Ben Johnson said he wanted his Chicago Bears to have the highest-scoring offense in NFL history this year. The Bears more than backed up his talk in Week 1, dropping an astonishing 59 points on the Carolina Panthers while breaking several franchise records in a season opener.
Do you know what the crazy thing is? Despite an eye-opening, all-around offensive performance that will assuredly make them the early talk of the NFL season, the Bears believe they left a lot of meat on the bone. Five different guys scored a touchdown. They had nearly 300 team rushing yards, 261 passing yards, averaged almost eight yards per play, and excelled in every high-leverage situation.
What meat is left, exactly?
In a postgame interview, running back D'Andre Swift
— who ran for 124 yards and three touchdowns while averaging nearly seven yards per carry — said, "It should have been worse." Yes, that means exactly what you think. Swift, in channeling an obvious mentality Johnson has instilled in his players, thinks the Bears' offense should have scored more than 59 points. Goodness gracious.
RB D'Andre Swift provided a glimpse into the Bears' mindset under Ben Johnson: “To be able to come out of a game like that and have so much to clean up … it’s alright, we’ll take the win. Fifty-nine points is amazing; it’s awesome. But it should have been worse.”
— Adam Jahns (@adamjahns) September 13, 2026
Honestly, Swift might not be wrong!
As he explained, despite their gaudy performance, the Bears still made plenty of notable self-inflicted mistakes that ended drives, including 12 penalties for 57 yards and a fumble on their first possession. It's a testament to how talented and well-schooled the Bears' offense is that it managed to put up nearly 60 points anyway, even with these sorts of obstacles.
On the field postgame, D'Andre Swift told me the Bears offense could have made this game look a lot worse than the 59 points they rolled up on Carolina in the opener.
— Courtney Cronin (@CourtneyRCronin) September 13, 2026
Worse?! I asked him what he meant, and he pointed to the penalties that stifled the offense at time, yet the…
What's scary about the Bears' offense is that Swift felt the need to voice this sentiment in the first place. Plenty of teams would've taken the opportunity to bask and be extremely happy with Chicago's historic offensive performance in Week 1. By contrast, the Bears sound like they're far from satisfied with the excellence they put on display, knowing they could've played even better.
It's still so early, but it is that exact mentality that may well push Johnson's Bears to actually challenge the NFL's single-season scoring record.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: D’Andre Swift’s 6-word evaluation of Bears’ 59-point game is a Ben Johnson endorsement
