In shocking twist, Bears QB is bad, but running game and defense save day

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CHICAGO — Welcome back to Chicago Bears football. I’ll be your host today.

On Sunday, Rex Grossman, I mean Jay Cutler, I mean Mitch Trubisky and/or Justin Fields, I mean Caleb Williams had a rough day throwing the ball, but was saved by a stout running game and an opportunistic defense that tallied four takeaways in a 26-14 win over the New Orleans Saints.

After an 0-2 start, the Bears have won four straight games.

Let’s hear what Lovie Smith, I mean Matt Nagy, I mean Ben Johnson had to say.

“We haven’t hit our stride yet offensively; we’re capable of a lot more,” Johnson said. “We have very talented individuals. I feel strongly in our coaching staff. We’re not complementing our defense on a regular basis. With the number of turnovers we’ve had over the last four games, we should be able to turn those into more points.”

Grossman, I mean Cutler, I mean Mitch/Justin, I mean Williams promised the passing game will strive to improve to match the defense, which has a whopping 15 takeaways over the past four games. On Sunday, the Bears turned four takeaways into 10 points, though the last one did give the Bears the chance to run out the clock.

“It’s being able to find ways to win,” Williams said. “We’re going to keep doing that. But it’s also being able to find ways to come together as one. That when the defense has a turnover, we go down and put seven on the board and not a field goal.”

Stop me if you’ve heard this before.

Of course, you have! This is the Chicago Bears we’re talking about. Some things remain the same, no matter what.

The good news is, well, the Bears did enough Sunday — including rushing for 222 yards and two touchdowns — against a woeful team to improve to 4-2 with the victory. And let’s be honest, an effective running game and a hard-hitting, ball-hawking defense never goes out of style. Those are the foundations of football in any era.

Nahshon Wright with the INT and big return!

NOvsCHI on FOX/FOX Onehttps://t.co/HkKw7uXVnt pic.twitter.com/o1GQw9D0DM

— NFL (@NFL) October 19, 2025

Yes, the Bears paid Ben Johnson enough money to make George Halas roll over in his grave to fix the offense, but sometimes the quarterback just doesn’t have it and the rest of the team has to carry the load.

Williams isn’t a finished product by any standard, and his 15-for-26, 172-yard performance (zero touchdowns, one interception) was way too reminiscent of games you’ve seen before, the kind that have led this franchise down a quixotic path to find that mythical franchise QB who can save the organization from itself.

Williams shows great promise, but as a second-year pro, he still has games like this that invite scrutiny. After a solid outing Monday night in Washington, he looked off Sunday. This was his first game of the season without a touchdown pass and the first time he’s failed to crack 200 yards. (Amazingly, he had seven starts without a touchdown pass as a rookie.) He wasn’t accurate on the run and didn’t have much of a rhythm.

There were mistakes that should make Johnson’s blood boil, like more pre-snap penalties and center Drew Dalman’s first-half issues with snapping the ball on time. (Overall, Chicago had 10 penalties for 92 yards, continuing a trend that has beguiled the team throughout most of its first six games.)

But where the passing game failed, the run game was effective.

Behind a bulldozing line, D’Andre Swift ran for more than 100 yards for the second straight game (19 carries for 124 yards) and was matched by rookie Kyle Monangai, who ran 13 times for 81 yards. Each of them scored a second-quarter touchdown. After a Bears takeaway, Swift scored on an 11-yard run to give them a 13-0 lead. On the next drive, Monangai punched it in from a yard out to make it 20-0.

D’Andre Swift into the end zone!

NOvsCHI on FOX/FOX Onehttps://t.co/HkKw7uXVnt pic.twitter.com/YB0AMw2shF

— NFL (@NFL) October 19, 2025

Against a better opponent, Williams’ struggles might’ve done in the Bears. But against the Saints, the defense had plenty of opportunities to lead the way.

Like that defensive possession in the second quarter where defensive backs Kyler Gordon and Jaquan Brisker each lit up New Orleans quarterback Spencer Rattler with sacks, and he wound up getting picked off by Nashon Wright. The Bears had two big defensive penalties that drive (pass interference on Tremaine Edmunds and a roughing the passer penalty on Brisker) and still wound up with the ball. Wright’s 39-yard return led to Swift’s touchdown.

In that drive, and for most of the game, the Bears were imposing their will on a bad quarterback, and they liked the vibes.

“Yeah, it felt good,” Gordon said. “In that moment, it felt so good. I’m gonna remember that forever.”

You can bet their defensive coordinator, Dennis Allen, who was fired as head coach by the Saints last year, will remember it too. Allen is sure proving to be the right guy for the job. For the third time in the past four games, the Bears had four takeaways in a game. And in the other game Monday night in Washington, they had three.

“Just playing with a lot of confidence,” said safety Kevin Byard III, who had an interception Sunday, which gives him four during the winning streak. “I said it before, man, the ball’s been on our mind. Al (Harris, the Bears’ defensive backs coach), is some type of character from the Bible. He even prophesied it. Before the game last night, I asked him what’s the quota, and he said four. And we got four again. So that’s just the belief in us, being able to go get it.

“DA obviously put us in a position to make those plays, but it’s just special right now. I’m not going to make it seem like this has happened before. I’ve never been a part of that. So we just gotta keep rolling. If that’s what we need to do to win games, that’s what we’re going to do.”

Of course, we’ve seen what happens when the takeaways dry up and the running game gets locked down. The Bears have expended so much time and energy to try to fix the passing game and the quarterback position. It’s why they drafted Williams No. 1 and eventually paid Johnson a reported $13 million a year to coach him.

Chicago — and I’m not talking just the organization, but literally the city and its ever-anxious inhabitants — really needs it to work out this time. That’s why there’s a civic freak-out when someone writes a negative story about Williams or a broadcaster has bad things to say about him. Because if Johnson and Williams don’t mesh together, I don’t have to tell you what will happen next. Because you’ve lived it. It’s a vicious cycle.

But sometimes you just have to admire what can happen when you have a dominant defense and an effective running game.

As Lovie used to say, that’s Chicago Bears football. And sometimes, you just have to play the hits.

This news was originally published on this post .

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