Bear(ing) the News – A Chicago Bears Blog

Offense

• I was kind of surprised to see the Bears running the ball up the middle in the first series. I would’ve thought they would’ve tried to attack the edges in the run. The Steelers, particularly Nick Herbig, are a little light on the edges.
• It looked to me like Caleb Williams was reasonably accurate and on time on occasion today. But he’s still too inconsistent and still missed too many open throws.
• We knew this was going to be a physical game, and it looked to me like the Bears just plain got out-physicaled at the line of scrimmage. Advantage AFC North.
• A deep ball game would have been very handy today. You’d like to see Williams develop to the point where the Bears trust him more to make those long throws.
• On the other hand, credit Williams for getting the ball out quickly today. Even on the throws he missed, they came out reasonably fast.
• As has been true in recent weeks, most of Williams’s success was with throws over the middle.

Defense

• I really expected that Pittsburgh would come out running against a bunch of subs at linebackers. And that’s exactly what they did. And they had great success doing it. If you count the wide receiver screens, they made a lot of yardage.
• One thing that stuck out was the blocking by the Steelers wide receivers. It was excellent.
• Given that game plan, I expected that Pittsburgh would come out with a lot of two- and three-tight-end sets to run out of. They do it as much as any team in the league. However, to my eye, they didn’t really do that. A lot of it was one-tight-end sets. My guess is that’s because they decided to attack the edges in the run.
• I don’t think there was much of a pass rush in the first half, but Mason Rudolph did a good job of getting the ball out of his hands quickly today. Kudos to him for playing within himself and letting the team’s other highly regarded players make plays.
• Montez Sweat had a nice second half with a couple of sacks, a forced fumble, and a recovered fumble (his own). He’s earning his money.

Miscellaneous

• I like JJ Watt on color. For one thing, the guy really knows the rules. That’s helpful.
• I don’t mean to imply that I know anything about broadcasting. But I know bad work when I see it. And some of the camera work was pretty poor in this game.
• Nice interception by Nashon Wright. That was a big play early in the game on a not-so-great throw by Rudolph.
• On the other hand, the fumble by Williams in the end zone that allowed the Steelers to score a touchdown wasn’t great. You live by the sword, and you die by the sword. The guy is trying to make a play, and it backfires. It’s bound to happen.
• I was not thrilled with the call on the D’Andre Swift “fumble” in the second quarter. There’s no way the officials saw what happened on that play, and progress by Swift was stopped anyway. I think they may have decided that turnovers are reviewed and therefore called the turnover absent anybody actually seeing the play. Of course, if they couldn’t see what happened among the bodies, there’s no way that replay could show it.
• It wasn’t the debacle that some of the games earlier in the season were. But I still think the Bears need to be cleaner in terms of penalties. The taunting penalty by DJ Moore in the third quarter was pretty stupid.
• I liked “Everybody Loves Raymond”, too. But did it really call for a reunion show? And about 15 commercials about it? On the other hand, CBS’s target audience appears to be people 75 and older, so maybe so.
• It’s never an excuse, but Bears injuries really piled up today. Hopefully, the Bears will get some help in that area as players return this week from injury before the Eagles game.
• I think Ben Johnson will look back at this game and be particularly disappointed in the fact that the Bears got out-physicaled too often on both sides of the ball. I think he’s trying to establish an identity in Chicago, and that’s at the heart of it. They’ve got a way to go. It will be interesting to see how they look against a very physical Eagles team in a big TV slot on Black Friday.
• Sometimes I measure Williams’ progress by how often I yell the words, “Throw it! Throw it!” at the TV as he holds the ball. I didn’t do that once today. Be happy, Bears fans. There’s progress being made every week here.

Defense

• Interesting that the Bears decided to keep Noah Sewell at middle linebacker and leave Tremaine Edmunds at weak side linebacker with TJ Edwards out. Apparently, they decided to leave Edmunds at his position of strength rather than return him to his old position where he has a wealth of experience. That may be a measure of how much the change has benefited him.
• The Vikings went right at Nashon Wright. Wright played for the Vikings in 2024, so they know who he is. As far as I’m concerned, they would have taken their pick of the corners to pick on. Apparently, Wright was the guy. He made a pretty good play to make them pay when he intercepted McCarthy in the end zone at the end of the second half. He also broke coverage on the go ahead touchdown for the Vikings within the final minute of the game.
• The Vikings also picked on Sewell as a weak spot in the defense. They had good success running the outside zone (as they did in week 1) and went after him in coverage underneath with Aaron Jones.
• Kudos to the Viking offensive line. They did a great job of blocking the Bears in the run. Andrew Billings wasn’t a big factor, and if you can effectively block a load like that, you’re going pretty well.
• The Bears had a hard time getting pressure on McCarthy early on, but in fairness, the Vikings were trying to get the ball out quickly.
• Give credit to Grady Jarrett for getting pressure on McCarthy on a stunt on Kevin Byard’s second-quarter interception.
• I was very much worried about the offensive weapons that Minnesota brings to the table: Justin Jefferson, Jalen Nailor, Aaron Jones. But I underestimated how much having a rookie quarterback just getting comfortable with the speed of the NFL was going to hamper them. McCarthy was reportedly wearing a bandage on his right hand when he was warming up, and whatever was behind that couldn’t have helped. Eventually, their patience may pay off. But for now, McCarthy is holding them back. The Vikings very evidently came out in the second half trying to run the ball better to take the pressure off McCarthy.
• Justin Jefferson was wearing a double strand of large pearls or diamonds or something today. Isn’t there a rule against that? Shouldn’t there be? At least a rule against fashion?

