The Chicago Bears entered Week 3 against the New York Jets as the NFL’s number one ranked rushing team, averaging 184.3 yards per game. Chicago’s offensive line paved the way for 232 yards on the ground, bringing their average up to 196 this year. They still have a long way to go in the 2026 season, but they are on pace to break the franchise record for rushing yards in a season set in 2022: 3,014 yards (177 per game). I’ll have more on this tonight on Bear & Balanced, so join us at 6!
Speaking of
records, the Bears set a franchise record with 34 first downs. Those 34 first downs were more than the 32 total offensive plays the Jets ran, making this the second game in the Super Bowl era (since 1966) in which a team had more first downs than its opponent had offensive plays.
The Bears may have won by only 11 (23 to 12), but it was a dominant performance by the Navy and Orange. They had more yards (492 to 157), more plays (89 to 32), and had the time-of-possession edge (42:45 to 17:15), while holding the Jets to only 7 first downs. The 7 first downs are the fewest a Bears team has allowed since December 14, 1991, when they allowed 7 to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The Jets only had the ball in the fourth quarter for 45 seconds.
Chicago had fewer penalties, with just 4 for 29 yards (both season lows), compared to New York’s 12 for 76.
The Bears were 7 for 15 (46.7%) on third downs, and 2 of 3 on fourth downs.
The only place the Jets had the edge was the turnover margin, which they won 2-0.
Let’s look at the Bears’ playing time breakdowns and a few individual stats from the game.
OFFENSE
This was Tyson Bagent’s first *start in over a thousand days, but unlike Case Keenum, who also went over a thousand days between starts, Bagent didn’t have over a decade and 81 games of experience to pull from. This was just Bagent’s fifth career start, so I’ll judge his performance accordingly.
Bagent was fine, but he was also lucky he didn’t throw multiple interceptions. One of his could-have-been-interceptions came off a free play that he went deep on, and the other was a direct result of a defensive penalty that let the defender get in position. But he had two others that were awful decisions, negated by penalties. His actual pick was on a throw he was a bit late and behind on.
But he also had some really nice moments working his progressions. The throw down the seam to Rome Odunze got them points before the half. The aforementioned deep shot on a free play is a veteran move. He worked his cadence well. His timing on screens was good.
All in all, this game is a good learning experience for him and the Bears.
The running game was brilliant, led by Kyle Monangai’s career-high 30 carries, which came after Swift was seemingly pulled after his fumble. When asked if Swift was shaken up on the play he fumbled on — he seemed to get up slowly, and he had a knee issue earlier in the week — head coach Ben Johnson said, “No, no, nothing, nothing like that.”
*The record books will technically list Case Keenum as the starter at quarterback for this game, unless they asterisk it at some point because Bagent also started the game. Also, how great is it that Ben Johnson basically started Keenum just to troll the insiders who reported that Bagent would start?
DEFENSE
Rookie safety Dillon Thieneman has either led or tied for the team lead in total tackles in every game of his young NFL career. That’s not necessarily a good stat for a safety, but he’s been used up close to the line of scrimmage plenty, and he’s flying up in run support while rallying to the ball in the secondary.
I’ve been pleasantly surprised at Dayo Odeyingbo this season. While his sack was a gift this week because Geno Smith ran out of bounds, Dayo was in hot pursuit. It also gives him a team-leading 3 sacks in 4 games.
Chicago held the Jets to 0-8 on third-down tries, and The Athletic’s Kevin Fishbain shared that this was the first time since October 5, 1997, that they didn’t allow a single third-down conversion.
They held Jets QB Geno Smith to just 8 of 15 (53.3%) passing for 119 yards. Before Sunday, he was leading the NFL with a 75.5% completion percentage.
Marcus Davenport got a stat in his season debut! I wasn’t expecting much, but I thought he looked decent out there.
SPECIAL TEAMS*
*The above image has players who only played in the third phase.
Cairo Santos hit 3 field goals and both extra points.
Tory Taylor did nothing but hold for field goals and extra points. The Chicago Tribune’s Brad Biggs had this interesting nugget: This is just the fourth time in the Super Bowl era that the Bears have gone through a game without punting, and the first time since September 28, 2014, against the Green Bay Packers.
Zavion Thomas had 4 kickoff returns for 70 yards, and Kalif Raymond had 16 yards on 2 punt returns.
Daniel Hardy had 2 special teams tackles.
Rookie tight end Sam Roush had a holding penalty on a kickoff, and he had a tackle on the Bagent interception.
To check out the complete Bears vs. Jets box score, I find ESPN’s site is easy to navigate.
All statistics and snap counts, as well as the accompanying pictures, are taken directly from the NFL’s Game Statistic and Information System.
