It’s a victory Monday in Chicago after the Bears beat the Los Angeles Rams yesterday, which means we’ve got to tweak this regular slightly and replace “The Ugly” with “The Great.” Hopefully, we can do this a few more times this season because it’s a much more enjoyable write-up.
The Good From the Bears Win Over the Los Angeles Rams
Offensive Coordinator Shane Waldron finally seemed to figure something out in the second half. Chicago’s first drive of the second half was hands-down their best of the season. After the Rams trimmed the Bears’ lead to one point on a Josh Karty field goal to open the second half, Chicago took over at their 26-yard line.
Waldron called his best series of the season, resulting in a 12-play, 74-yard touchdown drive that spanned six minutes and 13 seconds. The Bears stayed ahead of the chains, only facing two third downs on the drive. Waldron used D’Andre Swift well and turned to Roschon Johnson for the third and three at the Rams 33-yard line to pick up a crucial first down to keep the drive going. He used Johnson for a 2nd & 4 run inside the Rams 20, which resulted in another first down.
The drive was capped with, arguably, the best throw we’ve seen from Caleb Williams this season, a touchdown strike to DJ Moore in the back of the end zone to give the Bears a 17-9 lead late in the third quarter.
Good morning. pic.twitter.com/L8dabhfsSF
— Adam Hoge (@AdamHoge) September 30, 2024
Montez Sweat is turning it up after a slow start with back-to-back solid performances against the Indianapolis Colts and Los Angeles Rams. Sweat logged a sack, two pressures, and a batted pass in the victory over the Rams. On Sunday at Soldier Field, he posted a team-high 73.4 pass-rush grade from PFF.
The Bad
Offensive Coordinator Shane Waldron‘s playcalling in the first half looked like he didn’t listen to anything his offensive captains said to him this week. His opening drive script was as bad as we’ve seen this season, and it looked like he didn’t want rookie quarterback Caleb Williams to throw past the sticks, deploying a heavy dose of slow-developing screens to the boundary, stick, and option routes underneath the sticks and running plays. We’re all thrilled that things looked much better in the second half, but we were one bad half of offensive football from reaching the level of fans staging a coup at Halas Hall.
Like Waldron, a better second half for the offensive line doesn’t completely absolve them of an ugly first-half performance that matched their body of work this season. Braxton Jones was bullied by Jared Verse all day, and Teven Jenkins was awful in his small sample size before he exited with a rib injury and did not return.
The Great
Caleb Williams completed 17 of 23 passes for 157 yards and a touchdown in the victory over the Rams. Williams played turnover-free football and finished the game with a 106.6 passer rating. The yardage doesn’t jump off the charts, but he did what he was asked to do and did it to near perfection. His commitment to staying in the pocket, climbing, getting through his reads, and taking what the defense gives him was evident today.
If you were mad about his hero ball last week when he threw for 363 yards and still mad that he threw for 157 yards, did all of the operational things right, and protected the football in a win, then I don’t know what to tell you.
D’Andre Swift turned in his best performance of the season, with 93 yards on the ground on 16 carries (5.8) and another 72 yards through the air on seven receptions (10.3) and a touchdown. I’m interested to see what it looks like on the All-22 re-watch, but it felt a lot like Waldron used Swift differently this week, putting him in a position to use his skill set, and it worked wonders for Swift and the Bears.
Tory Taylor was everything the Bears dreamt of when they drafted him with a fourth-round pick in April. He flipped the field all day, and his booming punts helped the Bears win the field position battle all day. I have more to say about Taylor, but I’m going to save it for a separate post today.
Jaquan Brisker was everywhere on Sunday, logging 12 tackles (eight solo), a sack, and an interception against the Rams. He also had an interception in the end zone that was negated upon review due to him not re-establishing himself in bounds after stepping out of bounds during the play.