn't think he had to do all that much. I thought he played an artistic and excellent game.

Yeah, you have to play Seattle's defense a certain way. You have to be patient. But the way that they blended, and it's because he can move and throw on the run the way that he can, the way that they could pick and poke in little pieces vertically over and over and over again, and then all of a sudden just completely flow everything sideways. It is so uncomfortable for a defense that is already quite literally moving backward in increments.

and wants to attack and wants to assert and move forward at the snap. And instead you're making them move backwards and you're flowing them from side to side where they're not comfortable. I thought it was such an awesome blend of knowing that your quarterback will be patient.

We just talked about this.

Last week, Greg, you know, talking about how well Caleb Williams protects the ball. And this is an example of this, knowing he will be patient enough, knowing he will not take two scoops on the cone where he can just, he only needs one where one actually ends up being the proper scoop to take. Right. And I thought too, that there was a sequence that he, in the first half, especially he, I thought he was.

Layering the ball extremely well.

And obviously, like I said, protecting it, There was a second quarter throw, an 18-yard throw to Romo Dunzey, where his pocket movement was so exceptional. It looked like he was moving at a different pace than everybody else, like Matrix style, like everything's going around him, but he's just feeling it and understanding it. And then it combined the element that I just mentioned of the scheme and making the defense move in ways they're not totally comfortable because They kept.

Moving his launch point in any way they could think of.

And one of those was a wildcat snap to DeAndre Swift and then a flip back to Caleb, which again, almost is like an inverse of a play action fake if you really kind of like, you know, break your brain in that way. What it looks like to a defender is moving the launch point, and that's exactly another element.

Where they absolutely were.

Capitalizing on everything he does well, all the things he's good at, and all the ways that he can affect a defense, but packaging it up in this very intelligent way together as the head coach, play caller, and the quarterback.

Yeah, I think it was an incredible game. It was accurate. What I meant more was like they're settling for field goals in the first half. And I thought the second half, like they didn't.

Have to play hero ball. They didn't have to play hero ball.

There was that one play you're talking about. I think you mean in the third quarter. If you're watching us on YouTube, we are trying to give you the visuals as well. And there was that 22 yarder to a dunes day. And it was the one time in the night where it was like, Caleb Williams is going to show you who he is by getting out of a sack and moving around. And that, to me, was such a key play. It was a second and 11. It sets up the touchdown. And he is just in the matrix right now in terms of his balance and his decision making. He is not forcing anything. I got to a point thinking, watching this game, because Seattle was... kind of being efficient in maximizing their opportunities, that the Seahawks

were going to just have to get like a lucky bounce. Like there were two tipped balls in the game that just kind of floated in the air. And I'm like, one of them that the Seahawks had a chance to catch and they didn't catch it. Another one just fell to the ground. There was that play at the end of the first half where like Lawrence hits his arm and it just floats to nowhere. And I'm thinking the only way the Seahawks, who I think are competing well and tackling well, are going to win this game is if they sort of get a lucky bounce. They didn't make...

any plays like that. They did get the fumble at one point and then the bears fought right back and got like their own turnover. If it was going to be played evenly, it was just such a mismatch in terms of the line play. Like the Seattle offensive line was terrible in this game. And I thought the bears offensive line was awesome. For the most part, Caleb Williams had a lot of time. His time to throw was way longer than Sam Darnold. And the pressure rate was really low. So for the most part, I thought Chicago is just like a better team up front. They got the better quarterback. And tonight, at least, I think you have to say they have the better coaching.

Yeah, I thought that they were just ready for pretty much anything that Seattle could throw at them. And just to be clear, I was referring to two plays in the second quarter, Greg. One of them was the 18-yard catch by Roma Dunze, and it wasn't a complete escape like the one you showed, which is also a great example, but it was such gorgeous pocket movement. And then two plays later is the deep pass left to Roma Dunze for 28 yards. Again, a really difficult— that was the direct snap that— DeAndre Swift took just ahead of the two minute warning. So again, I thought their plan was so excellent.

I thought they blocked it up so well, like you said. And again, I know I'm a broken record at this point, but blocking all the different types of plays that this team is running, that takes some real, like real togetherness and great teamwork. just connectivity and fortitude by this offensive line, because you are going to be moving the play flow any which way because you can. And that's the way you have to do it to beat the Seahawks defense.

Yeah, Leonard Williams left with the stinger at one point. I don't think he came back. He was watching on the sidelines, but I thought they were getting after it. It wasn't like they were just getting dominated on that side. I thought that side was a great battle. More surprisingly, the Dennis Allen and Bears defense matchup against Brian Fleury and the Seahawks offense was the one-sided battle. Now, if you're a Seahawks fan, you're thinking, wow, we're four and four here. We are three games back in the loss column from the 49ers. That is a little out of our hands right now. We're going to need the 49ers to slip up. They do have a pretty favorable schedule moving forward, Seattle, but it's going to be a long

road back. And then you look over at these teams in the NFC North and they all look good. The Bears, the Lions, the Vikings, we'll see about the Packers. But it's going to be hard to catch up to these teams. And I don't think it's getting late early for Seattle. I really believe in this team long term. But I think you did see... two programs at different stages right now.

