Colin Cowherd calls out Chicago Bears cynics and critics

FOX Sports’ Colin Cowherd has heard enough about the Bears beating teams like the Las Vegas Raiders, Cincinnati Bengals, and New York Giants, quarterbacked by Geno Smith, Joe Flacco, Jaxson Dart and Russell Wilson as the reason for Chicago’s early-season success and recently pushed back on those claims.

“Denver is winning ugly, Philly is winning ugly, the Jaguars always win ugly,” Cowherd said. “Chicago’s got the second best rushing attack in the league, fourth in total offense, Top-10 in yards per play. Those are the numbers Vegas cares about, that feels legitimate to me. Their number one issue and you have this with young teams, too many penalties. You got a new coach, a quarterback who is young, they make mistakes, but you can clean that up. Chicago has won 7 of 8. It feels totally legit. I see a young coach, a young quarterback, they’re great in the fourth quarter.”

In a lot of ways, Cowherd is right.

Regardless of the opponents the Bears have played along the way, Chicago is 7-3 and leading the division.

Similarly, Johnson and the Bears seem to be pulling off the kind of wins that foster a winning culture similar to Dan Campbell’s in Detroit that became the envy of the rest of the NFL.

Besides, the picture of exactly what kind of team the Bears are is about to become significantly clearer, given that Chicago faces the NFL’s second-most difficult remaining strength of schedule that includes two games against the division-rival Green Bay Packers, and games against the Eagles and Lions, among them.

If the Bears survive their remaining gauntlet, this is going to be a battle-tested team that few will want to face in the postseason. But, even if Chicago fades down the stretch, there’s a very real possibility that these wins are going to pay major dividends on the franchise’s long-term trajectory around Williams and playing for Johnson into the future.