The 2025 regular season is officially over for the Chicago Bears after a dreadful loss to the Detroit Lions at Soldier Field, finishing 11-6 on the season.
Before we get into this week’s Windy City Honor
awards, I think it’s worth noting how pleasantly surprising and exciting this season was. After going 5-12 last season, most of us fans had low expectations for this team. A lot of us would have been content with a winning record and assurance that Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams were the Bears’ head coach-quarterback pairing for the foreseeable future. We got that and so much more.
Under Ben Johnson’s first season as a head coach, the Bears secured an NFC North division title along with the No. 2 seed in the NFC and will now host a playoff game during the Wild Card Round. His offensive unit finished as a top 5 unit with many ascending young players. There’s so much to look forward to with this team, and that’s more than we could say for most seasons.
Now, let’s get into the last superlative awards of the regular season.
Biggest Hindrance
The offense stalling out was a common theme throughout the season, as there were multiple occasions the offense struggled to get anything going for the first quarter, first half, or even the first three quarters. In their last nine games, they haven’t scored on their opening drive.
This issue came back to bite them this week, and it inevitably cost the Bears the game. While the offense came back from a 16-0 deficit, putting together two scoring touchdown drives to tie the game in the fourth quarter, it was unfortunately too late.
This is not to say that the defense did not play a significant factor in the loss, but the offense scoring once or twice in the first three quarters very likely would have changed the outcome of this game.
The Bears’ offense needs to find a way to get into a better rhythm earlier in the game. Once they start stringing together a few good drives, they look much more in sync and become a real threat.
This needs to be an area of emphasis for Ben Johnson and the offense before heading into the playoffs, and especially in the offseason as this style of play is not sustainable.
New Single-Season Passing Record Holder
Caleb Williams officially set a new franchise record for single-season passing yards on Sunday, eclipsing Eric Kramer’s previous record of 3,838 yards that was set back in 1995. Williams finished the regular season with 3,942 passing yards, 388 rushing yards, totaling 4,352 yards.
This is a huge milestone for the second-year quarterback. He has shown tremendous growth this season after a tumultuous rookie season. He’s now etched into Bears history.
Sloppiest Play
There were multiple reasons why the Bears lost on Sunday. However, there were too many mistakes that kept piling up. Two of them were issues this team has seen over the course of the season that are still lingering: penalties and drops.
The two encroachment penalties on Andrew Billings were costly. One of those penalties came on fourth down, giving the Lions a free first down.
Since week 10, the Bears have led the league in dropped passes. On Sunday, rookies Colston Loveland, Luther Burden, and Jahdae Walker all dropped passes in critical moments.
And lastly, Williams had a chance to yet again lead the team to another game-winning drive, but instead, he was called for intentional grounding, resulting in third-and-20 right before the two-minute warning. They did not convert, and Johnson made the decision to punt on fourth-and-5.
These errors highlight a lack of discipline and have been a persistent issue this season. The Bears cannot be making these sloppy mistakes during the playoffs.
The team needed to be better on Sunday. Hopefully, this two-game losing streak will motivate them to play their best football as they head to the playoffs next week.
