D'Andre Swift is the first Bear since Walter Payton to pull this off

D'Andre Swift just joined Walter Payton in Chicago Bears history.

Walter Payton's name is the standard with which every Bears running back gets measured against, and rightly so. The thing is, it almost never gets invoked for good reasons. Monday night in Seattle, D'Andre Swift earned the invocation.

Swift scored three rushing touchdowns in the second half of Chicago's 34-19 win, and per ESPN Insights, he is the first Bears player to score three rushing touchdowns in a half since Payton did it himself back in 1977.

Chicago led in that game only 13-9 at the half, and the game was still in reach when Seattle cut it to 20-17 early in the fourth quarter. Swift handled the rest. His one yard touchdown run in the third quarter pushed the lead to 20-9, and he answered Seattle's final push with a five yard score after Kalif Raymond produced a 39-yard gain. Then Swift iced the game with another touchdown with 4:41 left on the clock after Sam Darnold threw an interception.

Swift finished the night with 27 carries, 69 hard earned yards, and 3 touchdowns.

Plenty of good running backs have worn this uniform in the nearly five decades since Payton set that record in '77, yet none of them managed three touchdowns in a half like Payton did. Swift not only did it on the road, in primetime, against the defending champions, but he did it in a game the Bears needed to keep pace in the division.

This wasn't a one-night spike, either. Swift now has 10 rushing touchdowns this season, the most in the NFL, and already a career high, with nine games remaining. Chicago leads the league in rushing touchdowns as a team, and at present they hold the second-best rushing game in the NFL.

Tampa Bay brings the league's best to Soldier Field on Sunday night. Sunday night, the league's best rushing team walks into Soldier Field, and Chicago's answer is the back who just matched Walter Payton.

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