Oct. 17 Rewind: Seahawks 23, Bears 20

Date: October 17, 2010

Venue: Soldier Field

City: Chicago

Attendance: 62,137

With their first quality road win in years — a 23-20 squeaker over the Chicago Bears — the Seahawks established two long-missing franchise keystones — a dominant pass rush and a power run game. Seattle sacked Chicago quarterback Jay Cutler six times and harrassed him constantly. Meanwhile, recent acquisition Marshawn Lynch gutted out the tough yards in conjunction with outside threat Justin Forsett.

Star Of The Game

Russell Okung: The rookie tackle showed that when healthy, he was worthy of the sixth overall pick in the 2010 draft. He erased star defenisve end Julius Peppers and made key blocks on both of Seattle’s touchdown runs.

Play of the game

With 14;51 left in the second quarter, running back Justin Forsett ran for a nine-yard touchdown behind the dominant blocking of rookie left tackle Russell Okung. Okung hit the second level and erased star linebacker Brian Urlacher form the play.

Misplay of the game

Rookie receiver Golden Tate was thrown at twice with no catches and fumbled once.

Highlights

• Russell Okung contributed key blocks on both of Seattle’s rushing touchdowns and negated Julius Peppers all day.
• Marshawn Lynch rushed for 44 yards on 17 carries and a touchdown and added a long-missing physical inside presence to Seattle’s rushing attack.
• Justin Forsett rushed for a team-high 67 yards on just 10 carries, showing outside speed and inside toughness, and scored on a nine-yard touchdown run; also caught one pass for nine yards.
• Lawyer Milloy was the pointman in a secondary that harassed QB Jay Cutler all day with different blitzes.
• Matt Hasselbeck put together a decent performance, with 25 completions in 40 attempts for 242 yards and a touchdown.
• The Bears registered no sacks and no takeaways.
• Mike Williams had his first 100-yard receiving game for the Seahawks, catching 10 passes for 123 yards with a long gain of 23 (targeted 15 times).

Lowlights

• The Seahawks gave up an 89-yard punt return touchdown to Devin Hester.

Notable

• Marshawn Lynch carried 17 times for 44 yards and scored a touchdown in his Seattle debut; also caught three passes for nine yards.
• Deon Butler caught four passes for 47 yards and caught a 22-yard touchdown pass from Matt Hasselbeck.
• Marcus Trufant made six stops (4 solo) and broke up pass.
• Walter Thurmond made five tackles (4 solo) and broke up two passes.
• Earl Thomas made four solo tackles.
• Jordan Babineaux had four tackles (3 solo), 1.5 sacks and one quarterback hit.
• Colin Cole made three solo tackles and broke up two passes.
• Chris Clemons had three solo tackles, 0.5 sacks and one quarterback hit.
• Raheem Brock made two solo tackles, had a sack and two tackles for loss, broke up a pass and had three quarterback hits.
• Aaron Curry had two solo tackles, a sack and a quarterback hit.
• Leon Washington returned three kickoffs 77 yards with a long return of 42 yards.
• Golden Tate returned four punts for a minus two yards and one kickoff 10 yards.
• Olindo Mare made all three of his extra point attempts and did not attempt a field goal.
• Jon Ryan punted a season-high 10 times for a 39.7-yard average with a long punt of 56 yards; had six punts downed inside the 20.
• Brandon Stokley caught three passes for 57 yards.

Said

• “There’s new guys that are getting opportunities to go out and play and they’re doing an excellent job with the exception of – I don’t know – we’ve been getting teams in third and long situations and it’s because of them. To be able to blitz on third down, it’s really a reward for doing what you have to do on first and second down and our defensive line is a big part of that.” — Lawyer Milloy, Seahawks safety, on his defensive effort
• “We had a lot of stuff accomplished this weekend, stuff we’ve been working toward for really all of preseason and season, to get our game right, to go on the road and play like we’re capable of playing. I feel real good about the whole process, at least coming through in big fashion against the (Chicago) Bears.” — Pete Carroll, Seahawks head coach, on his team’s performance

Numbers

• The Seahawks were forced to punt 10 times against the Bears’ defense.