Caleb Williams headlines Bears' keys to victory over the Cowboys in Week 3

The 2025 NFL season has not gone as Chicago Bears fans had hoped it would thus far. The season opener started with an emphatic statement on the opening drive from Caleb Williams and the offense, only to see the team give up an 11-point fourth quarter lead. A crushing Week 2 defeat saw the team give up a whopping 52 points. Adding insult to injury, both losses came to division rivals.

Now the Bears are staring down the barrel of an 0-3 start to the year with the Dallas Cowboys coming to Soldier Field on Sunday. A Bears' loss to the Cowboys and Matt Eberflus would be the rotten cherry on top of a miserable start to the year. But it doesn't have to be that way. The Bears can snap their losing streak on Sunday with a commanding win, but only if they hit these keys.

1. Caleb Williams

As has been the message all offseason, Chicago will fail or succeed according to the level of play they get from their quarterback. Thus far, Williams has been good but not great. That's not enough. The Bears did not draft Caleb Williams with the first overall pick in 2024 to be a decent quarterback. They expected a quarterback who can lead a dynasty, and Williams needs to start showing more than just flashes of that potential.

This Dallas defense just gave up 450 passing yards and 37 points to an over-the-hill Russell Wilson and a struggling Giants offense. They sent Micah Parsons to the Packers in a blockbuster trade. Their secondary is banged up. Their defensive coordinator is infamous in Chicago for playing an outdated defensive scheme. All the ingredients are there for Williams to have a career game. It's up to him now to make it happen.

Caleb William — Lon Horwedel-Imagn Images

2. The defensive line must earn their keep.

The Bears have poured a ton of money and draft capital into their 2025 defensive line and have not gotten anything close to an acceptable result. Football is won and lost in the trenches, and over the last five quarters this defensive line has allowed 73 points and nearly 700 yards of offense. Utterly and completely unacceptable.

Dallas' offensive line is the perfect get-right game, if this D-line is ever going to have one. Their best O-lineman right now is center Brock Hoffman with a miserable 59.8 PFF grade. Chicago's secondary will be without Jaylon Johnson and potentially Kyler Gordon, so the defensive line has to get pressure on Dak Prescott early and often. It's the only way this defense can avoid another 52-point fiasco.

3. The veterans have to step up and lead by example

As much as I'd love to see Rome Odunze have another monster outing, that may not be the best thing for Chicago going forward. The veterans on this team do not appear to be leading this team by example, something to which head coach Ben Johnson seemed to allude when he chided the team's practice habits. Other cryptic comments from Johnson led some to believe specifically that DJ Moore could be in hot water already.

That has to change this week. NFL teams need their veterans to lead from the front with 100% effort and by living up to their hefty contracts. Expecting youngsters to lead is a recipe for disappointment. That means Moore needs to finally have a big game for this offense. Cole Kmet needs to get involved more, even at the expense of the rookie Colston Loveland (for now). Montez Sweat and Grady Jarrett need to register at least one sack for the season, just to get on the board.

If Chicago's expensive veterans can't make an impact on this Week 3 game, there's not much hope for this team until at least the 2026 season.

Final prediction: Bears lose 27-34

It sucks to see it come so early this year, but I've already hit the point where I can't pick the Bears to win a game until they actually win a game. There's just no excuse for getting whooped by a Lions team still finding their way, or allowing J.J. McCarthy to engineer the kind of 4th quarter comeback you typically only see from Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen.

I hope I'm wrong, and there's a decent chance that I am, but the Bears have been such a disappointment that I no longer expect them to win the games I marked as likely wins before the season started.

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