And Jeffrey Simmons is plug and play to a defense that's a little better than expected. And Quinton Nelson is not necessarily plug and play because you're moving Gray's able around and you got other issues. You have major offensive issues that one guard is not going to solve. And I think this offense, as we've seen for eight weeks, uh, still has to develop to a team that could potentially go deep in the playoffs. And they're just not there yet.

And the Bears defense, amazingly, is a defense that will take advantage of an offense that is just not ready for it right now.

The most productive Seattle's offense was, was when they were putting together a couple of good runs that ultimately set up what ended up being one of my favorite plays of the game, a play fake by Sam Darnold, you know, to the touchdown.

To Cooper Cup, where He literally tucks the.

Ball so well and fakes it in a way where you think he's handing it off to one of the two either running back or fullback players that's in the backfield. And it was so well executed and well designed and set up by a couple of basically realignment motions that Cooper Cupp was basically organizing.

You could hear him call it on the field. We're good.

We're good.

No, stop motioning. I'm the one getting the touchdown.

I got this.

Like, we can do it.

And and really excellent excellent um just scheme and execution there and the play fake is what really causes the defense to bite down as hard as they did because of how that tiny little detail was so well executed it's like the little thing of that's what a run game can do for you and I know I know that's the debate of 2018 or whatever The heck it was like, oh, you don't need play action to run the ball, whatever. To run a play fake like that on the goal line where the defense crashes that hard and all you need to do is flip it on like a little outbreaking route to one of the steadiest handed receivers still in the league. yeah, you're going to want them to bite down on the play action because

you've been running the ball.

So that's a real problem. It remains a problem.

You know, getting Darian Price back healthy was not a huge impact for them tonight, but he's just gotten back.

So you just need to.

See more and then getting more dimension in this offense in general. I love the JSN play as much as anybody. I love the spam, the JSN call, you know, as much as anybody, but It's just not going to work long-term if a defense can't affect you like that with four and then can play with the types of brackets that they did on the back end.

And if Sam Darnold's your quarterback, I mean, we're... I know.

Thank you for letting me get like my little bit of praise for Sam down out before you actually started.

I appreciate you for that. That's just good hosting right there.

It wasn't his worst game. And yeah, you mentioned Jadarian Price returns. He looked okay. And Zach Charbonnet has returned and he looks okay. But their offensive line was just terrible. And Sam Darnold's not going to win behind a bad offensive line. I was watching that partly because of Simmons all night. There were very few plays where they did not get pushed back in pass pro or in run blocking.

And Darnold will have four or five really good plays in a game. We know that. And he did. The fact that they were even in this game in the fourth quarter... he had to have some good plays. But he was lucky. He avoided a couple turnovers that he could have had. And he's not comfortable. He was not comfortable early in this game. He hasn't been comfortable all season.

You could go back to the stretch run of last season, and he's had a few good games, and obviously the NFC Championship game and the Super Bowl title. That's not the point. We're never taking that away from him. But we're at a pretty long stretch of games with him as the Seattle Seahawks quarterback, where he's giving you subpar starting quarterback play. And, you know, I'm not, I'm not openly wondering what they would be doing if Gino Smith was that quarterback in this game.

Oh my God.

Just kidding. They need better play out of Sam Darnold ultimately. And I don't like even last week where I think it was like a step forward. It wasn't like this huge step forward. I do think the schedule is going to help. They've had a pretty tough schedule lately really to open the season. And if you look at it, it opens up. quite a bit down the stretch. They do have the two games against the Rams and they have the 49ers. Not saying they don't have some hard games, but they'll have a lot of games where they're favored.

The Bears, on the other hand, Jordan, they're one of these three straight primetime game performances. Do you know their next game, Sunday night football against the top five defense? Yes. Statistics. DVOA proves it. The best three and five team in NFL history, according to DVOA. It is your Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

I mean, I think the Bears are going to win that game. I think the Bears might win any game right now. But that is a fun just matchup when they're on the field against Todd Bowles's unit. So they're just box office, man. And I just love this Simmons trade as like a storyline for this season and where Caleb's at right now.

Yeah, the one place you saw the Bears have a little bit of an issue tonight was when Seattle could run the ball productively. And so, yeah, for a Tampa Bay team who's one of their running backs is outpacing like eight different NFL teams in terms of total.

Rushing yardage right now. Yeah, a matchup to watch for sure.

And great play by the Bucs secondary and their front's finally starting to wake up a little bit. But man, you said it. This Chicago Bears team, first of all, it's as box office a team as we have in the NFL right now. And you saw flashes of that start to emerge, particularly their end of game. magic at the end of last season, but they are magic through all four quarters now. And it's like the pleasant surprises that you see every game from them, which is, is this Dennis Allen's defense?

That's playing way better than I thought that then I thought, Oh.

