Week 2 brought 8 more explosive plays. Wait – eight?! That can’t be right; let me go back and…yeah, eight. It’s honestly unbelievable the Chicago Bears didn’t win this one, but a fumble at the goal line and the Williams injury, combined with the constant rain, conspired to leave the Bears with only three points for their efforts. However, there was still some good stuff, particularly in the run game, as this 2026 Bears squad starts to figure out who they are going to be this year.
Explosive Play 2.1
– Q1 10:26, 2nd and 3 from the Chicago 38. Caleb Williams aborted snap, recovered at Chicago 36 by Williams, run up the middle for 17 yards.
Obviously an incredibly creative play call by Johnson to put the ball on the ground and just have Caleb run up the middle for an explosive play… Okay, maybe we should’ve known this one was going to be weird. Busted play, quarterback is talented enough to make it a chunk gain instead of a disaster.
Explosive Play 2.2 – Q3 14:50, 2nd and 10 from the Chicago 35. D’Andre Swift off left tackle for 12 yards.
The Bears come out in 12 personnel with Kmet attached on the right and Loveland attached on the left side of the line. Rome and Kalif Raymond line up stacked to the left of Loveland. At the snap, Raymond drags across to the right in what looks like a potential play action pass dump off option for a future play. Braxton and Loveland do enough to stalemate their defender and Thuney works up to the second level to get a hat on his assignment. Swift finds the space off the left tackle (hat tip to Rome for hanging with his defender) and with a little stutter step makes the safety miss in the hole, gaining another 6-7 before running out of bounds. Well blocked but Swift’s missed tackle takes it from a nice run to set up a third and short to a fresh set of downs.
Explosive Play 2.3 – Q3 14:10, 2nd and 10 from the Chicago 47. Caleb Williams scrambles up the middle for 11 yards.
It goes down as an explosive play as it is a run play once Caleb decides to tuck it and go. This was his second of three explosive runs on the day and the first off a scramble. A good decision to go after working through his progression and he knew where the sticks were to keep this drive going early in the third by taking contact and pushing through for the first. It’s the second explosive run of the series.
Explosive Play 2.4 – Q3 13:28, 1st and 10 from the Minnesota 42. Kyle Monangai off right end for 15 yard gain.
The third explosive run of the drive and the first for Monangai. This is one of those runs where you look back and think…why did he not have 30 carries in this one? The Bears use 12 personnel here, with both Loveland and Kmet on the right hand side of the line with Odunze split out wide. Monangai runs through contact trying to poke out the ball around the line of scrimmage and bursts through the hole before dragging the corner for about six additional yards and another set of downs.
Explosive Play 2.5 – Q3 12:14, 2nd and 6 from the Minnesota 23. Kyle Monangai off right guard for 12 yards.
The fourth explosive run on the drive and the second for Monangai. Just two plays after the 15 yarder, the Bears use Cole Kmet as a full back and line up in the I-formation. Blocking action moves to the right with Kmet filling the edge defender on the left. Monangai starts the action to the right and makes a cut back to the middle of the field. He’s untouched for ten yards before falling forward for a couple extra. Well blocked here by the Bears. Unbelievably, the four explosive runs on the same drive would not lead to points as D’Andre Swift would fumble at the one a few plays later.
Explosive Play 2.6 – Q3 5:19, 3rd and 6 from the Chicago 17. Caleb Williams scrambles off left end for 10 yards.
It’s not worth spending a ton of time breaking down scrambles but again I think this is an aspect of Caleb’s game that we can appreciate him flexing when needed. The concern with the hamstring injury going forward is if he’ll feel comfortable running and if so, will he be able to shift into high gear.
Anyway, love the spin move here and my mind automatically added a Chris Berman sound effect when he did it.
Explosive Play 2.7 – Q4 11:43, 3rd and 7 from the Chicago 36. Caleb Williams passes short left to D’Andre Swift for 32 yards.
A well-timed screen on 3rd down here. It’s a nice play design with a WR screen set up on the right side, where Caleb gives a pump fake, before coming back to Swift on the left side. Swift has a couple of blockers who don’t really impact the play here. He is able to make the first defender miss at the sticks before breaking away from a second defender who goes for the strip. He’s not quite able to run away from the third defender before being taken down for a monster gain. The play design earned the first but Swift again took it from a nice play to an explosive.
Explosive Play 2.8 – Q4 0:38, 2nd and 10 from the Minnesota 41. Tyson Bagent completes pass deep right to Rome Odunze for 21 yards.
This is a nice route from Rome in the waning seconds of the game. Bagent is a little late getting this one out and the velocity of the pass allows the defender to recover. Rome does a nice job bringing in the football against his body, fighting through the contact, and getting out of bounds to stop the clock. We know that Bagent’s arm strength isn’t going to be able to deliver a ball at pace in this situation so he’ll need to deliver that one in the future a touch quicker. Nice play overall from Rome knowing the situation and fighting to move forward to stop the clock. A running clock there would’ve shorted the Bears multiple shots to the end zone.
2026 Explosive Play Count: D’Andre Swift 4, Kyle Monangai 4, Caleb Williams 4, Rome Odunze 2, and one each for Kalif Raymond, Luther Burden, and Cole Kmet.
What was your favorite explosive play from the opener? There’s something beautiful about Kyle Monangai dragging defenders – he’s got my vote for the week.
