Chicago Bears 31, Dallas Cowboys 14: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The Good

Caleb Williams

He not only matched a career high with four TD passes and had a career-best passer rating of 142.6, he also did something that makes it so he can keep on playing well. For the first time in his career, Williams had a game without being sacked.

Give credit to the offensive line, which even held up when they had Darnell Wright out of a chunk of the game with an elbow injury and Theo Benedet at right tackle.

And he even found DJ Moore for a team-high four catches and 21 yards, plus the 4-yard TD on fourth down that put the Bears in complete control. Williams found five players for three catches or more.

"It felt good," Moore said of not getting all the passes coming his way. "If we're moving the ball I ain't too mad or frustrated about it."

Williams finished the first half with a passer rating of 145.8. It was the second highest by any NFL passer in a first half this season. Only Mitchell Trubisky (Sept. 30, 2018, 154.6; and Nov. 11, 2018, 148.6) and Rex Grossman (Sept. 17, 2006, 148.0) ever had higher passer ratings for a game since 1946 and the Sid Luckman era.

Pass catchers

Rome Odunze with three catches for 62 yards and Luther Burden with three for 101, but D'Andre Swift also had a key 41-yard catch and run for a first down on a scoring drive to give the Bears a 17-14 lead. It came on third-and-9 to make the march to Cairo Santos' 30-yard field goal possible. Cole Kmet's 10-yard TD catch before halftime in a drive that took two minutes was another example of the Bears receivers finding ways to exploit the Matt Eberflus zone like it was practice behind Halas Hall in the old days.

Bears pass defense

A week after being embarrassed at Detroit, the secondary bounced back and held Dallas to 3 of 11 (27.3%) on third down. They came into the game with the worst team passer rating against in the league of 136.9 but held Dak Prescott and Joe Milton to a combined 71.7 passer rating and the defensive line even contributed to sacks.

They held Prescott to a paltry 6.2 yards per attempt even though he was 31 of 40.

"First and foremost we wanted to take away (CeeDee Lamb), obviously not with the injury but we wanted to obviously keep their explosive plays down," safety Kevin Byard said. "They got a couple toward the end of the game. I think the main thing was just making them work for everything. They were  doing a lot of checkdowns.

"I think we did a pretty good job. We still need to sure up the run a little bit better."

Tremaine Edmunds earned one of the three game balls for his two interceptions and 14 tackles.

All four Bears takeaways came in Chicago territory.

"I thought he came through with timely plays when we needed it," Johnson said.

The Bad

Bears run defense

No two ways about it, the Bears got gashed on the ground. But they didn't allow a long run after Tyrique Stevenson stole the ball out of Javonte Williams' hands. They gave up 6.1 yards per carry, 121 yards rushing on 20 attempts but the deficit Dallas faced made it impossible to rely on the run later.

"We had four turnovers and we didn't give the ball away," Johnson said. "I thought it was huge. They were able to run the ball a little bit on our defense. We knew they were going to be able to move the ball. They have a very explosive offense.

They've got playmakers all over the place. Their offensive line is good."

The ugly

Bears running game

Finally getting a few yards later in their 19-play drive to what proved a clinching scored didn't quite absolve the running attack of its problems. They ran for only 87 yards on 29 carries. Kyle Monangai provided a few bouncing runs but his 8-yard loss was a terrible play. He banged around and then ran backwards when they needed to extend the drive.

D'Andre Swift's lateral

It looked like one of those 16-inch softballs being pitched in the days when they had tons of leagues in Grant Park. High floater and if it had been a tick longer he'd have gotten his quarterback killed.

Fullback Caleb Williams

Williams decided on one QB run to lower his right (throwing) shoulder and drive it into the tackler, who delivered his own punishment to the Bears QB with a big hit and physical tackle.

When your arm is finally working well in the passing offense, separating your shoulder and going on IR isn't doing the team any good.

Slide.

Jerry Jones' comment

“If you’re not making positive steps, then you’re losing ground. Everybody starts off, they’ve got to make adjustments along the way for injuries and for depreciation in talent that they’ve counted on," Jones said after the game. "But there’s a constant adjustment going on right now, and this is what we’re seeing right here.

“Teams have lost their third game in the NFL and they’ve gone on to participate really well in the playoffs.”

First, only 2.4% of teams who start 0-3 make the playoffs according to CBS Sports and The Athletic. So plenty is stretching the truth.

Second, "depreciation of talent?" Who depreciated that talent, Jerry? It's playing for Green Bay now.