Chicago – Sunday’s 31-14 win for the Chicago Bears against the Dallas Cowboys came in large part due to how the team prepared following the loss to the Detroit Lions. It came with a changed approach to practice and some heartfelt words from coaches to players, as well as from players to players.
Head coach Ben Johnson said earlier in the week that the Bears lacked ‘championship caliber’ practice habits and proceeded to run the team through a two-hour practice on Wednesday.
All phases of the Chicago’s play on Sunday earned them their first home win since Oct. 6 against the Carolina Panthers – ending a two-game skid – and spoiling Matt Eberflus’s return to Soldier Field since firing him in November.
“It will be fun for tonight, and we’re on to the next one,” Johnson said. “We’re behind the 8-ball here. We’ve got to get back to .500 here.”
Johnson, despite coaching his offense to 31 points, didn’t crack a smile in the 60 minutes of play. Johnson was able to get into his bag of tricks with flea-flickers, reverse runs, and a 19-play drive that lasted 9 minutes and 54 seconds with 11-straight run plays called.
“I’m not kidding, I think I blacked out after play (No.) 8,” Cole Kmet said. “In camp, we always did that long-drive (in) practice where we’d go 12-15 plays. That one was 19. But those are the kind of things you prep for that type of stuff in season.”
The Bears went three-and-out on their opening drive, on three plays for -4 yards. Punting the ball away to the Dallas Cowboys, they immediately started to move the ball, but it didn’t last long.
On Dallas’s second play of the drive, running back Javonte Williams rushed to his left and gained over 20 yards into Bears territory. Just as he was nearing the sideline, Tyrique Stevenson came from behind and stripped the ball and was able to keep his feet in bounds.
Stevenson’s play changed the momentum from nearly having Dallas take an early lead, to seeing the Bears capitalize and with a blink of an eye lead, 14-3.
Caleb Williams finished the game with 298 yards passing four touchdown passes tying his career-high and a career-high with a 142.6 passer rating. Williams has already throw for four touchdown passes in a game twice through his 20 starts, and ensure the city of Chicago free hot dogs after his performance courtesy of the Wiener Circle. Leading up to the game, The Wiener Circle posted on X that if Williams throw for four touchdown passes they will hand out free hot dogs on Tuesday, Sept. 23.
“Congrats everybody, you got free hot dogs,” Williams said.
In the first half Chicago led 24-14, as Williams had a first half stat line of 10-for-16 passing with 239 yard and three touchdown passes. Chicago ended the first half with a seven-play two-minute drill that ended with a Cole Kmet touchdown, allowing Chicago to take control of the game.
Chicago gets their first win of the season, along with a strong defense performance only allowing 14 points and coming away with four turnovers and two sacks.
After two losses to start the season in which, Chicago blew an 11-point lead to the Minnesota Vikings and then gave up 52 points in a 31-point loss against the Lions, players got behind one another knowing only two games into the season, they needed a way to turn things around.
Not only did Johnson call out the team for their lack of winning habits, but according to Jaquan Brisker who called a players only meeting along with Grady Jarrett, gave the players a chance to address an issues, “whatever they had to say off their chest.”
“I think we have so many guys that care,” Williams said. “It’s something that Coach Johnson and I talk about. We have so many guys that care about us as teammates but also just us as winning. I know we started off 0-2, but the belief was still there, the trust was still there that I talked about. So, it’s just us being able to go out there and do it and execute it. That’s always what it comes down to.”
The Pulse 
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