Offense

• Caleb Williams was killing me with his deep ball accuracy on third down early. Man, the thought of where they’d be if a decent percentage of those were completions.
• The offense was just not running well. It was a stuttering, stop-and-start affair that just wasn’t smooth enough in the passing game to cleanly move the ball down the field. No one looks comfortable right now, especially when Williams is trying to connect with his wide receivers.
• The Bears keep missing those free blitzers, especially off the edge. Williams keeps pulling rabbits out of his hat and escaping, but you wonder how long he’s going to get away with that with any consistency. They need to work this out.
• About midway through the second quarter, it occurred to me that the Bears were underutilizing their tight ends again. Right about that point, they threw subsequent passes to Cole Kmet and Colston Loveland. It’s a nice job by Ben Johnson.
• I particularly liked seeing Kmet in the backfield, where he can either block or become a receiver.
• The Vikings started to get a disturbing amount of penetration from their defensive line in the second half. I’m not sure why, but Noah Jackson was behind at least some of it. He had a pretty bad half of football to my eye. In any case, the Bears need to take a close look at whatever changed. It’s hard to run the ball that way, and the Bears found it to be rougher going after that.
• Theo Benedet also struggled at times in pass protection. He’s getting pushed back into Williams too often. On the other hand, like most of the line outside of Jackson, he did a good job of run blocking.
• I’m not sure whose snaps he took, but we certainly saw more of Luther Burden today.

Miscellaneous

• It was nice to hear one of the all-time greats in Tom Brady doing color commentary and being so patient with two young quarterbacks on the field in Williams and McCarthy. I’m sure a guy like that could have torn both of them apart relentlessly for 3 hours. But no one wants to hear that right now so early in their careers when they are both so obviously just developing.
• I continue to worry about the Bears’ coverage units. Statistically, they were near the bottom of the league coming into the game.
• I’m not sure what’s behind this spate of dropped and juggled balls. Last week, I thought perhaps it was the cold weather. Hard to figure that as the reason this week in a dome.
• The Bears did a pretty good job on third down today both offensively and defensively.
• You always want 0 penalties, but realistically, they weren’t a big issue.
• The Bears have taken advantage of some weaker teams on the schedule and pulled out wins in the final minutes thanks in large part to Williams. It’s been their year to this point. But that isn’t going to be the case every year, and it’s covering up some real deficiencies, especially when it comes to depth. I think this team will continue to get better, but, to be honest, it wouldn’t hurt them to lose some games toward the end of the year to keep the organization grounded. As the schedule continues to get tougher, I think that’s likely. It’s worth remembering that getting into the playoffs and losing in the first round isn’t the goal. They may get there eventually, but they aren’t a Super Bowl contender, and they need time and resources to build.

Offense

1. I’m a little tired of seeing those quick throws to the outside almost get intercepted. OK. A lot tired.
2. You can see why Ben Johnson is always saying that Williams needs to dump the ball off. Williams drops back and holds the ball too long. We know that. He can’t stand to just let the play go and take the yardage. If he just did that sooner, the offense would run a lot smoother.
3. Having said that, I did notice as the game went on that Williams was more apt to take the short, dump-off pass over the middle, but it seemed like it was inevitably at least a beat late and on third down when teams keyed on it and stopped it well short. Those throws need to come on first and second down when everyone is covered, and they need to come faster.
4. The offensive line looked good today to me. Williams got good protection against a good rash rushing defensive front, and they blocked effectively against a team that knew the Bears wanted to run the ball. But see my comment about the free runners on the blitz below.
5. I thought Williams’ accuracy was better today than it has been.
6. We saw blitz after blitz today come free off the edge. I’m not sure who was responsible for what, but that needs to be cleaned up.

Defense

1. Greg Olsen did a great job on color today. He was on top of everything.
2. The Bears came out very evidently prepared to stop the run on a bad weather day for passing. I thought the defensive line did a good job of penetrating to stop it.
3. Jaquan Brisker was sneaking up onto the line of scrimmage late in the count. He served as an extra defender in the box on run plays and was in position to blitz pass plays.
4. Teams continue to pick on Tyrique Stevenson over Nashon Wright, who, in theory, is behind him on the depth chart. This was supposed to be Stevenson’s year to emerge. If things continue like this, we probably won’t see him back next year. In fairness, explosive plays killed the Bears today. All of the cornerbacks were struggling to some extent.
5. The Bears should have known how mobile Jackson Dart was and how much damage he can do on the ground. They were spying him on occasion, but the linebackers couldn’t keep up with him.
6. Dart also had a good day throwing the ball. You wonder what Williams thought as Dart tossed up 50-50 balls and watched his guys come down time after time with it.
7. I thought it was interesting that Dart’s legs eventually forced the Bears into more zone defense so that all of the defensive backs could keep themselves facing the quarterback.
8. And, finally, I don’t think I need say that Dart’s impact on this game couldn’t have been more apparent than when you compare what the Giants looked like with him in there with what they looked like after he got hurt and was replaced by Russell Wilson.

Miscellaneous

1. Too many drops in the cold weather today. The Bears had at least five and at least one in the end zone.
2. I continue to be dissatisfied with the Bears kickoff return and coverage teams. The difference in yardage given up versus the yardage gained seems very significant to me. It’s putting the offense and the defense both at a disadvantage.
3. Penalties were much better today. They need to keep that up.
4. Maybe it was just me, but something about FOX’s on-screen graphics reminded me of old broadcasts of games from the 1980s. Maybe it was the font? It was very weird to me.
5. I thought that Caleb Williams was better today. His accuracy was better, and I thought the ball was coming out faster, especially as the game progressed. He’s still late with his reads on occasion. But better. I really shouldn’t say this about a defense that only gave up only 20 points, but I really don’t care. I think they continue to be a mess, especially in the defensive backfield. But that is no surprise, and this year is really about Williams, anyway (just keep reminding yourself of that).

