Bear Digest

Caleb Williams only part of Week 3 success on Chicago Bears report card

Grading the Bears: The Bears passing attack flourished but they excelled in numerous ways both between the white lines and on the sideline in a 31-14 win over Dallas.
Gene Chamberlain|
Caleb Williams hits the turf on a run in a win over Dallas.
Caleb Williams hits the turf on a run in a win over Dallas. | David Banks-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

It wasn't exactly Ben Johnson getting in the middle of the locker room, surrounded by players, and hollering "boom," like Matt Nagy.

Johnson's postgame locker room speech is being heralded by many but his real contribution came early in the week when he shook up the full roster by simply telling them they weren't getting it done in practice. Cole Kmet and a few others had said this last year and it fell on deaf ears.

On Sunday, they played angry and with the sense of urgency the Lions had played with against them the previous week and beat Dallas handily, 31-14.

"I think it starts with practice and how consistent we were in practice," QB Caleb Williams said. "The preparation, when we're actually between the white lines, and going out there and competing versus each other and having these tough practices.

"And it builds the confidence to go out and have the game like we had today."

The Bears ruled the day against a defense that couldn't get enough pressure on Williams and an offense incapable of completing passes more than 10 yards downfield.

Their grades reflect their most convincing win in Soldier Field since they beat Carolina last year 36-10.

Passing game: A+

For Caleb Williams, a performance so convincing it vaulted him into the top 10 for passer rating and tied him with Aaron Rodgers for the league lead in TD passes (7). He even cracked the top 10 for yards per attempt now at 7.7. And Johnson has to be smiling today because he's almost in the top 10 (11th) for both expected points added (EPA) and passing EPA. For the offensive line, when your QB emerges without a sack for the first time and does it with Darnell Wright missing 11 plays, it says even more. The TD went to four different receivers. Everything is working better in the passing game and the only downside is the hip injury to Colston Loveland.

Running game: C+

It had to be the best 3.0-yards per carry in history. They didn't get much movement but when there was an opening wre able to gain needed yards with six different players carrying the ball, including Kyle Monangai six times for 16 yard. When D'Andre Swift has 2.5 yards a carry it's reason for panic but 40 of their yards and 12 of the carries came on the critical 19-play TD march and it would have been eight more yards if Monangai had simply fallen down at the line of scrimmage instead of bouncing out of a pile backwards 8 yards. They even had positive rushing yards from receivers for a change. In the future, they might make everyone feel at ease if they tell Williams to hit the ground instead of trying to be Mike Alstott like on his 7-yard RPO run during that drive.

Pass defense: A+

Bouncing back from the devastation against Detroit when three top defenders are out requires excellence. Definitely it helped when CeeDee Lamb went out early but Dallas has other receivers like George Pickens. They couldn't be found for bigger gains. When you hold a team to a scant 5.9 yards per pass play in the NFL it usually means a win. When you do it and average 10.6 yards a pass play it means a rout. It would have been even worse than 5.9 if Joe Milton hadn't come on late and completed a few longer passes with the outcome decided. Tremaine Edmunds' value in pass coverage has been evident throughout training camp and the regular season and Sunday was his finest hour. Nahshon Wright proved an asset and they had a sufficient pass rush on big downs with Montez Sweat and even Dominique Robinson contributing sacks.

Run defense: C+

The 6.0 yards allowed per rush can happen when a team has a good scrambler at QB but Dak Prescott had no scramble yardage or attempts. The 121 yards on 20 carries was all backs or KaVontae Turpin. The best thing that happened to the Bears run defense was the lead their passing attack got them because Dallas went away from Javonte Williams after he had nine carries for 67 yards in the first half and he had only one carry for 9 yards in the second half. In other words, Dallas did the opposite of what Minnesota did in the opener at Soldier Field and abandoned the run when it was working. They were only down 10 at halftime and even down 17 in the third quarter probably wasn't time to quit running. The best thing the Bears did on run defense was play trail technique, when Tyrique Stevenson snuck up and stole the ball from Javonte Williams after getting left behind on the 22-yard run.

Special teams: A-

The Bears had more return yards (31-28) than the team with Turpin on their side and managed to keep from being hurt too much by Dallas' vaunted kicking game. Only punt coverage proved problematic and Tory Taylor handled it the best way possible. He punted one out of bounds in the coffin corner on the 5-yard line.

Coaching: A+

Besides the game plan taking advantage of obvious Dallas pass defense weaknesses/pass rush limitations, they used players well on a warm day for late summer. They rotated out the defensive line and kept them fresh so they could close strong. Sweat had only 58% of defensive plays, Dayo Odeyingbo led with only 61%. They showed some creativity using Daniel Hardy at strongside linebacker and edge rusher. A more conservative Dennis Allen handled Dallas' big-play attack well, by focusing on preventing big gains. Meanwhile, Johnson showed for the first time how his gambling and wide-open play calling can work with Williams as his QB.

Overall: A

If they can accomplish improvement along the line of scrimmage on both sides, more of these types of games against much better competition than Jerry Jones' team is possible.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.