Head Coach of the Chicago Bears, Ben Johnson, has brought a much-improved culture into the organization. The Bears are no longer a joke of a team in the NFL.
With an improved second-year quarterback, Caleb Williams, offensive line, and defense, the rest of the league better watch out because sooner rather than later, the Bears are coming.
The Bears beat the Washington Commanders on Monday Night Football in thrilling fashion to win 25-24.
The Bears were coming off a huge victory against the Las Vegas Raiders, where they blocked a field goal to secure the win. The Bears followed up that week with a bye, knowing they had to prepare for the gauntlet of a game that was the Commanders.
Last year, the Bears lost to the Commanders in an absolute heartbreaker in which rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels threw a hail mary to win the game. Similarly, the Bears were coming off a bye week before that game as well.
Williams had many chances at game winning drives during his rookie year, but were always spoiled by coaching malpractice.
A year ago he thought he was gonna leave the field 5-2 until the unthinkable happened.
This game was a chance to cement himself as one of the premier quarterbacks in the NFL after receiving lots of criticism for not having as good of a year as Daniels did last year.
Before Monday Night, the Bears had lost 10 out of their last 11 games coming off a bye week. Rookie head coach Ben Johnson was looking to change that.
Johnson knew this game was personal as the Bears lost 9 straight games after the hail mary last year. He told Gene Chamberlain of Sports Illustrated that, “We’re a new team and we’re just focused on winning this game this week,”
The Bears started off the game being up 13-0 until 9:30 left in the 2nd quarter. However, Daniels threw a beautiful touchdown pass to Chris Moore to cut the lead to 6.
The Bears only ended up scoring 3 more points until 10:36 left in the 4th quarter.
It once again looked like the Bears were going to choke away a game like they have so many times before under many headcoachees, until running back D’Andre Swift took a checkdown from Williams 55 yards to the house to cut the lead to 22-24.
The Commanders only needed a couple more first downs to ice the game away. However, fate was on the Bears’ side this time.
With the rain pouring down, Daniels attempted to hand off the ball to rookie running back Bill Croskey-Merritt, but Daniels fumbled the ball on the handoff.
Fifth-year cornerback Nashon Wright recovers the ball and gives the Bears a chance to win the game with 3:07 remaining in the game.
Wright has had an up and down year so far. Besides having a pick-six against the Minnesota Vikings in Week 1, he was allowing receivers to get open on him almost every play.
Williams saw that chance and ran with it. After completing a first down pass to rookie tight end Colston Loveland, Johnson repeatedly called running plays for Swift. Swift took those runs into field goal range to give kicker Jake Moody a chance to win the game.
Moody was just activated off the practice squad after being cut from the San Francisco 49ers because of his abysmal week 1 performance.
Moody nailed the kick to win the game, and the Bears got their revenge.
“It’s a pretty cool series of events,” Moody said to Lisa Salters of ESPN. “A couple days ago, I didn’t know I was playing and to get lifted up by my teammates, it’s an amazing feeling. I’m really glad I got to share that moment with them.”
This win was a culture win for the Bears. Having a history of losing those close games repeatedly, but something is different about this year’s team.