Bear Digest

Bears emerge the big cheese in the NFC North with passing grades

Chicago Bears report card: The Bears needed to face a backup Packers QB and made numerous mistakes, but performed flawless clutch football to lock up a win.
Gene Chamberlain|
Jaquan Brisker draws a penalty for a late hit on sliding Malik Willis in Sunday's Bears win.
Jaquan Brisker draws a penalty for a late hit on sliding Malik Willis in Sunday's Bears win. | Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

They call it a walk-off win but try telling that to DJ Moore, who won the game, went to the ground with Keisean Nixon clinging to his back and was laying there long after his 46-yard touchdown.

"I was hurting, until my teammates picked me off the ground," Moore said.

He was no worse for the wear and soon afterward wearing a cheese grater hat for the nation to see.

Take that Wisconsin for all of the 14 losses in 15 games given to the Bears on their own field until Capt. Caleb Comeback took things into his own hands. And now it's 14 in 16 games.

The Bears didn't do everything right in their 22-16 overtime win over Green Bay. Maybe the worst thing they did was injure quarterback Jordan Love. With Love out due to concussion, it meant Malik Willis played, and he's exactly the kind of QB who gave them some of their most embarrassing moments of 2025 in a loss at Baltimore. He could run.

The defense let the Packers own the ball and the clock. They didn't let them own the scoreboard, though.

The Packers left just enough of that clock for the magic of Caleb Williams' arm, the  toe of Cairo Santos, and the hands of both Josh Blackwell and a receiver corps carrying obscure names like Jahdae Walker. 

Finally, there it was hurtling through the night and landing in the hands of Moore for the 46-yard touchdown.

"We timed that one up right," coach Ben Johnson said. "DJ ran a great route and Caleb threw him a great ball."

That part of it no one could deny. Much of the rest was the same old Packers pushing around the same old Bears, and for that reason the report card from this game won't be one to write home about.

Rather, think of it like a final exam in your toughest class ever.  It just came back from the teacher with a big D on it. Well done. You've passed. Time to party.

Running game: B+

They needed three Caleb Williams runs, and he continues to lack the ability to slide beyond the sticks, but his 30 yards rushing proved huge. There are no complaints about Kyle Monangai's 50 yards or D'Andre Swift's 58 yards except that they didn't get enough opportunities with the Packers executing ball control and Johnson taking it out of their hands too often.

Passing attack: B+

It was like a 2,000-pound rock. In the end, they had chiseled it into a thing of beauty but until the fourth quarter it still looked pretty big and ugly. Williams hadn't even cracked 100 yards passing until the fourth quarter. He then had 151 yards in the fourth quarter and overtime. The Packers succeeded in making the Bear' dependable pass blocking look lost at times, especially when Green Bay's edges sat down on the bootlegs. In the clutch, Walker played like he was a veteran starter instead of someone who came in with eight plays of experience on offense in his NFL career. No one was more clutch on offense than Moore and Williams. Finally, Williams found Moore when it mattered most. Williams still hasn't mastered the art of making his incompletions count, as his intentional ground penalty in the fourth quarter showed. He still didn't reach 60% completions, as some will no doubt point out. When your passer rating is 98.9 for the game and the last pass thrown ends it, no one cares.

Run defense: D+

Green Bay couldn't even use Josh Jacobs much of the game, as he gutted out a knee injury. Emanuel Wilson shredded the Bears for a 82 yards and Willis had 44 as the Bears' defense leaked 192 yards on 44 carries, the most they allowed since they gave Ashton Jeanty about 90% of his rushing yards for the season. What the defense did do was steal the ball. Nahshon Wright has learned the Peanut Punch quite effectively, and Tremaine Edmunds couldn't track down Wilson on one open-field tackle attempt, but came back from an injury this week just in time to prevent a Packers touchdown by recovering the fumble Wright's Peanut Punch forced.

Pass defense: B-

Holding Packers QBs below 200 combined passing yards (198) is never easily accomplished and they had to do it with C.J. Gardner-Johnson leaving the game with a knee injury, and Nick McCloud playing slot cornerback. The Packers' ball control and play-action had Bears linebackers and DBs frozen enough to make 17 of 24 possible in the passing game, but the only time they could reach the end zone was a 33-yard TD strike to Romeo Doubs. Officials blew a whistle too soon and took away another fumble from the greedy Bears defense on a Packers completion early in the game when forward motion had definitely not been established.  A penalty on Jaquan Brisker for hitting a sliding Willis on a scramble was stupid, but Bears quarterbacks in the last five years have taken far worse on slides than that one without a flag. Three other late hits meant 15 yards, but they sent messages.

Special teams: A+

The 35-yard Santos field goal miss against Cleveland is long forgotten after Williams' intentional grounding made him kick a 51-yard field goal in a strong wind, and after a 43-yarder in the closing minutes. And, especially, after a perfect onside kick. Tory Taylor had another coffin corner punt. If anyone other than Josh Blackwell makes NFC Pro Bowl special teams player, the voting is a travesty. 

Coaching: B

Johnson has had better days. They tried to run wide too many times when the direct runs gutted Green Bay's defense. The fourth-and-1 decision early to run a trick play at the Green Bay 4 that resulted in high snap over wildcat QB Monangai brought back memories of Johnson's decision to have Jameson Williams throw a wide receiver option pass in last year's NFC divisional playoffs against Washington. It was not a bright decision, considering they'd been tearing up Green Bay's run defense on that drive. Nor did they use time wisely before Santos' 43-yard fourth-quarter field goal because the extra seconds wasted forced them to try the onside kick. Just like with everything else in this game, Williams' touchdown pass to Walker and then the bomb to Moore let Johnson come out smelling like a rose. There's no sense quibbling about bottom lines.

Overall: B

There will be plenty who point out they once again didn't beat Green Bay with Love playing a full game. They beat the Packers without Micah Parsons. They beat the Packers without a healthy Jacobs playing and Green Bay had a few other injuries. There is no column in the standings for losses because of injuries. The Bears know this themselves. They are sitting in first place with two games left because they accept the situation each week and take on the task with single-minded purpose. Maybe the Packers should try doing this.

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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.