Defense

• It was hard to determine how the Bears were handling Tee Higgins and Ja’Marr Chase. It didn’t seem like they were doing anything special in single coverage, leaving the corners to handle them as usual. I guess you can only do so much to stop two such excellent receivers at once. The Bears couldn’t do it. In fairness, on some of those catches, the coverage couldn’t have been much better.
• I thought that maybe the Bears played a bit more zone than usual. That would be a sensible move.
• Not to be forgotten, Bengals running back Chase Brown had a good game receiving for the Bengals, too.
• It seems to me over the course of the season that opponents have preferred to attack Tyrique Stevenson in coverage over Nashon Wright. That surprises me. It isn’t like Wright has been anything more than a journeyman before he got to Chicago. Maybe it’s an indication that Stevenson has been overrated by the Bears and their fans.
• I was surprised at how often the Bears blitzed Joe Flacco. Flacco is a veteran who always appeared to me to be effective when blitzed. I can’t say that it never worked today, but Flacco seemed to handle it pretty well to me. Some of the Bengals’ bigger plays were against the blitz. I guess this is a statement about where the Bears defense is right now. Problems along the front require desperate measures.
• Andrew Billings is a warrior. He has been sitting in the middle of that defense down after down this year clogging up the middle. He seems to be playing a lot more than usual as he stands between the defense being questionable against the run and being bad against the run.
• Huge game for Montez Sweat. Nice to see him breakout.
• I’m not at all sure Higgins had control of the ball on the Bengals third quarter touchdown with 5 minutes left in the third quarter. I was surprised that touchdown stood.

Offense

• In contrast to what you would expect, the Bears came out throwing the ball with their scripted plays rather than trying to take advantage of a bad Bengals run defense.
• Having said that, I’m glad to see that they made up for it in the series after that where they leaned a lot more heavily on the run. What a game from Kyle Monangai and the Bears offensive line!
• Williams was staring down receivers again today. That has to stop.
• He was holding the ball again, too. You can’t stand back there forever waiting for something to open up. If it’s not there, throw it away or take off.
• It really does sound like a broken record, but Williams does have to be more accurate on those short and intermediate throws. He’s not been consistent. Hopefully, I won’t be continuing to say this deep into the second half of the season.
• I thought that it was telling that the Bears went to a trick play in the red zone to score their first touchdown. This is what Matt Nagy resorted to when his offense couldn’t score in the red zone either…
• Not a great day for Rome Odunze who had some drops and seemed to struggle at times.

Miscellaneous

• The last time the Bears had Adam Archuleta as color analyst, he decided that Caleb Williams couldn’t work under pressure and kept saying so despite a wonderful performance under constant pressure from Maxx Crosby. I thought he was more fair today with some points that, while critical, were on point.
• Last week, I was very unhappy with the Bears’ average starting position, especially after kickoffs. Starting the game with a Bengals return to the house did not enhance my opinion of the kick coverage unit. Getting it out to the 45-yard line on the next return didn’t help either. This unit needs work. In addition, Cairo Santos missed two field goals, one of which didn’t count. And, of course, the Bears blew the onside kick late in the fourth quarter, where a recovery would have ended the game. So bad, bad day for special teams, and Richard Hightower has a lot of work to do this week.
• The Bears still have a penalty problem. It just seems like big play after big play gets called back. And that’s not counting the declined holding and pass interference calls.
• Austin Booker’s forced fumble was such a huge play at that point in the game. Anything that gives you a possession in such a back-and-forth offensive game is going to be bound to be big. And of course, Tremaine Edmunds’ interception was as big as turnovers come.
• I had flashbacks to some really bad challenges by the Bears as I watched Zak Taylor challenge that DJ Moore touchdown in the fourth quarter. Every angle I saw was that the ball broke the plane before it came loose. The only question was whether he was in bounds or not when it happened. I know first and goal from the 1 sounds like a touchdown waiting to happen, but the Bears have struggled down there. That was a bad challenge.
• I continue to believe that most of Williams’ problems have to do with a lack of comfort in the offense. We continue to see all of these things we’ve been seeing. But I really do think we saw less of them all this week. It just seems to me that these struggles are the result of that lack of comfort leaking into Williams’ mental space where it affects everything he does. From inaccurate, easy throws to holding the ball instead of letting it loose, I think that we are seeing things that may well take care of themselves as both he and those around him fight their way through this to come out on the other side. You can accuse me of being a meatball fan if you want. But I have to say that I don’t think my wishes usually interfere that much with what my eyes see.

Sean Hammond at the Chicago Tribune addresses the Bears tendency to commit penalties this season:

Penalties are almost always fixable, in theory, but the Bears haven’t found an answer. They’re averaging more than nine penalties per game, second-worst in the league. I do believe the pre-snap penalties on offense will improve by the end of the season. This is the first year in a new offense. Those types of penalties are on everyone to clean up. None of the current starting five offensive linemen had played together before this year.

As I was considering the Bears’ loss to the Ravens last Sunday, I was thinking about a circumstance in my past where I found myself in a situation that I think is very similar to the one that the Bears players find themselves in.

As Hammond notes, the Bears find themselves in the midst of establishing a new offense, one that seems to be extremely complicated in that it took almost all of training camp to install. I’m putting myself in the place of those players and I’m thinking about all of the things that must be running through their heads as they try to get comfortable with what they are doing. It is no wonder that they may lose concentration and jump a snap count here and there as they try to concentrate on technique and assignment.

