It took awhile to get rolling, and several course corrections were necessary, but this is what the Bears envisioned their offense to be.
A flurry of playmakers.
A rookie quarterback on the rise.
Sensible — sometimes clever, even — play-calling.
They finally hit on all of those Sunday while clobbering the Panthers 36-10 and got to 3-2, making this the latest in a season they’ve been over .500 under general manager Ryan Poles and Matt Eberflus, and continued the upward trajectory they started the week before against the Rams.
It’s significant that those are the NFL’s two worst defenses, so this was hardly an announcement that the Bears have arrived. It is, however, proof of concept and a step toward something more meaningful.
“It was definitely a glimpse,” wide receiver Rome Odunze said. “We were firing on a lot of cylinders. I wouldn’t say all cylinders, but a lot.”
It started with Caleb Williams, as always. He played the best game of his career to beat the Rams, then topped that against the Panthers by completing 20 of 29 passes for 304 yards and two touchdowns with no turnovers for a 126.2 passer rating.
Williams has been trending positively, and the upside is that he’s far from a finished product five games into his career. His talent could ignite at any moment, and it’s clear each week he’s decoding the NFL.
The Bears planned to situate him among top-tier talent that would make his acclimation easier, and that materialized, too. Williams targeted Odunze, DJ Moore, Keenan Allen and Cole Kmet at least four times each.
Moore led the way with five catches for 105 yards and two touchdowns and looked more cohesive with Williams after a week in which he admitted it’s challenging to be patient with rookie mistakes and was under scrutiny for bad body language.
The overall precision of the offense, especially on a windy day by the lake, impressed Moore to the point that he said it was the best it has flowed in his two seasons with the Bears.
“We were having a lot of fun doing it,” Moore said. “With fun comes a lot of wins, and with a lot of wins comes a lot of fun.”
Beleaguered offensive coordinator Shane Waldron enjoyed the day, as well, and got an unprompted shoutout from Eberflus for being “creative” and “good tactically.”
Whatever conversations Waldron had with his boss, as well as his players when they asserted themselves after a perplexing game against the Colts two weeks ago, had an impact.
The Bears hired Waldron because they liked his experience as a play-caller and his ability to merge the passing and rushing attacks. While the ground game wasn’t spectacular at 128 yards on 39 carries, it was respectable.
For the second game in a row, running back D’Andre Swift topped 100 yards of offense with 73 rushing and 47 receiving, plus a goal-line touchdown run.
This template will work for the Bears, though they’ll have to do everything better to maintain that production. They play the Jaguars next, and they’re a 1-4 team with a terrible defense, as well, but heavyweights loom down the road.
“We can still make improvements and build this offense so we can have a product like that every single time we step on the field,” Odunze said.
Odunze pushed back on any disclaimer about putting up 36 points and 424 yards against the Panthers, saying the opponent is immaterial and what really matters is whether the Bears meet their own standards.
To keep it going, the battered offensive line must get better, Williams must move quicker and the running game must become as powerful as it was the last two seasons. But two strong performances in a row give the Bears reason to be optimistic about where they’re headed.
