In
an offensive shootout that featured eight lead changes and included 31 points in the 4th quarter alone, the Chicago Bears came away with the much-needed victory. Here are my notes.
Offense:
- Kyle Monangai and the run game was easily the highlight in this one. From the offensive tackles mauling defenders in space to the interior OL opening up lanes or Monangai’s vision and power punishing would-be tacklers, the Bears’ run game is back. And they are only getting better. Monangai had 26 carries for 176 yards in this one.
- Caleb appeared a tad off on his timing throws early in this one. But was not helped any by some drops from Rome and Kmet.
- Speaking of Rome, as a pass-catcher, this may have been his worst game as a pro, including a brutal dropped TD. But his run-blocking is reminiscent of another Bear WR who wore #15 – Brandon Marshall. Rome has been an elite run-blocker this season and is absolutely part of the reason the run game has been succeeding.
- DJ Moore was involved early and throughout this one and is always fun to watch when he has room to run. He even threw a TD pass to Caleb to start things off for Chicago.
- That trick play was one of a handful of successful scoring drives within the red zone for the Bears. Tip of the cap to Ben Johnson and the O for bouncing back this week and turning scoring drives into 6 instead of 3.
- Olamide Zaccheus finally found the endzone and looked like another RB after the catch in space.
- Speaking of first TDs of the season, Colston Loveland notched his first career score on a beautiful slant pattern in the red zone, where he made a nice catch and absorbed a tough hit by the safety and held on to the ball. He looked like a matchup problem in this one. More on him later.
- Brittain Brown showing some juice and got himself his first career TD as well. Brown impressed with solid vision and decisiveness in his most extended action of his young career. With D’Andre Swift and Roschon Johnson expected to be back soon and Monangai having a banner day.
- While the run game excelled, the passing game has not yet reached its potential and everyone from the OL to the pass-catchers and especially Caleb Williams are to blame. Some leaky pressure got Caleb off his reads a tad too early and he was forced to pull it down and run often, which is not always a bad thing, but plenty of times this season and against the Bengals were there open receivers he failed to see at all or in time. That said, he continues to improve with his decision making and made a few wow throws in this one.
- And last but not least, the clutch factor with Caleb is real and I am here for it. Despite allowing an onside-kick and touchdown to go down 42-41 with less than a minute and one timeout left, Caleb connected with Colston Loveland for the play of the season for the team thus far. With a ridiculously good throw, Caleb found Loveland running a seam route against what appeared to be two-high coverage and then the rookie bounced off two tackles and outran the defense for a 58 yard score to seal the win.
Defense:
- Though they were gashed early in the run game, the defense stepped up and played stout ball the rest of the game, limiting the Bengals to 46 yards on 15 carries for a terrific 3.1 yards per carry.
- One of the reasons the rushing yards were so nice? Because Joe Flacco and the passing game was working so well. Flacco had a career high 470 yards passing with 4 TDs and 2 INTs. The secondary was consistently carved up and beaten in seemingly any and every coverage they deployed.
- That said, it was nice to see C.J. Gardner-Johnson make his presence felt early and throughout this one. From his ability to rush the passer to making tackles in the run game or early after the catch, CJGJ appears to be a viable starter moving forward after early indications.
- Another impressive first time performance for the 2025 Bears D was from Austin Booker. Booker immediately made a difference as a pass rusher—flushing Flacco out of the pocket and forcing the OL to false-start. It took no time for him to regain his preseason form.
- Speaking of Booker’s pre-season form, his demolition of 6’8”, 350lb Left Tackle (do NOT call him a RT) was a thing of beauty. Booker converted speed to power utilizing his arm length (exhibit 1 why GMs prefer tackles with long arms) to take down the behemoth and sack Flacco in just his first game back. Booker should be leading the team in sacks soon enough. Unless of course…
- Montez Sweat continues to play excellent football, including one almost sack fumble taken away from him and ruled an incomplete pass. If Sweat can keep making plays, this defense could be elite with a couple more pieces added via trade or returned from injury.
- More competent bodies in the secondary will be much appreciated as Bengals receivers routinely looked either wide open or far superior at the catch point. Lack of pass rush or lack of talent on the backend, both could be the case. But more talent at Edge and DB would go a long way.
- And finally, speaking of a long way, Tremaine Edmunds continues his Pro Bowl season with an INT in excellent coverage against Chase Brown where he caught the tough ball on his way to the ground, sprung up quickly and raced 96 yards for the TD. It got called back due to incidental contact, but was as beautiful a play as it gets from a LB in coverage.
- Kevin Byard had ANOTHER interception called back due to penalty. And another soft penalty was to blame. Byard has been playing excellent ball himself.
Special Teams:
- If it isn’t this it’s that. That is how it feels for the 2025 Bears, but we keep finding ways to win. This week, the special teams played atrociously. Allowing an opening kickoff return for a TD, getting a field goal blocked and allowing an onside kick due to a youth-league level mistake, Richard Hightower’s job should be in serious question.
- I mentioned this a week ago and must repeat it here. Josh Blackwell should NOT be one of our kick-returners. Perhaps it will set us up for another gimmick score later, but I am not a fan of his timidness, lack of vision and ball security issues. Let alone his lack of elite speed and undersized frame.
- Tory Taylor had another great game, though he was not asked to punt much. But his deep punt in the 2nd quarter that pinned the Bengals back was as good as they come.
- Daniel Hardy had a rough game in this one. He was the Bear who touched the ball on the onside kick before it reached 10 yards, has not been blocking well on returns and made little impact in coverage.
- Cairo Santos had a rough game himself. One rare miss wide and another that appeared to be blocked, it is fair to wonder if Ben Johnson moves on to Jake Moody sooner rather than later. I could not have been the only one concerned about depending on a long field goal at the end of the game given our kicker.
