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Chicago Bears Report Card for Week 9 Win: A Successful Salvage

Instead of the sweet taste of victory, Caleb Williams, Ben Johnson and the Bears simply had to accept the relief of a 7-2 start after surviving the Bucs, 27-24.
Gene Chamberlain|
Jeffery Simmons makes his second sack in two Bears starts during the second half of Sunday's Bears win.
Jeffery Simmons makes his second sack in two Bears starts during the second half of Sunday's Bears win. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

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Chicago Bears

Ben Johnson wanted to point to one real positive Sunday night after the Bears nearly squandered a game they should have put away in the second quarter.

"Despite the displeasure I might be presenting right now, there's a lot of good in terms of building this team that comes from a win like this," Johnson said. 'Like I said, one, it's hard to win under those circumstances. But to your point, we really haven't been in that situation in the fourth quarter with little time left, needing a field goal, touchdown, whatever it is.

"It just hasn't happened a whole lot this year. And yet I feel like our guys, we are prepped for that and we're ready for it."

It's a good thing they showed they still had this in their back pockets.

If the Bears continue playing the way they did Sunday night, they're going to be facing a lot of future deficits and will need those late-game Caleb Williams comebacks.

Finishing before the break with a 7-2 record was essential in an NFC North where every team must win every week to keep from losing ground.

At least the Bears managed to do this, even if their performance inspired little confidence about the remaining eight games.

Here are the grades from possibly the ugliest victory of Johnson's time as head coach.

Passing: D+

Giving a failed grade would be easy but they did enough in the first quarter with a perfectly executed 56-yard touchdown pass to Luther Burden III and the 9-yard TD to Rome Odunze, and later with the 38-yard pass to Colston Loveland to salvage something. In between, QB decision making and passing were poor, there were jailbreaks from the line and Odunze bobbled away a chance to secure a wide-open TD at the back of the end zone. The optimal grade for any offense with four interceptions should be a C. The Bears only got that because of the late drive for the winning points.

Rushing: D+

A season-low 72 yards and only 3.3 yards per carry would have been even worse if not for Williams scrambling for 16 yards. Salvon Ahmed's 5.0 yards per carry on five rushes kept this from descending into "F" territory. D'Andre Swift obviously needs a rest because of some type of unreported injury situation because he averaged 2.6 yards again for the second straight game. He failed to reach 100 yards for the eighth straight game and to average more than 3.5 yards for the fourth straight game. The running game needs balance from Kyle Monangai's power back badly, but their anemic rushing totals by backs says there could be something more needed from the blocking as well.

Run defense: B

A familiar theme for the defense has been to allow a few longer runs that bolstered opponents' numbers but failed to really dent the game. Bucky Irving came up 3 yards short of 100 but no one could say he had a huge impact. The Bears can't get outrushed 126-72 in games and stay competitive, though. The overall goal is to force opponents into passing situations on third down and their front succeeded at this. Linebacker Devin Bush again recorded a strong game with nine tackles, including one of their four for loss.

Pass defense: B-

Jaylon Johnson saved the day with his 67-yard interception return, aided by Montez Sweat's block on Baker Mayfield. They had their share of failures, like the 58-yard completion allowed to Tez Johnson and the 44-yarder after a Mayfield scramble to Kenneth Gainwell. The pass rush and coverage failed on that broken play. However, the rush consistently got after Mayfield with four sacks and the two interceptions not only prevented points but added to the team total. A 2-for-12 game on third down by Tampa Bay let the Bears come away with the chance to win at the end.

Special teams: B

Zavion Thomas' 92-yard touchdown return got wiped out by a terrible phantom holding call or the Bears might have been so far ahead in the first half that the Bucs never could have been close, even with five takeaways. Cairo Santos' seventh game-winning field goal as a Bear wasn't long at 38 yards, but once again he delivered when it mattered and there have been plenty of NFL instances of kickers missing in the clutch this season. In between successes were a poor knuckle kickoff by Santos to give Tampa Bay the ball at the 40; a deflected Tory Taylor punt; Kalif Raymond's muffed attempt to field a punt, with disaster averted by his recovery. Raymond did make a 26-yard punt return and Thomas averaged 29.3 on three kick returns, while the coverage units had another outstanding night with four kicks covered at a 23.0-yard average and no punt return yards for Taylor punts.

Coaching: B-

Johnson can't actually come onto the field and throw the ball out of bounds for Williams. He can only tell him what to do. The Bears are obviously facing issues running the ball or blocking the run and Johnson's play calling reflected this with only 17 run calls for backs. Dennis Allen's ability to scheme up the right call with rather exotic coverage or rush looks was huge over the first three quarters. Not many teams can hold it together when the offense is turning it over five times, and the Bears won a game for the first time since 2006 when they did this -- they also won one that year when they turned it over six times. That was the "they are who we thought they were" game.

Overall: C+

Winning ugly sure beats losing ugly. Their defense and Santos prevented something totally unsightly. Johnson tends to use bye weeks to make lineup changes he deems necessary. He did this last year. Will any be coming?

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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.

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