Chicago Bears vs Seattle Seahawks: A look inside the numbers

All statistics and snap counts are taken directly from the NFL's Game Statistic and Information System.

Getting shut out is obviously painful, but there were some silver lining moments to take out of yesterday's game. Not a lot, but for a Chicago Bears' team that was expected to suffer some growing pains as they "retool" their defense and try and wash the Emery/Trestman stink off of the franchise, I think most fans expected the Bears to open the season 0-3.

Punter Pat O'Donnell punted after every single Bears possession yesterday, finishing with a career high 10 punts for 477 yards. He also put 3 punts inside the 20 and had a long of 72. That 72 yard boomer was tied for the 6th longest in franchise history. O'Donnell is also now tied for the best average per punt in franchise history at 44.5.

But the special teams had their issues, as they allowed their 2nd 100+ yard kickoff return for a touchdown in as many weeks. They also got burned with their own "fake" punt return as Seattle corner Richard Sherman drifted back to fool Chicago's coverage team and race 64 yards.

Bears' returner Marc Mariani only brought 1 of 6 kicks back and he gained 27 yards on it.

A few of the busier special teamers for the Bears were John Timu with 15 snaps, Jeremy Langford with 20 and Lamin Barrow with 21. Barrow had 1 of the Bears 4 special teams tackles and somehow rookie running back Langford couldn't find his way onto the field for 1 offensive snap.

The first half of the game was a lot closer than anyone probably expected, with the Bears only trailing 6-0, aided by Chicago leading the time of possession 18:01 - 11:59. The Bears had a good gameplan on offense and defense, but it was a gameplan predicated on perfection. The margin for error on both sides of the ball was very slim, and that 2nd half kick return for a TD was a back-breaker. Even though it only put the Seahawks up by 13, it may as well have been 113. The Bears' O wasn't going to make a play and Chicago's D wasn't going to hold Seattle down forever.

In the 2nd half the time of possession flipped to Seattle's favor in a big way, as they held the ball for 20:37 of the 30 minutes.

Seattle outgained the Bears 371 to 146 and they had 17 first downs to the Bears 7. Chicago was 3-13 (23%) on 3rd downs, while Seattle was 5-16 (31%) and 2-2 (100%) on 4th downs. The Bears were penalized a season low 40 yards on 6 penalties. Starting right guard Vladimir Ducasse is now up to 5 penalties in 3 games, to "lead" the Bears in that dubious category.

On defense, there were two Bears that played all 67 snaps, inside linebacker Shea McClellin and corner Kyle Fuller. McClellin chipped in with another 16 snaps on special teams and Fuller added 6 more in the 3rd phase. For the first time this year McClellin didn't lead the Bears in tackles, he finished with 6 total stops, while Fuller had 3 tackles and 1 pass defense.

There were two Bears that tied for the team lead in tackles with 10 apiece, defensive lineman Jarvis Jenkins (56 snaps) and safety Antrel Rolle (66 snaps). Jenkins had a career day as he added 2 sacks, a tackle for loss and 2 QB hits to his 10 tackles.

Corner Alan Ball (66 snaps) was right behind the tackle leaders with 9 himself, and he also had a pass defense. Rounding out the starting secondary, rookie Adrian Amos played 64 snaps on D, plus another 16 on ST, while making 2 tackles. The nickleback was again Sherrick McManis and he played 28 snaps on defense (42%) and 13 more on ST. McManis made 4 stops on D.

Defensive back Tracy Porter saw his first action of the season and it was 5 defensive snaps. The only other DB to play on defense was safety Brock Vereen who had 3 snaps (plus 17 more on ST). For those of you upset that Vereen was burned on the Jimmy Graham TD, he's not the only defender that the ultra-athletic Graham has beaten in his career.

Dam Pompei put it best in this tweet;

10. True that Brock Vereen can’t cover Jimmy Graham. But if you find a safety anywhere who can, you are general manager of the year.

— Dan Pompei (@danpompei) September 28, 2015

Moving up to the linebacking level, inside linebacker Christian Jones played 56 snaps while making 6 tackles. Outside linebacker Jared Allen had 1 tackle and a QB Hit in his 30 (45%) defensive snaps.

The other starting OLB, Pernell McPhee, is starting to show why GM Ryan pace gave him big money contract to be the centerpiece of Vic Fangio's 3-4 defense. McPhee (49 snaps) finally got home to the quarterback by racking up 2 sacks, while making 7 tackles, to go along with 2 TFL and 4 QB Hits.

OLB Lamarr Houston played 26 snaps and he had 2 QB Hits, and OLB Sam Acho played all 27 snaps on special teams and another 34 on defense where he had 2 total tackles.

The big surprise among the Bears inactives yesterday was a healthy scratch for OLB Willie Young. With Acho back and recovered from his illness, the Bears don't have enough playing time to go around. And let's face it, Young wasn't very productive in the first 2 games, so was it really that surprising?

On the defensive line it was rookie Eddie Goldman logging 40 snaps, Ego Ferguson (1 tackle) getting 34, newcomer Mitch Unrein playing 26 and Will Sutton (1 tackle, 1 QBH) had 18 before leaving with a biceps injury.

The Bears ran a season low 50 plays on offense with QB Jimmy Clausen, tight end Martellus Bennett and 4 of the 5 starting offensive linemen playing all 50 snaps. Left tackle Jermon Bushrod only played 36 snaps before leaving with a concussion. Charles Leno Jr. came in for the final 14 offensive plays at LT and he also played 6 snaps as an extra blocker and 6 more on special teams.

Simply put, starting QB Clausen wasn't very good, then again he wasn't asked to do that much on offense, then again, there was a reason he ran a dumbed down version of the offense. He completed 9 of 17 passes for 63 yards, no TDs and no Ints. His 61.6 passer rating was actually better than 8 of his previous games where he's thrown 13 or more passes. Clauson also had 3 scrambles for 13 yards.

The most targeted Bear in the passing game was tight end Bennett, who caught 4 of the 5 balls thrown his way for a mammoth 15 yards. Wide out Eddie Royal (42 snaps) caught all 3 of the balls thrown his direction for 17 yards, but the leader in receiving yards was TE Zach Miller (29 plays on O) who hauled in the 1 pass thrown to him for 21 yards.

Jacquizz Rodgers was the only other Bear that caught a pass and he caught 1 of 1 for 10 yards. Rodgers also chipped in with 4 rushes for 11 yards in his 7 total plays on O. He had 15 more snaps in the 3rd phase. Starting RB Matt Forte didn't catch a pass on 3 targets, but he had 20 carries for 74 yards in his 44 snaps (88%).

And I'll again will wonder why Langford didn't get any PT at RB...

Rounding out the playing time and stats for the offense, wide receivers Marquess Wilson (38 snaps) was targeted twice, as was Josh Bellamy (9 snaps on O, 21 snaps on ST), Marc Mariani (11 snaps) and Cameron Meredith (9 snaps).

Any of the stats or snap counts catch your eye this week?