Two weeks running, and the Chicago Bears look like a professional football team. You can hem-and-haw all you want about it being against a lowly Carolina Panthers team, but the Bears did what they should do three years into a rebuild — beat up on an inferior opponent. Let’s get into some game notes:
Offense
- Let’s get the negatives out of the way. The Bears still need to start games stronger. That first drive looked flat and was punctuated by a Caleb Williams pass that should have been picked off. Shane Waldron and Matt Eberflus need to get this team running off the bus, as these slow starts will haunt the Bears against superior opponents.
- Five weeks in, and it’s becoming more and more evident that Caleb Williams is the dude. A stat line of 20/29 for 304 yards, 2 TDs, and a rating of 126.2 is wildly impressive.
- Questions have swirled about Caleb’s downfield accuracy. Whether it was due to nerves or getting on the same page with his pass catchers, his deep passes have not looked good. In week 5, that narrative ought to start to shift. Highlighted by 30 and 34 yard touchdown dimes to DJ Moore, Caleb is looking more comfortable taking shots.
- Another narrative that has lost steam? D’Andre Swift being a bad signing. He racked up another 100+ yards from scrimmage and is proving to be the versatile back we all hoped he would be.
- I am so glad DJ Moore is a Bear and not a Panther. Despite an egregious drop late in the game, Moore proved he is still the Bears' #1 receiving threat.
- The Bears top four receivers (Moore, Odunze, Allen, Kmet) all had 4+ targets. On a day where Caleb only threw the ball 29 times, that’s the type of distribution you like to see.
- The Bears offensive line quietly had their best performance of the year. Granted they were going up against a depleted front 7, but they did what they should do; kept Caleb clean and opened up running lanes.
- Let’s hope Jenkins isn’t out for long. Despite an uneven season, he is still our best OL. With that said, it’s becoming clear that the Bears need 3+ new starters on the OL next season.
- The offensive line depth? Looking much improved. Matt Pryor and Bill Murray have stepped in valiantly and held together a unit that had every reason to implode. Queue the Bill Murray Bear Down hat gif.
- Shane Waldron has improved a great deal over the last two weeks, using Gerald Everett as a complementary piece, figuring out how to get Roschon Johnson touches, and supplementing a below-average OL with Doug Kramer at fullback. Good for Waldron for being receptive to feedback.
- In the spirit of constructive criticism, I’d still like Waldron to leave the cute plays at the door on 4th downs. Pulling Swift out to the perimeter as a decoy just to hand it off to RoJo leaves you with one less blocker. Don’t overthink it.
- Jonathan Vilma was falling all over himself to suggest that there were no clear winners in the Bears-Panthers trade. This is while he was watching a game that Caleb Williams dominated, Tyrique Stevenson had 2 PBUs, Darnell Wright kept his QB clean, and Bryce Young watched from the sideline. The trade was more lopsided than the score was yesterday.
Defense
- Two more 0.5 sacks, and Gervon Dexter has 4 on the season. Let’s move past the conversation about him being better than Jalen Carter and into the conversation about him being one of the best DTs in the league. In fact, he is emerging as one of the best players on a talented Bears defense. His development is a major notch in the belt for Poles, Eberflus, and the Bears' future prospects.
- Kyler Gordon is so underrated. His speed and versatility helps every level of the defense.
- Happy to see Kevin Byard get a pick. He has clearly been an upgrade over Eddie Jackson as Brisker’s backend mate. His leadership and steady play has been huge for the Bears defense.
- While his numbers might not be showing it through five games, Montez Sweat has been gobbling up double teams so that the rest of the DL can get home.
- There were at least two occasions where Panthers receivers dropped the football because they saw Tremaine Edmunds coming for them. I wonder what it would be like to be 6’-5” and 250 lbs?
- The Bears have now forced 11 turnovers in 5 games. This remains an opportunistic bunch that will continue to set up short fields for the offense.
- It was surprising that the Panthers did not lean on Chuba Hubbard more, as he had 97 yards on 13 carries for a 7.5-yard average. The run defense remains a concern for this Bears team.
- Matt Eberflus called a pretty strong game, dialing up pressures in opportune moments. However, I would like for him to have more of a killer instinct with a big lead out of the half. It felt like both the offense and defense went into a shell coming out of the half, and better teams may take advantage.
Special Teams
- Tory Taylor didn’t have quite as good of a day as last week (hard to match that performance), but he still had a strong 44.5 yard net average on punts with one inside the 20. He had a pretty rough first punt which helped setup Carolina’s lone touchdown, but seemed to settle in as the game progressed.
- Cairo missed an extra point, so he reset that doomsday clock. Happy that it was a miss in an inconsequential moment and I would expect Santos to get back to his regular steady ways next week.
After an uneven start to the season, the Bears have strung together two strong performances. They turn around today and jump across the pond to play the London Jaguars, who are looking to start a winning streak of their own after bagging their first win of the season. Bear Down and cheerio!
