Holy Bleep.
We will keep it PG today for the kiddos, but my oh my, what a difference a coach and a quarterback make.
What the Chicago Bears did on Sunday was historic. The Bears put up numbers never seen in week one of the NFL season. It was the 12th highest-scoring game of all-time. The Bears scored the 23rd-highest points by a single team of all-time, and if you go over the last 50 years, that number moves up to 7th.
In short, it was bananas.
Yes, we could criticize the defense, and it deserves criticism.
But we will save that for another time when the defense costs them a victory, because no matter how bad the defense was, it simply didn’t matter. The Bears offense was that good.
Think about the growth of Caleb Williams. Don’t think about it from where it was last year in the playoffs. Roll the clock back 365 days and think about where it was when last season started. Do you remember the frantic pace of Caleb’s play against the Vikings? Look at how much more relaxed and in control he is one year later.
Look at the growth of Ben Johnson as a head coach. In week one, he made a special teams decision that might have cost the Bears a victory. In week two, he got smashed by his former team. A year later, he’s the one doing the smashing.
Look at the buy-in from this team. Did you see the receivers? Jahdae Walker was blocking everyone. D’Andre Swift was an animal in pass protection. Luther Burden and Rome Odunze were putting bodies on everyone. No block, no rock. It’s a full buy-in.
Ben Johnson has the beautiful tape to back it up now. You want to have explosive plays when the ball is in your hand? Your teammates will block for you and make that happen. But if you want them to block for you, you need to block for them. I can’t remember a skill position group, as a whole, blocking like this. That is a group of bad mother, you know what. They are a tough group that is going to make secondaries sore on Monday morning.
Think about the offensive line. No Drew Dalman, no problem. This line didn’t skip a beat; it controlled the line of scrimmage and allowed the Bears to rush for nearly 300 yards on the ground. D’Andre Swift is now an animal. He’s one of the top 10 backs in the league. He isn’t the same guy who played soft in Detroit.
You know what’s amazing? The Bears gained almost 600 yards on offense, and their big three of Luther Burden, Colston Loveland, and Rome Odunze averaged about 35 yards each. They weren’t the focal parts of the offense. They didn’t need to be. The ground game dominated. Caleb Williams dominated. Cole Kmet scored. Jahdae Walker scored. Kaliff Raymond led the receivers on Sunday.
It was a full team effort, and their big offensive weapons barely had to carry a load. They scored 59 points anyway. Their time will come.
Ben Johnson is a Madman. I say that in every complimentary way possible. He says he wants this offense to be the highest-scoring one of all time, and I believe him. Will they get there? Probably not, but it’ll be fun watching them try.
The highest-scoring Bears team is the 1985 Bears. They scored 456 points. They scored 7 defensive TDs and Special Teams TDs that year (not to mention the number of short fields the offense got on turnovers). That offense scored 407 points without the defensive TDs. The 2013 Bears scored 445.
This offense will destroy both those teams. They will easily surpass 500 points this season. 540 points would make them one of the 10 greatest offenses of all time. Who would they be with? Peyton Manning’s 2013 Denver Broncos, two Tom Brady Patriots teams (including the 2007 team that went undefeated in the regular season), Ben Johnson’s 2024 Lions offense, Patrick Mahomes 2018 Chiefs offense, Aaron Rodgers and the 2011 Packers, the 2011 Saints with Drew Brees, the 1998 Vikings with Randall Cunningham launching bombs to Randy Moss, and Washington in 1983, that was a ferocious ground attack led by John Riggins.
Of those nine teams listed, six of them have all-time QBs. That’s not bad company for Caleb Williams to be in if they can get there, and I think they just might.
The Bears offense has arrived. Defensive coordinators around the league are about to see how good Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams are. Get ready for a wild ride this year, Bears fans, and guess what? Get used to this. For the next decade, the Bears are going to be an elite offensive team, something that no one has said about the Bears since FDR was President.
Holy Bleep.
