‘You gotta come stop us’ — Chicago Bears sent a loud message to the rest of the NFC after picking up their third win of the season
The Chicago Bears earned its third win of the regular season on Sunday and it was another physically imposing win on both sides of the ball by head coach Ben Johnson’s squad.
The Chicago Bears improved to 3-1 on the season after defeating the New York Jets on Sunday and how the Bears are winning games has made things even more impressive.
Each of Chicago’s three wins this season came with a different quarterback leading the offense. In Week 1, it was Caleb Williams. In Week 3, it was Case Keenum. And on Sunday, it was Tyson Bagent leading the offense. All three games were 2+ score wins for the Bears and physically imposing with the way this team is playing football.
“We talked to the team that we had to find a way to get to 3-1 in the first quarter (of the season) and they certainly did that,” head coach Ben Johnson said after the game.
Ben Johnson’s team is sending a loud message to the rest of the NFC
After starting quarterback Caleb Williams went down with a hamstring injury in Week 2’s disastrous loss to the Minnesota Vikings, everyone on the outside felt like the walls were cracking and eventually going to fall down on this season. That has not the case with the way Ben Johnson runs this team.
The Bears, led by Keenum, smacked the Philadelphia Eagles in the mouth on Monday night. Then six days later, led by Bagent, took it to the New York Jets as well. It’s fair to say the results wouldn’t have looked the same way for the majority of other teams in this league if they faced that kind of situation.
“We’ve got tremendous depth throughout this roster,” Johnson explained. “There’s competition every single week to see who’s active and who’s inactive… We’ve got a lot of guys across the board that we want to get playing time. The cliche ‘next man up’ certainly (applies), but our guys, we know we have a lot of depth and talent throughout this roster from the front to the backend. We always know we’re going to have a chance each and every week.”
Having that kind of talent and level of depth, along with that kind of mindset from the coaching staff at the top, certainly goes a long way in this league. This is a team built to go a long way in 2026 based on what they showed on Sunday.
Bears didn’t just beat the Jets, they dominated them
The scoreboard might not have shown it, partially because the Bears left multiple points on the board and gave up one late explosive touchdown in garbage time, but Chicago flat out dominated the Jets on Sunday.
That’s the kind of mentality Johnson has been preaching for his team to play with every single week. Offensively, it started up-front with the Bears rushing for 232 yards on the ground, easily extending the team’s reach as the NFL’s rushing yard leader.
“We all know that we’re going to run the football,” RB Kyle Monangai said, who led the team with 146 yards. “We know it, the other team knows it, everyone watching at home and in the stadium knows it. That just goes to show the testament that we’ve put the time in to stick to what we know we’re going to do. We just say, you gotta come stop us.”
With the run game being that dominant, everything else came easy, which was key with a backup quarterback running the unit. Chicago picked up 34 first downs (compared to 32 plays by the Jets offense) and possessed the ball for over 42 minutes. It was a suffocating brand of football, and it’s even crazier when you consider the Bears turned the ball over three times (turnover on downs, interception, and fumble).
“Towards the end of the game, they don’t want to be out there no more,” Monangai told reporters on Sunday. “Keep running at them. Four-yard gain, four-yard gain, 20-yarder coming out of nowhere, make a big play in the passing game, and then another four-yard gain, four-yard gain. It get tiring. You definitely feel it.”
With that style of offense, Chicago’s defense had plenty of rest and then came to play when they took to the field. The Jets went 0-7 on third-down with seven first downs and had just 157 net yards on offense.
It felt like a perfect game for the Bears, and yet, there’s still plenty of ways to improve going forward. Which includes eventually getting Caleb Williams healthy again and back at quarterback. Once that happens, this should be a scary team for any team to face moving forward.
