Final Score: Bears 35 Jaguars 16
Caleb Williams and the Bears put the NFL on notice this week in a resounding 35-16 victory over the struggling Jaguars. With the whole league watching in the early London time slot, Williams improved upon last week’s performance (as he has every week) and led the offense to a second week in a row over 35 points. The Bears now sit at 4-2 with the 4th-best point differential in the NFL. They now head into the bye week with a 3-game winning streak and a considerable amount of momentum.
Bright Spots
The Defense Held Up Despite Injuries
Before discussing the phenomenal offensive performance, the defense deserves its flowers. Matched up against a Jacksonville offense that put up 37 points and 497 total yards a week prior, the group held the Jaguars to only 16 points and 278 total yards.
Injuries caused starting safety Jaquan Brisker, starting cornerback Tyrique Stevenson, and cornerback Terrell Smith to miss the contest entirely, and stud nickelback Kyler Gordon got hurt during the game and played less than half of the defensive snaps. Despite all of this, the defense looked just as it has all year long. This is a testament to the depth that Chicago had in its secondary.
Through 6 weeks, the defense sits at 3rd in PFF overall defensive ranking and 1st in PFF overall coverage grade. The unit is truly one of the best in the entire NFL.
Pass Rush Is Stacking Games
The defensive front put up another good game this week, accounting for 22 total QB pressures and an impressive 5 sacks. The most encouraging development to me was the performance of DE Montez Sweat. He led the team with 6 pressures and also added a sack. If he starts consistently putting up similar numbers, this pass rush is here to stay.
Second-year breakout defensive lineman Gervon Dexter Sr. also kept it rolling with 3 pressures and 2 ‘hurries’ in London.
Waldon and Williams’ Offense Was Cooking
Thought the defense is the backbone of the Bears, the offense was the story this week. Caleb Williams had the best game of his career (which I’ve said 3 weeks in a row now) and led the offense to 5 offensive touchdowns against the poor Jaguars defense. For two straight weeks, this offense has been firing on all cylinders. The Bears led a balanced attack, racking up 152 rushing yards along with 221 passing yards.
Running back D’Andre Swift was able to get good yardage on the ground, averaging 5.3 yards per carry. Williams also played a massive role in the run game with 57 rushing yards in the first half. He had a good sense of when to bail from the pocket and grab yards with his legs.
This was certainly the most impressive game of the season so far in terms of the passing game. The screen game continued to be lethal with Swift and the offense was steady and able to methodically move down the field. Though Caleb has accounted for more passing yards in previous weeks, he threw 4 passing touchdowns this week, doubling his previous best. This was an extremely encouraging offensive performance.
Glaring Issues
The Schedule Gets Tougher
I truly can’t think of any glaring issues following this week’s performance. One thing that some would point to is the quality of the opponents that the Bears have been beating recently. Admittedly, the Jaguars and Panthers are two of the worst teams in the NFL. But, you play who is on your schedule. In addition, it’s not like the Bears are hardly squeaking out wins against these subpar teams; they are crushing them.
Standout Performers
Caleb Williams
Caleb Williams was fantastic this week. He threw 4 touchdown passes, accounted to 226 passing yards, and even added 56 yards on the ground. Williams finished Week 6 with the highest PFF grade among quarterbacks, which is not an easy feat. He continues to improve each and every game. The young quarterback was very smart with the football again in this matchup. His one interception wasn’t even a horrible decision, but instead a severe underthrow. Caleb has ‘arrived’ and is here to stay.
Cole Kmet
Tight end Cole Kmet also had an outstanding game against the Jaguars. In addition to his 2 touchdown catches and 70 receiving yards, Kmet was forced into some special teams action when long snapper Scott Daly went down with an injury. Directly after barreling into the endzone for an impressive 31-yard touchdown catch, the veteran tight end placed himself into the center of the offensive line and delivered a satisfactory snap on the extra point attempt. Kmet had to do this 6 times throughout the contest. What a game for Kmet!
Keenan Allen
Wide receiver Keenan Allen finally grabbed his first touchdown as a Bear this week, and then decided to add another for good measure. It was exciting to finally see him getting rewarded in the end zone after a quiet start to his Bears career. Still, in this game Allen only had 5 receptions. However, each came at an important moment. This included 2 touchdowns and a couple crucial 3rd-down conversions. Allen may not be putting up gaudy reception or receiving yard numbers, but he is successfully serving as rookie QB Caleb Williams security blanket.
Were the Keys to the Game Met?
The Bears emphatically met both of the keys to the game that I established before the team kicked off in London. The first of which was to take advantage of the putrid Jaguars secondary. Williams responded by putting up the first 4-TD day of his career and posting the best PFF passing grade of the week among all 32 starting quarterbacks.
Chicago also successfully took full advantage of the turnover differential: the second key. As expected, the Bears edged the Jaguars in turnovers, 2-1. However, it was up to the offense to turn these takeaways into points. Luckily they did, and in resounding fashion. Williams and the offense came back and scored a touchdown directly following both defensive takeaways. In fact, after Josh Blackwell’s interception it only took 3 plays for D’Andre Swift to find paydirt. Converting takeaways into touchdowns is demoralizing to opponents and is something that the Bears will certainly do their best to keep doing.
Key Drive of the Game
The drive of the game came just before halftime. The Bears offense received the ball with 2:55 remaining in the second quarter with a 7-3 lead. In just under 3 minutes, it managed to quickly move all the way down the field in what turned out to be the longest drive of the game (85 yards). The possession had a little bit of everything. RB D’Andre Swift ripped a 10-yard run, QB Caleb Williams found open space twice for two 19+ yard scrambles, wide receivers Rome Odunze and Keenan Allen both nabbed a catch, as well as TE Cole Kmet who completed the drive with a touchdown catch.
In addition to the balance of the drive, it was also important in the overall scope of the game. The touchdown stretched the score to 14-3, leaving the Bears with all the momentum heading into halftime. If they hadn’t scored, Jacksonville could have potentially came right back out at the start of the third quarter and taken the lead with a touchdown. Just like last week against the Panthers, however, the Bears found a way to cap off the half with a touchdown.