Caleb Williams destroys Dallas defense in Ben Johnson's first win

If only all defenses the Bears face could be coached by Matt Eberflus.

The former Bears head coach brought out the best in Caleb Williams and the Bears passing game with his porous Dallas Cowboys pass defense in a 31-14 victory Sunday at Soldier Field that provided coach Ben Johnson with his first Chicago win.

Williams completed 19 of 28 for 298 yards and matched his career high with four touchdown passes. He also had four in the win over Jacksonville in London last year.

Williams passed at will early, built a 31-14 lead and Dallas' own offense had to settle for some rushing yards and a lot of dink-and-dunk throws by Dak Prescott after he lost his best receiver, CeeDee Lamb early to an ankle injury.

Once the Bears built a 10-point lead, they got exactly what they needed in the third quarter with a 19-play, 76-yard drive that ate 9:54 off the clock and ended in a 4-yard TD pass to DJ Moore on a fourth-and-goal Johnson gamble.

Williams went 10 of 16 for 239 yards and three touchdowns in the first half.

He connected on passes of 65 yards to Luther Burden, 35 to Rome Odunze, 41 to D'Andre Swift and 31 to Colston Loveland in the first half alone. The 65-yarder was a flea flicker that broke wide open for a 14-3 lead. The 31-yarder to Loveland set up the 35-yard TD to Odunze, who was wide open fter Trevon Diggs slipped. Swift's short catch and 41-yarder helped set up a 30-yard field goal by Cairo Santos.

The 10-yard TD pass to wide-open Cole Kmet just before halftime ended a drive that went 71 yards in only two minutes. The fourth-and-goal gamble to Moore also broke wide open.

The Bears needed all of the big yardage and point production early because they couldn't do much on the ground and couldn't stop Dallas' running attack until the second half.

They gave up ground but took the ball away three times, the first when Tyrique Stevenson stole the ball from Javonte Williams from behind with the Cowboys in field goal range, and the other three in the fourth quarter on two Tremaine Edmunds interceptions and one by Kevin Byard.

The punchless Cowboys attack not only lost Lamb but the defense lost defensive tackle Kenny Clark (ankle) and cornerback Trevon Diggs (shoulder) along the way, as they were totally outclassed in all areas of the game. Prescott had 250 yards passing but took 40 passes to do it and had 31 completions. He was pulled from the game late as Joe Milton threw the interception to Byard.

The Bears running game even showed signs of life in the second half with the long TD drive, their first 19-play drive since 2009.

X: BearsOnSI