Dan Orlovksy: Bears have a “championship-caliber offense”

Sunday’s loss still proved the Chicago Bears’ offense is explosive enough to hang with any team they’ll face in the playoffs.

Dec 28, 2025; Santa Clara, California, USA; Chicago Bears running back D'Andre Swift (4) celebrates after scoring a touchdown against the San Francisco 49ers in the second half at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-Imagn Images | Kyle Terada-Imagn Images

The Chicago Bears’ 42-38 loss to the San Francisco 49ers felt like something out of the 2013-14 seasons under Marc Trestman: fun offense, god-awful defense.

To be fair, the Bears’ defense hasn’t been that bad all season and have generally had the decency to cover up their flaws by taking the football away, as they did on the first play of last night’s game. Still, it’s clear this level of defense is not going to cut it for a team with championship aspirations.

That said, as former Bears defensive tackle Israel Idonije aptly said in Marquee Sports Network’s Week 18 post-game show, “your best defense is a great offense.” And it sure seems like the Chicago Bears have one of those now that head coach Ben Johnson's unit, led by quarterback Caleb Williams, is starting to cook.

In fact, ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky thinks it might well be one that can take the Bears to a Super Bowl.

“It’s a championship-caliber offense,” the former NFL quarterback said on ESPN’s “Get Up” on Monday morning. “And it wasn’t eight weeks ago. It was a championship-caliber run game [then]. But the way Caleb has finished this season, you sit there and say, ‘Yes, this pass game is now good enough.’ 

“The big plays that they can create in their play-action pass game and the confidence that the quarterback has in some of their young players [like Colston Loveland and Luther Burden III]—they can run the football, they can create explosives. Caleb has been very good in this last month of the season.”

Hard to argue with that after seeing Williams go off for 330 yards and two touchdowns—one each to Burden and Loveland, respectively—and watching them march down the field seemingly at will after a few three-and-outs to start the game. Williams continues to progress as a passer from the pocket while rarely, if ever, putting the ball in harm’s way, and the huge plays he generates often offset some of his pass-game misses.

Now, it’s not all sunshine and roses in spite of those positive developments, especially given the lamentable state of the defense.

“The defense is totally predicated off takeaways,” Orlovsky added in the segment. “It’s really not all that different from San Francisco: championship-caliber offense, a defense who can get you beat by anybody. And that gives you the concern heading into the playoffs.”

Though Chicago leads the league in takeaways with 32, including their pick-six on the opening play of last night’s game, they’re aggressively mid-to-below-average overall (20th in EPA per play allowed at 0.028, 24th in DVOA), suggesting the turnover margin is the only thing propping them up.

Fortunately, the Bears’ offense has gotten rolling in the second half, ranking fourth in EPA per play after Week 9 due to their strong run game. Now, the passing game has caught up in recent weeks, with Williams and the aerial assault starting to peak at the right time.

In the end, you win by scoring more points than the other team. As long as the Bears can keep the scoring up and give opposing offenses fewer chances to touch the field in the playoffs thanks to their ground game, they’ll have as good a chance as any team to make a Super Bowl run in a wide-open year.

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