As I watched quarterback Caleb Williams’ post-game press conference, I noted that he said some variation of the words “not on the same page” when describing how specific plays broke down during the game at least half a dozen times. It looked to me like there was a lot of that going on.

It’s not a good look now and a lot of Bears fans are concerned. But I’m telling you that maybe letting the process play out before passing judgement may be a good idea.

When I was a first year graduate student, I took what I considered to be my first real graduate-level course. It was a course in cardiovascular physiology. I’ll never forget the midterm, worth almost half my grade, in that course. I took it and thought I’d done OK. But what I didn’t realize was that this essay exam was much different than the multiple-choice exams that I had taken as an undergraduate student and even as a veterinary student. When I got it back, it was riddled with comments from the professor, and at the top of the page was the grade: D+. D+, ladies and gentlemen, in a program where they threw you out if you got less than a C in such a course.

Like the Bears offense, things were looking grim.

But I have to tell you that I took a lot away from that experience. I took the comments to heart and changed the way that I was studying to adapt to my new situation. I also found that as I progressed through the course and began to apply the information that I was given in different ways, things started to fall into place. And you know what? I took that final exam, pulled that damned grade up, and got a B in that course.

In the end, after it all came together, I think it may have been the best course I ever took. In fact, a large portion of my job these decades later is teaching cardiovascular physiology to medical students.

It may not be evident, but the Bears are getting better, too. Especially Williams. From Ted Nguyen at The Athletic:

The Bears and their fan base may have second-guessed Williams as the top pick after second-pick Daniels’ stellar rookie season and third-pick Maye looking like a top-10 quarterback this season. However, there’s reason for optimism in Chicago.

Williams has an incredible toolbox to work with, but he also had the steepest learning curve, having to go from freelancing to learning how to win within the pocket. This development would be made tougher by having to learn a whole new system with Johnson coming in.

The Bears offense is improved over last year, partly because of a rebuilt offensive line and Johnson’s system, but Williams has made some incredible throws within the structure of the offense. A Sunday flop for the Bears’ offense against a Baltimore defense that struggled before the bye week has caused some panic from the outside, but Williams has made progress this season, and progression isn’t always linear.

He’s been intentional with staying in the pocket and not ad-libbing unless it’s a long-yardage situation. He’s had his highs and lows, but his progress has been trending in the right direction. Outside of a bad interception in the fourth quarter when Williams should have checked the ball down, he played a solid game against the Ravens. The high-end throws were there and he took what the defense gave him on most plays.

Guys, I’m here to tell you. Things are on the right track. The Bears are at a nadir, but you can see where they’re headed, and it could be something special.

Williams and the offense consistently perform early in games when they are executing scripted plays that they have practiced all week. And though the dip in performance after those plays apparently run out is an indication of how far they have to go before they are comfortable, those early plays show you what things could be like once that happens.

It’s hard to be patient. But the evidence of progress is there if you look for it. We’ve seen a lot of bad quarterbacks in Chicago over the last 30 years and a lot of really bad offenses. Enough to know that these guys look different.

It won’t happen this week. It might not happen by December when the Bears get deep into divisional play. But they’ll make their adjustments, get their reps, get comfortable with the material, and they’ll pull themselves out of this. And by this time next year, everyone will know that the Bears have a future.

Take it from someone who has been there.

Offense

1. Baltimore came out and blitzed on the very first play and it was very evident that they planned on getting quick pressure on Williams. In the meantime, they played man coverage on the back end, and the Bears moved the ball pretty well all the way down to the 3-yard line before two negative plays made them settle for a field goal. Nevertheless, this was not the way that I would’ve approached the Bears on defense. I’m a bit surprised that they didn’t just drop back in coverage and make Williams hold the ball.
2. Like everyone else, the Ravens could read when the wide receiver screen was coming right away. The play just isn’t going to work.
3. I wonder how much of Caleb Williams’s supposed inaccuracy is due to poor timing on offense. Some of the throws just appeared to be rushed, or he appears to be just a little bit late. I’m not sure that it’s his arm so much as it’s just the way that the offense is running and the way that he’s running within it.
4. The Bears were simply allowing too many free runners to get on top of Caleb Williams. Although I said blitzing with man coverage on the back end wasn’t the way that I would approach Williams, I have to admit that the Bears didn’t do a great job of handling it. Similar to the inaccurate throws, I’m not sure how much was Williams not recognizing the free blitzes and how much was the protection. Certainly, some of it was confusion on the offensive line.
5. Having said that, the Bears did a good job of adjusting in the second half by coming out and calling some blitz beaters. Some of the screen passes worked very well, and running to the side of the free blitzes allowed them to get in behind him to get some good yardage.
6. I don’t know what the numbers are going to show, but the Bears certainly seemed hesitant to throw the ball deep today. They’re going to have to start to do that if they want to be a complete offense.

Defense

1. The Bears decided to play mostly zone on the back end in the first half. Tyler Huntley seemed to have very little issue with tearing that zone apart, and it left them vulnerable to the run by Derrick Henry. In fairness, with most of their starting cornerbacks out, the Bears may have felt that they had very little choice but to play zone.
2. When the Bears did switch to Man defense, they flat out couldn’t cover Zay Flowers.
3. It would be easy to say that the Bears struggled to get pressure on Huntley, and there may be some truth to that, but the fact of the matter is that the ball was coming out pretty fast. Huntley was simply having very little trouble handling the Bears defense on the back end. He looked sharp today.
4. The Bears gave up too many big plays, especially in the second half. It pretty much killed them today.
5. Honestly, I just don’t think the Bears had the horses on defense today to beat a desperate Ravens team that came out executing well out of the bye.