Do they, are they the ones with the edge on special teams tonight? Even though Seattle has been such a great special teams team for, for, you know, a couple of years, certainly under the Mike McDonald era, like it's, This was just, again, a butt kicking in all three phases. And it's like, this is the vision of the Bears that Ben Johnson had in mind when he got to Chicago, a team that was not just going to win out loud.

It was also going to win in the margins.

And that's their own self-inflicted mistakes that they had You know, tonight, that's all one thing. But over time and overall, I buy this team as one that not only wins out loud, but also in the margins.

And that's a very dangerous football team.

Yes, I I love your point on the special teams. Seattle is getting all these returns and they had like Chicago in bad field position. I thought I was going to catch up to him. And then like Chicago came back in special team. They get they get plus 100 yards overall from scrimmage. They have a 47% overall success rate, 47.8 to only 30 for the Seahawks. The Seahawks running game especially just absolutely killed them. Like that is a absolute butt whooping. And I always think about this graphic of quarterbacks and coaches that I've seen of like when they win their Super Bowls together. And historically, it's like Mike McDonald and Sam Darnold last year. It's almost always in the first couple of years. Like the first Super

Bowl you're ever going to win together. It's like a bad stat. It's basically a Josh Allen stat. But now he has the new coach. So that helps. Like Josh Allen, Sean McDermott stat. Like no quarterback coach has ever done it after being together for five years. And I'm thinking like this team's ready to do it right now because Luther Burden is getting better.

This.

running game with Menungai when he gets back is going to be really dynamic. Swift's been awesome. And then Caleb Williams is balling out. It's probably not going to be that tough a conversation with quarterback Island on tap.

I know. And remember, remember listeners, the reason why he wasn't on the last installment was because he was injured and we have that rule that it's a hard and fast rule. I'm just saying we get people in the mentions sometimes. And just remember, just remember, and Greg, if you cut us down, I'm already expecting it. But, man, that's just going to be brutal. That's going to be like one of the most torturous things.

We got a lot of the young quarterbacks are playing at a high level right now. We're going to have to have some tough conversations about the older ones. I think we had a tough conversation about the Seattle Seahawks. Are you worried long term? Like just a quick answer like you're not.

No.

They're too complete. Do you think they win the division? It's going to be tough to make the playoffs. That's all. It's not going to be an easy path now to make the playoffs. You're probably going to have to go eight and two, right? Is that the number left to possibly make the playoffs?

Mathematically, you know my forte.

You might be waiting for tiebreakers. So I'm just saying, I think they can and I think they will do it, but most likely they're going to be a wild card and most likely they need to win seven or eight games moving forward. So the margin of error is a little slimmer. than it was before tonight.

I just mean like overall, I don't worry about them. I think they are so well built overall in general. I think that they have some Definite scheme, definite quarterback, definite run game issues to iron out. I think this defense is going to be fine. I think they're well coached in just about every phase. And overall, I believe the proof that they've shown us over the last couple of years versus a couple of these outliers against really good teams that were just, just like four moves ahead of them in the chess match tonight.

I agree with you. I agree with you. This season has been sloppy. Like their point differential is, is not too good right now they've had some sloppy losses like to the commanders um but the upcoming schedule arizona at las and then at las vegas before the buy like they just need to take care of business they will be six and four at their buy and then yes you do have it at san francisco after that but you also have the cowboys the eagles and at panthers you got the rams a couple times in the last Three weeks. So those two games, Jordan, which we thought, ooh, is that going to be for the one seed? It might be.

Might be for the wild card.

I mean, it almost certainly is. The way the NFC North is shaping up, I guess you don't want to talk too much uncertainties.

Listen, I never get ahead of my skis.

It's hard to get both of those teams into the playoffs right now. So especially if one of them can sweep. Ooh, I love it.

I love it.

My last point to you and question for you. I was thinking about this all night. How joyful does it make you feel? Just like from the tips of your swoopy hair to like the bottoms of your toes, like how the trade deadline in action or trades in action are so can be so, so, so dynamically positive for a team when they're aggressive and they make the right move at the right time for the right player.

You wonder if there's GMs and owners watching this very game being like, how come we didn't make that move? I mean it. And like, let's go make that move over the next eight days. You're speaking my language. Trades have become a way bigger deal of the NFL landscape. I expect it to be busy over the next eight days.

I would not be surprised if we have to Like jam in a quick emergency episode on Tuesday on, you know, that goes up before Quarterback Island because we have some big trade. We'll see.

He's a newsman to his core.

We can only hope.

Yes.

Join Jordan and I for Quarterback Island. We will have the full cast there. We'll also have. our friends Steve Weiss and Colleen Wolfe. Let's get out of here. Before I didn't close up our segment, by the way, so just consider the whole show a long segment. That was the Player of the Week presented by Nationwide for your insurance and financial needs. Nationwide is on your side. We will be back in the studio, Chris Wesseling Podcast Studio, Quarterback Island. Will Caleb Williams be there? Will Jordan Love get on? Will Drake May get on? Some big names to discuss. We'll see you then.

2026 Week 8 MNF Recap: Simmons Makes A Statement

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