Some random thoughts about the Chicago Bears and other things, mostly football-related as we count down the hours until we get to watch this team play football again:
I thought Week 3 was phenomenal. Started with a convincing Packers loss and ended with a convincing Bears win. Can it get any better?
We’re three weeks into this season but it feels like more with everything that’s already happened with this team. The Bears have a game with the most points since 1980, a bad-weather game where their ascending
franchise quarterback got hurt, and a beatdown of an NFC rival with a 38-year old backup quarterback leading the way. The story of the 2026 Chicago Bears has me hooked in the first chapter. Hopefully you didn’t take Green Day’s advice and were paying attention. On to October.
I was traveling on a long trip, out of my normal routine. I ate a lot of hotel breakfast food, some bad, some acceptable. I normally go for the hot dishes for some protein but I’m envious of the people starting their day at the waffle station. I like a breakfast sandwich and a breakfast burrito but they’re not nearly as good as a regular sandwich or burrito. Same goes for breakfast pizza.
I continue to be impressed with the rookie defensive backs. Dillon Thieneman nabbed his first interception but more impressive to me was his presence all over the field. I’m so sad we didn’t get to see Coby Bryant start the year with Thieneman as that pair of safeties will be really fun to watch once Bryant is healthy. Malik Muhammad may have overtaken Tyrique Stevenson on the depth chart – or he’s at least someone the Bears coaches want on the field more and more. He got the start and played every snap last week.
Many fans and analysts wrote off the Bears defense in the summer. I heard a lot of “worst in the league” talk. I’ve never been knowledgeable enough about every single team in the league to form an opinion that strong before a single game has been played, particularly on defense where things aren’t sticky year to year. So far, that hasn’t been the case, with the Bears defense looking incredible the last two weeks. I know there’s a lot of time between the Super Bowl and Week 1 of the new season, but there’s too much time spent trying to fully predict what the next season will look like and then being shocked when much of it is wrong.
Okay, let’s get to Case Keenum. I’ve been telling Lester Wiltfong Jr. on Bear & Balanced and in many text messages that I’d want Keenum to make a spot start if Caleb Williams was going to miss one week over Tyson Bagent. I liked the idea of the veteran stepping into a big spot and crafting a game plan around his football brain and Ben Johnson sure had fun carving up Uncle Vic Fangio’s defense with the 38-year-old quarterback. It was an awesome performance as you could tell he was prepared, feeling it, and used up all the luck mana he’s stored since his last start three years ago. I loved this performance.
However, I do think the Bears will go back to Tyson Bagent for next week with a full week of practice. As Ben Johnson said, there’s a reason Bagent was named the backup after training camp. Football is not a sentimental business and Johnson will game plan with the players he and his staff believe will give the Bears the best chance to move to 3-1 and I think that will be Bagent until Williams can return. That doesn’t take anything away from Keenum’s performance.
Ben Johnson is awesome. I’ll take the occasional turnover on downs in exchange for his aggressive nature. I’ll take the occasional trick play that doesn’t work in exchange for the volume of explosive plays. I love this style of Bears football. It’s a dream come true to have a coach like this, at the forefront of offensive football.
On a personal note, I spent two weeks out west this September. My wife and I spent time in Yellowstone National Park, Grand Tetons National Park, and the surrounding environs. We encountered elk, bison, and bears and more importantly, a lot of Bears fans, always happy to exchange a hello or a knowing nod passing each other on the trails. Every day I wore something with the Chicago Bears on it, I got a comment from a fellow fan. It’s also a great deterrent for interacting with Packers fans.
I thought TJ Edwards has played some great football the last two weeks. He’s instinctual and a great team leader. Reports of his demise were greatly exaggerated.
The victory against the Eagles really helps the season outlook. If the Bears can manage to beat the Jets with a backup QB at home and move to 3-1 on the year, it will take the sting out of dropping the game against the Vikings. One game at a time though because even though that team up north looms in Week 5, that’s the last thing the Bears should be thinking about. Focus on the Jets. Luckily, Johnson knows Aaron Glenn well and was almost certainly writing out his game plan the second after he yelled out “good, better, best.”
