The Chicago Bears fought for all 60 minutes, and in the end, they came out victorious against the Cincinnati Bengals, overcoming a huge Bengals’ fourth-quarter comeback. After this 47-42 win, the Bears’ advance to 5-3 on the season.
This high-scoring game was equally exciting and messy, leaving fans on the tip of their toes. We finally saw breakout games for rookie TE Colston Loveland and rookie RB Kyle Monangai. And the final quarter of this game was easily the craziest of the Bears’ season yet.
Let’s get right into Week 9’s Windy City Honors superlative awards:
Worst Outing
Typically, the Bears defense is the unit keeping them in the game and bailing the offense out. However, that was not the case Sunday. The offense showed up and did their job this week, recording 576 total yards of offense and 30 first downs.
On the other hand, the Bears defense was ineffective at containing the Bengals offense as they gave up 42 points and allowed 577 total yards, 470 of those being passing yards.
At the two-minute warning, the Bears were leading 41-27. The defense almost cost the Bears the game (Special Teams can also hold some of that blame). Although they had a couple turnovers and some good plays sprinkled throughout, they had a bad outing overall.
Hopefully, help is on the way as the Bears might be looking to add a pass rusher before the trade deadline on Tuesday, per Jay Glazer.
Most Effective
While the Bears struggled to get their run game going earlier in the season, it’s safe to say they’ve finally got it figured out. The Bears rank 2nd in the league in rushing yards with 1,155 total rushing yards on the season and 144.4 rush yards per game per StatMuse, which is quite the improvement from the beginning of the season. The offense produced a season-high of 283 rushing yards on Sunday.
With starting running back D’Andre Swift being ruled out this week with a groin injury, rookie running back Kyle Monangai stepped up in a big way in his first NFL start. Monangai recorded 26 carries for 176 rushing yards and 3 receptions for 22 receiving yards. He averaged 6.8 yards per carry. He runs hard, falls forward, and is difficult to tackle. After his performance today, his role in this offense should only continue to grow.
Along with the strong outing from Monangai on Sunday, running back Brittain Brown who was elevated from the practice squad this week also scored a 22-yard touchdown. He also had a notable play where he leaped over the Bengals’ defensive line for a first down.
Week after week, the Bears’ run game continues to come to life.
Best Fan Interaction
On Friday, a fan of defensive back Jaquan Brisker posted a picture on X of a sign that he made for Brisker for Sunday’s game, in hopes of getting to meet him. Brisker responded to the post, promising him he would look out for the fan in the stands.
Brisker is a man of his word. Before the game, Brisker met up with the young fan, his family, and his friends. He chatted with them in the stands, gifted the fan his gloves and signed some memorabilia.
Overall, the Bears bounced back from their loss last week. Once again, they won a game they would not have won otherwise under the last regime. The Ben Johnson era has shown a lot of promise so far.
