Bear Digest

Chicago Bears good, bad and ugly for track meet victory over Bengals

There were team records for yards and scoring galore in this 47-42 Bears victory over the Bengals, along with a hot potato.
Gene Chamberlain|
Tanner Hudson makes a catch with Tremaine Edmunds in tow during the Bears' 47-42 win over the Bengals.
Tanner Hudson makes a catch with Tremaine Edmunds in tow during the Bears' 47-42 win over the Bengals. | Albert Cesare/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

It's really a sign of how crazy Sunday's 47-42 Bears win over Cincinnati was when the finish made a handful of crazy Ben Johnson trick plays seem almost insignificant.

And almost all of them worked, in a game when the teams’ combined total of 89 tied the mark for the most ever scored in a game involving the Bears.

QB Caleb Williams caught a touchdown pass from wide receiver DJ Moore on a flea-flicker throw, got open to make another catch on a throwback from backup QB Tyson Bagent for 20 yards and tight end Cole Kmet showed off the arm no one had seen since his days at St. Viator when he threw for Rome Odunze.

That last one was the only one that really didn't  work well, but not because of Kmet's throw. Odunze just didn't catch it.

Odunze took a handoff from Williams on a play they called "hot potato," and handed off on DJ Moore on a reverse, but he then threw it to wide open Williams for a 2-yard touchdown on fourth down for the riskiest of the trick plays. 

"It looks like you're 'hot-potatoing' the ball around to different people four times, one to Rome, one to DJ and then back to me," Williams told reporters.

Those flea-flicker type plays were in addition to the normal assortment of jet sweeps and end arounds, which resulted in TD runs by DJ Moore (17-yard TD) and Olamide Zaccheaus (15-yard TD).

They had actually been working on the hot potato play for several weeks without using it.

"The hot potato ended up looking really good this week," Williams said.

The element of surprise was on the Bears' side even if Johnson is well known for calling trick plays.

"Typically defenses don't necessarily account for the quarterback (receiving)  unless it's a zone read or things like that," Williams said.

The trickery had been largely absent in recent games.

"Coach Johnson he loves those," tight end Colston Loveland said. "Just seeing them go in and seeing how he really is about them when we run them in practice they really need to be perfect.  And we need to execute them or they're getting thrown right out. So, we kind of like that, we like having those cool plays in."

After the way they executed these, they should expect more of them.

The trickery was part of good for the Bears in this game when they set an offensive record. There was other good, as well as bad and ugly.

The Good

Moving the sticks

The 576 net yards of Bears offense was by far the most in team history since 1980. Give Caleb Williams some credit, even though it sometimes looked like he ran around in circles for 576 yards in and around the pocket in a panic with the pass rush coming.

The 30 first downs by the Bears offense was the most they've had in a game since the final year of the Jay Cutler era, 2016.

Their 47 points were their most since Mitchell Trubisky's big game against Tampa Bay in Week 4 of the 2018 season, when they beat the Buccaneers 48-10.

The 576 net yards of offense was by far the most in team history. The most had been 488 in 1943 against the Giants. It was the first time the Bears ever reached or passed both 280 yards rushing and passing in a game.

Kyle Monangai's big day

The 176-yard day by Monangai was the second most ever by a Bears rookie in a game. Anthony Thomas has the rookie single-game mark of 188 yards, also at Cincinnati.

His 176 yards rushing is the most by any rookie back in the league this season by 38 yards over Ashton Jeanty's 138 yards against the Bears for the Raiders.

His 26 rushes for 176 puts him in elite company. Walter Payton is the only Bears back to ever have both 26 runs or more and 176 yards or more in a game.

Taking it away

The interceptions by Nahshon Wright and Tremain Edmunds, and fumble recovery by Gervon Dexter on Austin Booker's strip-sack, brought the Bears' league-leading takeaway total to 19. Edmunds pick brought his total to four, tying him for most by a linebacker in the NFL this season. He has nine since coming to the Bears in 2023, the most by any linebacker in the league in that time.

The NFC North

The division tightened up considerably on this Sunday. Not only did the Bears win to go 5-3, but Minnesota knocked off Detroit at Ford Field 27-24 to drop the Lions to 5-3, same record as the Bears. The last-place Vikings improved to 4-4 with the win.

And after they were featured on pregame shows as the scourge of the NFC and possibly the Super Bowl favorites, the Packers lost at home to the Carolina Panthers

The Bad

Rome Odunze

Bordering on ugly, had no catches for three targets in a 47-point game. He compounded it with a drop in the end zone. He also dropped the tight-end option pass from lefty Cole Kmet.

Bears pass coverage

They gave up 470 yards passing to a 40-year-old passer who was in his fourth appearance with his team.

In their entire history, only Vince Ferragamo of the Rams in 1982 threw for  more against them, 509 in 1982.

They gave up a rancid 9.0 yards per pass play.

Because of their poor pass coverage, they had 495 net yards allowed. That was third-most in their history.

The disturbing part is this year's Bears defense also allowed the most yards when Detroit had 511 yards on them earlier this year.

Cairo Santos' field goal try

The 47-yard field goal that was blocked just before halftime would have been fairly big at game's end. Cairo Santos didn't have great blocking, but the boot was far too low for one that wasn't even 50 yards and very easy to block.

The Ugly

Kick coverage team

The hole in the Bears' kick coverage team when Charlie Jones took back the opening kick 98 yards was so big Andrew Billings could have taken it back for a TD. Santos' tackle attempt on the return was even worse than the low field goal he had blocked.

The Hands Team

First off, what is defensive end Daniel Hardy doing on the "hands team" to recover onside kicks?

Usually that's a job for wide receivers, tight ends, running backs and the like. Defensive backs could do it better because they are trying to field the ball more. Tory Taylor would have been a better choice than an edge rusher because as punter and holder he has to field snaps all the time.

Beyond that, it is called the hands team and the bouncing ball went off Hardy's foot to give the Bengals a chance at the go-ahead points.

Maybe he doesn't get the concept of hands team. It's not the foot team.

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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.