A team searching for its identity might have found it as fans were filing out of Soldier Field following Sunday’s 24-17 win against the Titans. Cornerback Jaylon Johnson jogged past Bears rookie quarterback Caleb Williams and stopped to say something in his ear.
“Defense got your back, 1-8,” he said.
Kevin Byard, the two-time all-pro safety whom the Bears signed this offseason, did something similar.
“Yeah, it’s just culture,” Byard said. “That’s the team.”
For all the changes to their roster this year, the Bears’ winning formula might end up looking a lot like 1985 and 2006. Those two Super Bowl teams — one champion and one runner-up — led the NFL in takeaways.
The best part of this year’s squad is its defensive backs, who on Sunday became the eighth Bears team since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger to allow fewer than 105 passing yards and a passer rating under 53 while returning an interception for a touchdown.
They finished Week 1 allowing the second-fewest passing yards, the fifth-lowest passer rating and the sixth-fewest yards per play in the NFL. They were responsible for two of the NFL’s 23 Week 1 interceptions— one by Tyrique Stevenson and the other by Pro Bowl cornerback Jaylon Johnson.
Sunday night’s test, though, will be unlike anything they saw at Soldier Field. The Texans’ C.J. Stroud might be the best quarterback the Bears face all season.
“He’s a great quarterback,” Stevenson said. “He showed you all last year, coming in with the rookie season, taking this team where they needed to go to make the playoffs.”
Since he was drafted second overall last year, Stroud leads the NFL with 271.4 passing yards per game among quarterbacks who have started at least 10 games and trails only Brock Purdy and Dak Prescott with a 101.8 passer rating.
He’s thrown interceptions on just 0.9% of his passes in his career, the best mark in the NFL since the start of the 2023 season.
The Bears, by contrast, lead the NFL with 24 interceptions during the same time frame.
“They have all the talent in the world … ” Stroud told Texans reporters this week, listing the Bears’ starting cornerbacks and safeties by name. “You’ve got to be careful with the ball because they won the game, pretty much, on defense last week.”
This offseason, the Texans added four-time Pro Bowl receiver Stefon Diggs to a receiver room that already boasted veteran Nico Collins — who Eberflus called “one of the most explosive, best receivers in the league” — and second-year player Tank Dell. The Texans figure to move Diggs all over the field, which could limit how often Johnson mirrors him.
Johnson was targeted three times last week. The only completion he allowed lost two yards, and his interception sealed the game. He was Pro Football Focus’ top-graded cornerback last week, with Stevenson finishing 15th.
They were two reasons the Bears called themselves a top-five defense throughout training camp. Playing Stroud on national television gives them a chance to prove it.
“It’ll definitely be a test to see who we are and where we’re at as a team. …” safety Jaquan Brisker said. “Our confidence went sky-high, especially knowing that we stuck together and we found a way to win that game last week. Our confidence is going to go to another level.”
Beware — the last time the Texans played a home game, they hung 45 points on the Browns, who’d allowed the fewest yards throughout the 2023 season, in the first round of the playoffs.
“The challenge is to just play our type of ball, just be in the throwing windows,” Brisker said. “Get to the quarterback, stop the run first and play our type of defense. Make sure the secondary is playing deep. They like a lot of shots. …
“Just be us.”
