The Sports Xchange

SEATTLE — The Seattle Seahawks ended a two-week draught with their first win of the season Sunday, when they shut out the Chicago Bears 26-0 and doused first-year defensive coordinator Kris Richard with a Gatorade bath. But the celebration pretty much stopped there.

“I’m not going to say we’re back,” linebacker K.J. Wright said after Seattle held the Bears (0-3) to just 146 yards and seven first downs. “We’ve got to keep working. You can’t say we’ve arrived or we’re the best defense in the NFL just like that. We’ve still got a lot of work to do.”

Tight end Jimmy Graham made a splash in his home debut and safety Kam Chancellor returned to spearhead a solid defense that recorded its first shutout since Week 15 of the 2013 season.

“He was very comfortable; they were comfortable with him in there,” coach Pete Carroll said. “You could just see it. He made us whole.”

Seattle also overcame a hamstring injury to running back Marshawn Lynch, whose absence was minimized by a breakout performance from rookie Thomas Rawls. The undrafted rookie from Central Michigan had 104 yards on 16 carries.

Lynch was unavailable at the start of the game and carried just five times for 14 yards before coming out with a hamstring injury he suffered late in the first half.

“It’s nothing to be alarmed by,” Carroll said. “We’ll just have to wait and see.”

Graham scored a 30-yard touchdown in the third quarter of his first home game with the Seahawks, giving Seattle a 20-0 lead after the offense struggled most of the first half.

Seattle kicker Steven Hauschka made four field goals, the first two of which came during a first half that saw the Seahawks struggle on the way to a 6-0 lead. Special teams helped spark Seattle, as Richard Sherman’s 64-yard punt return set up the first Hauschka field goal before rookie Tyler Lockett broke a franchise-long 105-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to open the second half while giving the Seahawks (1-2) a 13-0 lead.

“I don’t think anybody touched me at all,” Lockett said. “It was just me and the kicker (Robbie Gould), and then I just had to make sure I didn’t get caught from behind.”

What we learned about the Seahawks

1. Kam Chancellor is a huge part of the Seattle defense. After giving up 61 points in the first two games of the season — the most allowed by the Seahawks in back-to-back games during the Pete Carroll era — the defense shut out Chicago on Sunday.

2. For all his gifts, Marshawn Lynch is still unreliable. He was in the locker room when Sunday’s game started, getting pregame treatment even though the game was well underway before Lynch finally got into the action. Hecouldn’t make it through the half before a sore hamstring ended his day.

3. Rookie return man Tyler Lockett is pretty special. His 105-yard kickoff return was Lockett’s second return touchdown of the season. He showed his big-play ability in the preseason and hasn’t slowed down once the competition got real.

Etc.

–CB Richard Sherman made his first punt return of the season and only the third of his career on a trick play Sunday. Sherman lined up as a blocker on the right side of the field, turned and ran straight up the field. PR Tyler Lockett and the rest of the Seahawks’ special teams unit went to the other side of the field and pretended the ball went that way. The Bears fell for it and Sherman rambled 64 yards to set up a Seattle field goal in the first quarter.

–RB Marshawn Lynch was unable to start or finish Sunday’s game because of a hamstring injury. Coach Pete Carroll said Lynch had trouble loosening his hamstring during pregame warmups and wasn’t even out of the locker room until midway through the first half. Lynch carried five times and had one reception but eventually succumbed to the injury and sat out the second half.

–DT Brandon Mebane suffered a groin injury in the first quarter of Sunday’s game and did not return. Mebane missed the second half of last season with a torn hamstring. His status will be re-evaluated this week.

–WR Tyler Lockett set a franchise record with the longest kickoff return in team history when he scored on a 105-yard touchdown on the opening play of the second half. His return broke the previous mark of 101 yards set by Leon Washington in October 2010.