It's been a while since I had to ask "Are the Chicago bears good?" For about the last 20 years the answer was easy. "No". But all of a sudden that has changed.
How can I tell that the Bears may actually be good? Instead of just focusing on whether or not they won or lost, fans are now starting to hone in on how the Bears won. That is why yesterday's win over the Browns was so important. Actually, that is why how the Bears won yesterday was so important. The Browns are terrible. They have an elite defense but an offense that is so bad that it cancels out anything Myles Garret and his teammates do on Defense. The offense has had 10 different offensive line combinations this year. It is no wonder they basically can't do anything.
When playing against a squad that horrendous, style points matter. The Bears couldn't eek out another nail biter and be satisfied. They needed to destroy the Browns. And they did. Oh my the did! The Bears won 31-3 and it could have easily been 49 to 0. There was not a single second of the game where I thought the Browns had a chance. As a Bears fan, that was a very strange feeling. I honestly can't remember the last time the Bears outclassed an opponent in such a lopsided way. The Bears won every phase of the game. Even with a strange frozen field goal miss, their special teams dominated. They had several long returns and allowed the Browns nothing. The Bears even downed a punt inside the one which lead he Browns taking two of the shortest penalties I have ever seen. Right after the punt, the Browns committed. a false start. The half the distance to the goal rule become about a 6 inch penalty. Two plays later they had another for about 18 inches. That's a pretty impressive stat for the Bears defense. When the Browns did finally get to move the ball, the Bears only allowed one real offensive play. It was a 37 yard pass play that resulted in no points.
The Bears offense was good enough against a fierce defense. Even though Myles garret got two more sacks to bring his total to 22, neither sack really had any impact. They were both well after the Browns had any hope of mounting any type of drive. I'd still prefer Caleb Williams not get sacked but that is a lot to ask against the NFL's most feared pass rusher. Even Micah Parsons admits Garrett is better than him. I actually feel Garrett is stuck on such a dumpster fire of a team.
But now that I have become spoiled and expect wins, I do have a complaint. The Bears defense deserved a shutout. They played well enough to earn that rare feat. But sadly Caleb Williams is still earning on the job so he contributed to the defense missing out on that cool honor. On Fourth and 4 , coach Ben Johnson decided to go for a first down. Considering the Bears were killing the Browns at the time, there really was no reason to do it. But it was fun. he actually drew up a sensational play. He had the tight end Cole Kmet chip Myles Garrett and then leak out into the flat. He was WIDE open. Sadly, Williams still has some trouble spotting the right open receiver. He never looked at Kmet and ended up getting sacked. The Browns took over, gained a few yards and kicked an easy field goal. So that missed read cost the Bears a shutout. I'm actually kind of happy it happened. I want to see Williams and Johnson learn from these experiences when the game is in hand.
I'm not saying the Bears are a Superbowl team... but damn it is nice expecting big wins.