Final Score: Bears 24 Giants 20
Caleb Williams led the Bears to yet another improbable win this week, this time against the reeling New York Giants. The Giants fell to 2-8, resulting in the firing of head coach Brian Daboll. Chicago catapulted to 6-3 with the victory, having won 6 of its last 7 contests. This was a win that the Bears needed to secure if they planned on keeping playoff hopes alive, considering the gauntlet that is their upcoming schedule. They needed to rack up wins in the first half of the season, and they did just that.
This was the first game that I can recall where the Bears won because of quarterback Caleb Williams. He’s enabled and certainly helped towards all of Chicago’s victories in the past two seasons, but this week’s game presented a real number-one-pick moment where he truly took the team on his back and willed it to victory.
Bright Spots
This Team Just Finds a Way to Win
This game further proved the fact that the 2025 Bears, up to this point, just find a way to win. While last season, Chicago created a new way to lose every week in an almost comical manner, that tendency has been truly flipped on its head. We’ve seen a walk-off blocked field goal for the win, a walk-off made field goal for the win (in the very next week), an insane 58-yard touchdown catch to win one of the craziest games of the season, and a win this week in a game where the Bears trailed 20-10 with 6 minutes remaining. The way that things always seem to work out in the end is huge for building belief and positive culture in the locker room.
It helps that the quarterback is as clutch as they come. Talking heads that don’t know anything about the Bears will spew falsehoods about Williams, but since his entrance to the league he has always transformed into a different player when it’s late in the 4th quarter. We can have our arguements about the first three and a half quarters at times, but his clutch-factor is non-negotiable. His decisiveness increases exponentially in these situations, and this week was just another prime example.
Rookies are Getting Really Involved
Another positive that I took out of Sunday’s victory against the Giants was the involvement of the offensive rookies. With several games under their belts, the rooks have found their footing and are transforming into key cogs of this offense. 7th-rounder Kyle Monangai had 7 carries and a touchdown. 1st-rounder Colston Loveland reeled in 4 catches for 55 yards. 2nd-rounder Luther Burden III hauled in 3 balls for 51 yards. Both Burden III and Loveland had crucial receptions late in the game. The talent of these rookies is starting to break through.
Penalties Subsided
I’ve mentioned penalties as a glaring issue in post game recaps this season ad nauseum. Finally, the Bears got on the right side of this stat. For the first time all year, Chicago did not tie or out-penalize its opponent. The Bears committed 3 penalties, significantly lower that their previous low-6. Hopefully this is something that becomes a trend. If the team had penalized like normal this week, it would not have been in the position to make the comeback that it did.
Glaring Issues
Secondary is Holding on for Dear Life
The secondary is really struggling back there, and you can hardly blame it. Giants QB Jaxon Dart racked up 242 yards in his three quarters of work, hitting 199 before halftime. This weakness has been the catalyst for the defense continuing to give up massive yardage numbers-including a whopping 431 today. The Bears allow the 3rd-most yards per play which is only worse than the Bengals and Commanders-two terrible units. The silver lining is that Chicago also leads the NFL in takeaways (20). Regardless, the defense is going to be in for a rude awakening when competition starts ramping up in the coming weeks if adjustments aren’t made.
Standout Performers
Caleb Williams
Williams had a fantastic game this week. Several drops by his receivers-including a perfect shot to the endzone to OZ on a difficult throw-dampened his actual passing numbers, but he still put up 220 passing yards and 1 touchdown. He was a lethal weapon on the ground, with 63 yards in total, including a 19- yard rushing touchdown in the waning moments to take the lead. He also continues to make insane escapes each and every week. In this matchup, Giants pass rusher Ahbdul Carter was constantly getting to Caleb, but he was always able to duck, juke, or somehow fake him out. It is arguably his most impressive attribute.
As for the final few minutes, to put it simply, he put the team on his back this week and willed it to victory. It was dead, but he revived it in the final two drives and somehow pulled a win out of his hat.
C.J. Gardner-Johnson
In just his second game as a member of the Chicago Bears, former free agent cornerback C.J. Gardner-Johnson had a massive impact. CJGJ was responsible for two massive sacks on the day–the second one in a massive third-down spot to give the ball back to Chicago in what turned out to be the game-winning drive. Defensive coordinator Dennis Allen is having a field day sending the veteran CB on blitzes, as he also snagged a sack last week. With the injuries to CBs Jaylon Johnson and Kyler Gordon, Garnder-Johnson is helping fill a void that this defense desperately needed to address.
Jonah Jackson
Every week it’s somebody new on the offensive line with a massive PFF day. This time around, Jonah Jackson gets the flowers, finishing 6th among all offensive lineman in the NFL this week in PFF grade. It’s so nice to see Bears o-lineman grading out well; this is nothing that the team has experienced in recent years.
Key Drive of the Game
The most impressive possession of Sunday’s game was Chicago’s second touchdown drive. The Bears were handed the ball with 6:13 remaining in the game, trailing 20-10. At this point, Caleb Williams and co. hadn’t found paydirt since the first quarter. This is when Williams began seeing red. Despite blatant drops by wide receivers Rome Odunze and Olamide Zaccheaus, Williams led the team 91 yards down the field in hardly over 2 minutes. His 3rd and 10 cross-body throw to Colston Loveland was his best of the night, one that less than a handful of NFL quarterbacks could make. The drive was capped off with an Odunze TD directly following a huge Williams 29-yard scramble.