Miscellaneous

1. The Bears had some bad penalties in some bad spots today. False starts, intentional grounding. Yet another illegal formation penalty with the left tackle off the line, which eliminated a great punt. There’s a lot to clean up.
2. On special teams I’d be surprised if the Ravens didn’t have an at least 10 yard advantage in average starting position.
3. Williams was intercepted on a ball that he threw behind Rome Odunze. In a classic example of how complimentary football is supposed to work, the Ravens put the ball right into the end zone instead of committing a couple penalties and settling for a field gaol, Bears-style.

4. There can be very little doubt that the better team won today. The Bears have to some extent been winning games with smoke and mirrors. If it didn’t crash down on them today, it would have once they got deeper into divisional play. They simply have to execute better if they want to be a real, consistent winner.

   I really wish that I could say that Caleb Williams took a step forward today. But he didn’t. As I mentioned above, I’m not sure how much the issues against the blitz today were on him, and it’s evident that the timing of the offense is off. He’s still occasionally holding the ball instead of dropping back and letting go. We’ll know he’s ready when that stops.

Offense
1. Bears’ wide receiver screens are being read and not just by the Saints. Teams are picking something up. If they are going to keep calling them, they need to solve this problem.
2. On a related note, it was evident that the Bears were well scouted this game. For instance, the Saints did a nice job of defending the outside zone run that worked so well against the Commanders.
3. On the second fumbled snap in the first quarter, it didn’t look to me like Caleb Williams was expecting the ball. It was a shame to see a possession starting from such promising field position off of a recovered fumble in the first quarter result in only a field goal.
4. Mike Pereira isn’t often wrong, but my understanding is that as long as the ball touches the quarterback’s hands, it’s a snap. This was the basis of the old center sneak. So I thought the referees got the call right on the field, and the fumbled snap wasn’t illegal procedure.
5. It’s obvious the plan was to run the ball and use play action. Which is always the plan, but it seemed like it was more so today. The two-thirds of the way through the first quarter, the run:pass ratio was 20:17 at halftime. Things didn’t change in the second half. The success in the run game fueled the win.
6. I thought it was notable that despite the lack of success on the ground very early in the game, the Bears kept running the ball early in the down. Past offensive coordinators wouldn’t have continued to do this. But the Bears are confident enough in their passing game and the design of it to sacrifice the down if necessary just to keep the defense honest.
7. It was nice to see Williams finding DJ Moore more often today. Moore sat next to Williams on the bench all day.
8. This was not Williams’ best day. He was forced out of the pocket to his left an awful lot, and that affected his accuracy. He was staring down receivers and was holding the ball and playing street football way too much for my liking. He needs to get to the point where he’s dropping back and letting go of it quicker. He did look better in the second half.
9. Chase Young had a good day against Jonah Jackson. I’m starting to notice Jackson more often than I’d like.

Defense
1. My first thought here was that the Bears defensive backs did a beautiful job of covering on the back end early in the game. Even the completed passes were generally well-covered early in the game. But something happened near the end of the first half, and the Saints started moving the ball. I’m not sure if the coverage got softer or the Saints got smarter or both, but suddenly Chris Olave seemed to be open all over the field.
2. I thought the Bears got good pressure on quarterback Spencer Rattler on occasion, but I have to say that I wasn’t happy with how often they had to blitz to do it. A lot of the pressure seemed to come from defensive backs. At some point, they have to start getting more pressure from the front four.
3. Having said that, they certainly held their own up front against the run, and that was a major factor in the game.
4. It was nice to see Montez Sweat make some plays today. Obviously, we need to see more of that.
5. Tremaine Edmunds has been a considerably better player since moving to the weak side linebacker spot. He had a good day.
6. I thought the tackling was good today. Notably, the Bears’ tackling earlier in the year was not as good. It’s been better now after the bye.

Miscellaneous

1. The Saints kicker missed a field goal near the end of the first quarter. I thought it was nice to see both Josh Blackwell and Travis Homer make some plays for the Bears’ special teams. Both recently just got back from injuries.
2. The pre-snap penalties were back on a day when there were way too many penalties in general. Again. I hope we aren’t in for another week of the media blaming Caleb Williams for these lapses in concentration. They are inexcusable.
3. The Bears won the turnover battle again. Picks by Nashon Wright, Kevin Byard, and Tremaine Edmunds were notable. As is usually the case, this was the major key to the victory. ??

4. I can’t call this a step forward for Caleb Williams. There were too many times when he couldn’t let the ball go and played street ball. I’d call the performance up and down at best.
   That’s OK. You can’t expect a march forward towards greatness every week. As long as it’s two steps forward, one step back, he’ll get there, and so will the Bears.

• Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune answers your questions:

While the pass-rush problem seems like an issue that isn’t likely to be resolved with this team’s personnel, are there solutions to fixing the run defense in scheme and personnel? Getting Kyler Gordon back should help, but does Nahshon Wright need to be replaced if he continues to show zero interest in stopping the run? — @chicityforum1

I wrote at length earlier this week about the team’s struggles stopping the run. Fortunately it’s still a small sample size as the Bears have played only four games, but it has been an ominous start considering the explosive plays they are allowing on the ground. They are allowing 6.15 yards per carry. That’s last in the league and more than a half-yard behind the 31st-ranked Miami Dolphins.

“Hopefully (Gordon’s return) allows us to unlock a few things on defense,” Ben Johnson said. “He’s one of our bigger playmakers. I’ve got a lot of experience being on the opposing sideline from him and a ton of respect for how he can impact the game. There’s only a handful of nickels in this league that you really have to account for both as a coverage player but also a guy that likes to be nosy in the run game, and (he) could be part of the solution for us in terms of shoring up our run game as well.

