The Chicago Bears Are No Longer in “The Hunt”
Caleb Williams willed the Chicago Bears to another 4th quarter comeback, a 24-20 win over the New York Giants on Sunday.
With 6:20 minutes left in the 4th quarter and the Giants leading 20-10, the Bears’ defense forced the Giants to send out punter Jamie Gillan on 4th down. Gillan shanked a 30-yard punt that set up the Bears with good field position – and from that point on, the Chicago Bears went on to score 14 unanswered points to secure the win.
Caleb Williams finished 20/36 for 220 yards, 1 TD / 0 INT. He also tacked on 8 carries for 63 rushing yards and a touchdown. The stats don’t do Caleb justice, though; throughout this game, the Bears’ offense was dropping passes left and right. They finished with the most “official” drops in a single game in the NFL this year with six. Realistically, there were at least 4 or 5 (and that’s being conservative) passes that should have been caught but aren’t technically considered drops in the box score. Caleb was absolutely fantastic, arguably his best game of the year. The escapability in the pocket has been elite, consistently extending plays and giving his receivers chances to make plays.
Some players worth noting – Austin Booker had the highest snap percentage of any defensive lineman on the Bears in this game. C.J. Garner Johnson has 3 sacks in just two weeks. Colston Loveland had another solid effort, 4 receptions for 55 yards on 4 targets. D’Andre Swift is still RB1 (with all due respect to Monangai) with 13 carries for 80 yards and adding 5 catches for 18 receiving yards. Luther Burden had his highest snap percentage of the year so far at 47% – and you should expect that to continue to rise.
The Chicago Bears are 6-3, and if the season ended today, they would be in the playoffs as the 7th seed in the NFC. They’ll head into Minnesota this coming weekend for an important matchup against the Vikings, who have lost three out of their last four games.
The Chicago Bears are no longer in the hunt—they are the hunted. Sure, the schedule over the final eight games of the season is tougher than what this team has faced up until this point, but going .500 for the rest of the season gives the Bears a great chance at getting into the playoffs.
That’s just four wins, folks. Four wins. Four.
Here are the final eight games on the schedule:
- Bears @ Vikings
- Steelers @ Bears
- Bears @ Eagles (Black Friday, Prime Video)
- Bears @ Packers
- Browns @ Bears
- Packers @ Bears
- Bears @ 49ers
- Lions @ Bears
With Caleb Williams playing at this level, you can find four wins there. The defense will only get healthier as this year goes on, with Kyler Gordon off the IR in a couple of weeks.
This offense has continued to grow under Ben Johnson, particularly the run game. D’Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai are a very legit 1-2 punch.
At the beginning of this season, I hoped that the Chicago Bears would be playing meaningful football in late November and into December…. I believe we will.
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Categorized:Bears