The Chicago Bears played in their third straight prime-time game on Sunday Night Football, defeating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 27-24, to improve to 7-2 this season.
After beating the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks (last year’s conference champions) in back-to-back weeks, this game had the makings of a letdown for Chicago. The Buccaneers had a lousy start to their season, but have started to come on strong. One might say they are a “pesky” type of team at this stage of the game.
Tampa Bay proved to be every bit as tough to beat. At one point, the Bears were up 17-3, and they found themselves tied with under three minutes left in regulation. They found a way to win a football game, but it was incredibly tough. Each unit of the team had
its ups and downs, and this is how they have been graded.
Offense: C
Chicago’s offense is usually among the NFL’s elite. They were again during the first quarter, until Zavion Thomas’s 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty ended the momentum. From there, it was a struggle for Caleb Williams and company. Williams had the most up-and-down game of his NFL career. He completed 22 passes for 279 yards and two touchdowns. Shockingly, he threw a career-high four interceptions, which is unlike him. Normally, Williams protects the football as well as any QB in the league. One interception was an instance of his receiver letting it bounce off his body and into the arms of the opponent, but the other three were simply the result of poor decision-making.
Cole Kmet will be missing for the rest of the season, and most of their 13-personnel offense didn’t look the same as it would with Kmet in there. That’s something they will have to overcome during practice in prep for future games. The rest of the weapons on the team were okay, but it was just an off night overall for everyone. Luther Burden and Rome Odunze each had touchdown receptions, but nobody went over 100 yards receiving. Meanwhile, D'Andre Swift and the run game had its worst showing of the season with just 72 total yards. When the Bears return in two weeks, expect everyone to have plenty of extra energy.
Defense: A
The Bears' defense was not the problem in this game. In fact, they were the savior. There were many times that Chicago decided to put their faith in this unit. The offense has carried the show for the last 18 months, but this side of the ball is starting to catch up. Of course, the addition of Jeffery Simmons has made a world of difference. With Montez Sweat and Austin Booker alongside him, everybody can eat a little more. Booker and Simmons each had a sack (the Bears had four total), while Sweat had a forced fumble.
Devin Bush, at times, was also incredibly noticeable. He made nine tackles for the Bears, and most of them were in key situations where the opposing runner had to be stopped right there for the sake of the game. Chicago intercepted two Baker Mayfield passes in this game -- Cam Lewis had one of them and Jaylon Johnson had the other. Johnson also returned his pick to the end zone for a touchdown, which served as a much-needed score for a team that was struggling to find the end zone offensively.
For Johnson, it’s been a tough season. There have been many moments of failure, which have caused people to question his roster spot and his contract. Well, he made a game-saving play in this one, and they probably don’t score enough points to win without the incredible play by Jaylon Johnson. The defense didn’t get as much help as they’re normally going to get from the offense, and they had a scoring play of their own. For that reason, they get an A.
Special Teams: A
The Bears don’t always rely on special teams in wins, especially this season, but it played a key role in this game. Early on, the return units gave the Bears good field position. That made the earlier scoring drives a tad easier. Tory Taylor did have one punt blocked, but his leg is so strong that the ball didn’t completely die upon being blocked. There have been worse blocked punt situations. The real reason for the A is Cairo Santos. Chicago’s kicker accounted for nine out of their 27 points. He went 2-for-2 on field goals and 3-for-3 on extra points. The standout play, however, was his game-winning 38-yard attempt with no time on the clock. It went right down the middle. Did special teams play the biggest role in the overall win? No. But they sealed the deal. Also, if not for a phantom penalty on D'Marco Jackson, Zavion Thomas would've had a potential kickoff return touchdown.
Coaching: C
This was a rare lousy game for Ben Johnson, especially by his standards. Normally, they have a tactical advantage in every game they play, but that wasn’t the case in this one for whatever reason. Tampa Bay has a very good defensive line, led by Vita Vea. Ben Johnson hardly attacked that challenge head-on, as they went so far away from the run game. It almost made the Bears’ offense unrecognizable. We know how great Caleb Williams is, but the run game plays a big role in him being successful, as it does for every good QB in the game.
The play-calling wasn't the best either. There were multiple moments where you knew that Ben Johnson was better than that. There were third-and-short plays where they took a medium-sized shot down the field. Sure, those are nice when they work, but the game was too close for comfort to not just take the layups. Ben Johnson benched Zavion Thomas from offense (he appeared on special teams) after that idiotic penalty in the first quarter, which goes a long way with his credibility as a disciplinarian. That was a positive mark on his evening, but the Bears are used to getting better from their head coach. Every other coach on the team follows behind him with this grade. Dennis Allen's defense was magnificent at times, so he helps keep the grade at C as well.
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This article originally appeared on Bears Wire: Bears report card: How we graded Chicago in Week 9 win vs. Buccaneers