“He’s got those natural football instincts that are really hard to coach and hard to teach. When you have enough players like that, that’s where you really take off in a hurry.”

Wright isn’t going to be great in run defense. I didn’t see a lack of interest in aiding the run defense last time out in Las Vegas. I saw him taking poor angles and failing to get outside leverage. He was coming down into the box. He just wasn’t executing.

As you probably know, cornerbacks are judged first by their ability to defend the pass, and if you’re swapping out those guys because of the problems you have stopping the run, there are probably bigger issues at hand.

Biggs has a point. But cornerbacks do play a role in stopping the run, and where stopping the run is a major issue, as it is with the Bears, Wright’s deficiencies in this area cannot be ignored. He has to be aggressive, stopping the run on the outside and helping to defend big plays.

Having said that, the outside run isn’t the only issue the Bears have. They’ve been porous all over the place up and down the defense.

Problems stopping the run are almost always due to poor fundamentals. Either guys aren’t doing their job filling the proper gaps or there is poor tackling, or they are having a hard time getting off of blocks. In the Bears’ case, it’s probably all three. In particular, the tackling is falling apart late in games in part because they’re just getting tired.

To an extent, I think all of these are correctable issues. I look forward to seeing if the Bears’ run defense improves coming off of the bye week after a prolonged period of self-scouting.

• Biggs goes on to address the Bears running game.

Do you think this is a week we finally start to see more Kyle Monangai in the offense? — @j_toast

Monangai’s playing time was pretty similar in the last two games: 17 snaps against the Cowboys and 19 against the Raiders. He had 28 in Week 2 in Detroit, but that bump was largely attributable to the lopsided score in the second half.

We’ll have to see after Monangai appeared on the initial injury report of the week Thursday. It was an estimate because the team was off Thursday, but he was listed as “did not participate” with a thigh injury.

When he’s healthy, I’m of the mindset that Monangai’s playing time will depend somewhat on game flow. By that, I mean if the coaching staff has a plan entering the game to use him on the fourth offensive series of the first half and the third series of the second half, how does the offense do in those scenarios? If it’s a sustained drive, there will be opportunities for more snaps and more touches.

He’ll get mixed in on occasion for D’Andre Swift in the middle of a drive. Ben Johnson has been pretty clear: He’s not piling the blame for an inconsistent rushing attack on Swift’s shoulders. Plus, Swift has been a consistent check-down target for Caleb Williams. He has 13 receptions and the ability to make a big play in the passing game.

Maybe we’ll see a few more touches for Monangai, but I don’t know that handing him the ball more would all of a sudden unlock the offense.

Rookie running backs tend to struggle as pass protectors in the NFL. It’s not that I’ve noticed that Monangai is particularly bad at it. But Swift is extremely good at it, and that’s going to be a major advantage to keeping Swift more of the time in Johnson’s mind.

I know that many Bears fans are going to choose the obvious and blame Swift for the poor running attack. But I tend to beleave Johnson when he says that Swift isn’t really the issue.

“It’s hard to evaluate any of our running backs right now when you turn on the tape and there’s some free runners in the hole where the play’s designed to go,” Johnson said. “I take it personally because I actually spend more time on the run game than I do on the passing game. Not only trying to create explosives in the running game but being sound and taking a lot of pride in our execution of the fundamentals.”

“You talk about a deuce block, deuce combination, all looking the same, a triple between the tight end and the tackle all looking the same,” Johnson said. “We’re not quite there yet. It’s been a race since training camp started. We get pads on, that’s when the full speed starts happening, and you get linebackers that are coming downhill and pulling you off your double teams. We’re just not reacting fast enough right now.”

As Johnson says, it appears to me that the Bears’ problems running the ball are those of execution. What he hasn’t said is that he’s running a fairly complicated offense that, unlike those the Bears fans have been exposed to in the recent past, is going to take a while for them to get comfortable with. This goes for both a running game and the passing game, and it’s probably responsible for some of the pre-snap penalties that they’re committing right now as well.

It appears to me that Bears fans are just going to have to be patient here. If the offense still looks like it does now halfway through next year, then I think they’ll be cause for concern. In the meantime, we just have to wait.

• Kevin Fishbain at The Athletic was also answering questions this week.

Which of our tackles would project well as guards in terms of physical statistics and skill set? Would love to find a long-term solution at right guard as I don’t think we have found even a medium-term solution in Jonah Jackson. — Nancy K.

After receiving a few questions about Jackson, I surmise that his PFF grade is low. He does have four penalties this season, which isn’t good, but I don’t think his play is anywhere near the “bench the $17 million player” territory. However, to the question about future options, if Kiran Amegadjie can get (and stay) healthy, I’d be curious what he can do at guard. That’s a big “if” based on how his career has gone, but the Bears started using him there late in the summer and liked what they saw. And then there’s rookie Luke Newman, who impressed in camp and the preseason and can play center. Those two stand out to me more than asking any of the current tackles to move inside.

This is a good question by Nancy, and I thought Fishbain’s response about “surmising that his PFF grade is low“ was a bit unfairly dismissive. Fans watch the games too, and we see what we see.

It hasn’t gotten a lot of attention, but I think that Jackson is definitely underperforming, and I would say that his job is probably in some danger. Like Fishbain, I think that there are possibly better options on the Bears roster as it stands right now.

I would guess that the Bears will give the offensive line a little bit more of a chance to gel in the running game as I urged fans to do above. But I wonder if that is going to solve Jackson’s problem, given that he couldn’t keep a starting job in Los Angeles. It will be interesting to see what happens here.

• I’m currently writing this at halftime of the Jets-Broncos game in London, so I may regret this later. But this all looks so familiar. It’s like PTSD with Justin Fields.

They started the pre-game off with all these really impressive statistics about Fields’ passer rating and the fact that he has no interceptions. And yet I watch and I see the Broncos doing everything against him that other teams did when they played the Bears and he was the quarterback. Try to keep him in the pocket. Cover everyone on the back end. Let him run if he can escape, knowing that you simply can’t win games that way.

He’s got this great passer rating against the blitz, but who cares? Who in the world would blitz this guy? All you have to do is let him drop back and hold the ball, and the drives end themselves.

• Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune discusses the return of Austin Booker and the state of the pass rush:

Despite missing the final exhibition game, Booker led the NFL with four sacks in the preseason, and the Bears were optimistic that the gains they saw him make over the offseason and in training camp would carry into the regular season. He had 1½ sacks and four QB hits in 17 games as a rookie but looked more refined and powerful in the preseason.

“You felt the pass rush there, particularly in the game setting,” coach Ben Johnson said before practice Tuesday. “I saw it in practice and the joint practices as well. He was a guy that was able to affect the quarterback. That’s something that we talked about as a unit today: points of emphasis, where can we improve. Obviously it’s the penalties, it’s the run game, but affecting the quarterback, we’re not doing a good enough job of it.

“That’s really where I saw Booker making the biggest impact in the preseason. We’ll have to see where he is now back on the practice field.”

Booker seems to me to be a leaky vessel to be pouring the Bears pass rush hopes into.

Ultimately, when you are holding your breath hoping that a fifth rounder comes through for you, this comes down to poor drafting. The Bears have spent resources trying to build the defensive line up. They just haven’t panned out (I’m looking at you, Gervon Dexter, Zach Pickens and possibly Shemar Turner).

It’s possible that it’s just been poor coaching across the board. But I think it’s more likely that those in the front office are eventually going to have to take a long lookin the mirror.

• Biggs also spent his bye week looking at the run defense.

Getting two core players back will help, for sure, but it’s not as if the Bears are going to have reinforcements who make a big difference on the line… The linemen need to start defeating blocks, cutting through double-teams and holding their ground.

“The most important thing that we’re looking at as a staff and as players is, how do we get better at some of our fundamentals?” Ben Johnson said. “We’re not shedding blocks to the degree we’d like to yet, or at least as consistently as we’d like to yet. We’re not making tackles in space as well as we’re capable of.

This week is where we find out a lot about what kind of stuff Johnson has assembled. They are being challenged to correct these issues against Washington and they’ve been given the time during the bye to take a long look to figure out what where the problems are and how to solve them. The defensive personnel that Matt Eberflus ran with last year isn’t that much different than the personnel that they are going with now. And that defense wasn’t too bad early in the year.

I’ll be fascinated to see what this team looks like Monday night.

• Biggs answers your questions:

Ozzy Trapilo looked good enough at right tackle to start. What about moving Darnell Wright to left tackle to replace Braxton Jones and using Theo Benedet as the swing tackle? — Chris R., Midlothian

A good number of folks wondered the same thing. Jones is headed to the bench for the Week 6 game at Washington and, I believe, Benedet will be the man to replace him…

Switching Wright to the left side is something the Bears mulled publicly before the start of the offseason program. Then, we never saw him there. Jones, Trapilo, Kiran Amegadjie and finally Benedet all took turns at left tackle over the summer. That clearly told us the team’s preference was to keep Wright at right tackle.

Wright has been a little up and down this season, which isn’t unlike his first two years in the league. He can be an absolute physical force in the run game. Coach Ben Johnson recently raved about Wright’s elite athleticism for an offensive lineman and talked about doing stuff to get him in space in the running game because he moves so well.

However, Wright can be prone to lapses in play, something that hopefully smooths out soon because if you’re still saying that about a player going into Year 4, chances are that’s always going to be an issue.

Despite missing Week 4, he’s tied with Kansas City Chiefs right tackle Jawaan Taylor for the most penalties in the league with six. Wright has been called for two false starts, two holds (one was super iffy in Week 1), one illegal man downfield and a chop block.

Asking him to switch sides in the middle of the season and coming off an injury probably isn’t Plan A at Halas Hall. Instinct tells me Benedet, who played left tackle when Jones was removed from the game against the Raiders in the second quarter, will get the next shot at the job.

Could Wright be a consideration before the end of the season? Anything is possible, but if the Bears really liked this option, they probably would have been more proactive in the offseason when four other players got a shot on the left side.?

If Benedet falters, the Bears might try Trapilo again at left tackle before switching Wright.

Before training began I was in the camp that thought Trapilo would be starting at right tackle and that Wright would switch over to the left.

However, after watching the Wright struggle so much with the new offense to the point where he can’t concentrate enough to stay onside jumping. I think that he might struggle to make the switch.

I think it’s very possible that the coaching staff made the right call here. But it is very unfortunate because it has left them without a great option at left tackle. Perhaps they’re counting upon some improvement from Tripoli in the offseason that would make him more comfortable on the left. In the meantime, I think they’re just going to have to struggle to get by.

• Kevin Fishbain at The Athletic takes a statistical look at quarterback Caleb Williams.

When Williams is in rhythm, we see the precision, but there have been too many throws that aren’t giving his receivers a chance.

That comes with consistent footwork and comfort with the scheme.

“I would just say my footwork and then just being more comfortable with everything that Ben and the guys have thrown at me, just being able to grasp it all,

The Bears saids that they threw everything at Williams “to see what he cold handle” in training camp and what struck me is that those were almost the same words that Eberflus and his staff used to describe what they did with Williams last year.

But, unlike last year, Williams has improved and looked far more comfortable every game. And this is the difference between good coaching and poor coaching. Johnson and his staff overloaded Williams, then helped give him to tools to handle it. Last year, no one on the staff had the experience to know how to do that.

Fishbain also highlighted a pile of stats in the article. But the one I’m paying the most attention to is EPA versus the blitz. This has vastly improved since last year (-0.01 in 2024 and 0.22 in 2025, currently 10th in the league). This, again, I think is a good indication of both Williams potential and the coaching that he’s getting. Good quarterbacks in the NFL are good against the blitz.

I look forward to seeing Williams reach his full potential under this coaching staff as he, and the entire offense, gets more and more comfortable with the playbook. It won’t happen fast. But I’m happy to wait knowing that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.

Offense

• The Bears were without Darnell Wright today and started Theo Benedet in his place. Benedet had a rough day but not because he didn’t play well. It was because he was dealing with Maxx Crosby all day. Ozzy Trapilo was inserted the last series in the first half. Benedet switched to the left in place of Braxton Jones. I was never clear on what happened to Jones. It may have been performance related but he hasn’t been healthy this year.
• Crosby was a monster in this game. Batted passes, tackles, sacks, and even an interception. He was all over Caleb Williams and D’Andre Swift. He was a massive problem for the Bears offense. Eventually they started to flat out double team him on every play towards the end of the first half.
• Williams was under pressure all day today and not just by Crosby. The Bears offensive line had a very difficult time keeping the Raiders out of the offensive backfield and they smothered the Bears.
• Similarly, the Bears just could not get their run game going. Swift was constantly being hit in the backfield before he had a chance to make a play.
• Ben Johnson apparently really likes to try to get Williams out on the naked boot but I’ve yet to see it work. Opposing defenses are all over it and the Raiders are no exception.
• Williams did a good job on occasion against the blitz today. He tends to look to Olamide Zaccheaus over the middle when pressured. I thought that Adam Achuleta’s criticism of Williams was unfair. He was a bit more than “uncomfortable” today. He was under siege. I thought he did about as well as you could expect under the circumstances.
• It appears that Williams was finding Cole Kmet more often today which is a step forward. On the other hand it was midway through the 4th quarter before he found DJ Moore.
• I would also say that, although he still missed a few, Williams was a bit more accurate today, another step forward.
• A couple series that tell a story today. 12:14 left in the second quarter. 1st and 10 from LV 24. Fumble recovery for a loss of 6 yards, followed by a sack for a loss of 10 yards. Punt instead of field goal. 6:51 left in the second, first and 10 from the Las Vegas 14, -2 yard run, second and 12 from the Las Vegas 16, 0 yard run, third and 12 from Las Vegas 16, 10 yard penalty, third and 22 from the Las Vegas 26, -2 yard run, field goal instead of a touchdown. This was the story of the game offensively.

Defense

• The Bears started this game without Jaylon Johnson and Kyler Gordon in the defensive backfield and without Grady Jarrett and Chris Williams on the defensive line. These were already weak areas of the defense. They were also without TJ Edwards but fortunately Noah Sewell has proven to be a good back up.
• Andrew Billings had a good day against the Raiders center, beating him on both 3rd and 4th and 1 in the first quarter and generally clogging up the middle when he was in there.
• Having said that, the defensive line struggled today. Ashton Jeanty broke out to have a good day as the Bears were his get right game along with the Raiders offensive line.
• Kevin Byard had himself a day against Raiders quarterback Geno Smith. Smith threw the ball to Byard twice in the first half after late changes in coverage that Smith evidently had a difficult time with.
• Miserable day for Smith today with multiple interceptions. He appeared to me to be having a difficult time adjusting to late, pre snap coverages by the Bears. Nice job by Byard and Tyrique Stevenson taking advantage.
• Give credit to Stevenson today. He threw his body around in a very high effort game.
• As the game wore on, late in the 3rd quarter into the 4th, I thought that there were too many missed tackles. This isn’t the first time this season that I thought that the Bears defense looked tired late in the game.
• Honestly, as weak as this defense was on both on the back end and, especially, up front even before injuries, it’s astounding that they’ve managed to perform as well as they have. It’s tough to watch at times.

Miscellaneous

• Bears fans didn’t take over the standout today but you could hear them when they had something to cheer about. I think estimates that it would be 50% Bears fans may have been over blown, though.
• I loved the interview from Johnson coming out of half time. To say he was a bit snippy with Aditi Kinkhabwala is a little bit of an understatement. One look at Johnson on the sideline tells you how much he hates losing.
• The Bears special teams did well today. Huge big play with the blocked field goal at the end and none given up. Cairo Santos has a good day. Tory Taylor kicked the ball off at the end of the game with less than 2 minutes left and a 1 point lead.
• The Bears didn’t commit what I would call an excessive number of penalties but they combine with all of the with other mistakes to kill drives. Not as many are pre-snap penalties as at the beginning of the season but this has to get cleaned up if they are going to beat good teams.
• The Bears won the turnover battle but the game was characterized by the fact that they couldn’t take adequate advantage of them.
• I’d say overall a step forward for Caleb Williams today. I thought his accuracy was better, especially considering the pressure he was under. His mobility outside the pocket was a huge difference in the game. And he drove teh team to a game winning touchdown under duress. Having said that, a better team would have won this game handily. Defensively the Bears feel like they are hanging on by a thread. Not many quarterbacks are gong to hand you 3 interceptions the way that Geno Smith did today but when you get them, you have to take advantage of them. Ands the lack of a running game continues to be worrying. A step towards competency at quarterback is a step toward the future for this team. For now, I guess you take that and the win and have a good week.