Brad Biggs: While analyzing each Bears game in a vacuum, a long view of the rebuilding effort is required

Brad Biggs, Chicago Tribune on Sep 27, 2025

Published in Football

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CHICAGO — For a team that two weeks ago was blitzed for 52 points by a division foe, it would be folly to suggest the Chicago Bears are entering a soft spot on their schedule.

No such thing exists for a team that is 6-14 since the start of last season and has lost 17 of its last 20 against NFC North opponents.

The Bears have been and will be a “soft” part of other teams’ schedules until further notice. But a convincing 31-14 win over the Dallas Cowboys, the first for Ben Johnson as coach, puts the team three hours away from reaching .500 with a good showing Sunday afternoon at Allegiant Stadium against the Las Vegas Raiders (1-2), another organization trying to find its footing with a new coach in Pete Carroll.

The Raiders have been been plagued by routine instability in the front office and on their coaching staff. As much as they’ve struggled, they count seven more victories than the Bears since 2020.

Few would have quibbled with the idea of a 2-2 start for the Bears at the end of preseason with the offense struggling to keep up during much of training camp. It would be an impressive reset after being drubbed by the Detroit Lions in Week 2 on the heels of a fourth-quarter collapse in the opener against the Minnesota Vikings.

The Bears have had a tough time stopping the run, and perhaps this is an opportunity to get right. The Raiders are 30th in the league in rushing (72.3 yards per game) and are averaging a meager 3.1 per attempt, leading to early criticism of their use of the No. 6 pick in the draft on Ashton Jeanty. The crux of Jeanty’s problems could lie with a struggling offensive line.

Established veteran clubs often get the entire bye week off, but chances are Johnson will put his team to work next week before a mandatory four-day break. Players were off entirely through the bye last season, but that came directly after a victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars in London that improved the team to 4-2.

After a Week 5 bye, the earliest there is this season, the Bears play at Washington (2-1), host the New Orleans Saints (0-3), have road games against the Baltimore Ravens (1-2) and Cincinnati Bengals (2-1) and then play the New York Giants (0-3) at Soldier Field in Week 10.

The Ravens must sort through some defensive issues but they will be a handful for the Bears. The Commanders are well coached and with backup quarterback Marcus Mariota they just steamrolled the Raiders. The Bengals are going to have a tough go of it for a long stretch while quarterback Joe Burrow recovers from toe surgery. The Saints could be the leading candidate to land the No. 1 pick in the 2026 draft, and the Giants benched Russell Wilson this week for rookie Jaxson Dart.

A stretch of games that might have appeared more daunting when the schedule was released in May affords the Bears a chance to be competitive if they don’t struggle on the road.

Players parroted what coaches said this week at Halas Hall. There was plenty to correct from the tape coming out of the blowout of the Cowboys. It’s pure coach-speak but it’s absolutely believable Johnson and his staff have been nitpicking details where they found room for improvement. It’s the fastest way in the building to flip the script to the next opponent.

“It was great to get our first win,” free safety Kevin Byard III said. “The sense of urgency to get a win was very high. At the same time, our record shows we’re 1-2. Don’t get me wrong. We feel like we’re a great team. We felt like that when we were 0-2 but we’re not going to sit here and act like we’ve arrived and think we can just roll the football out there and try to win games.”

Tight end Cole Kmet pushed back on the idea the Cowboys win was a wonderful deodorizer for the team following the stink of the first two weeks.

“Publicly, yes,” Kmet said.

The win prevented the Bears from being clobbered for another week on sports-talk radio, but internally, Kmet’s point was that they are very process-driven, a process that if all goes according to plan will eventually lead to more results, otherwise known as victories.

Promising starts have unraveled in a hurry for the Bears in recent seasons. They were 4-2 heading into Washington last year after the bye. They didn’t experience a roadside flat. The engine blew at the same time they lost an axle. In 2020, a 5-1 start was followed by a six-game losing streak.

The Bears are at the very beginning with Johnson. This season is about determining where they are with quarterback Caleb Williams, the NFL Offensive Player of the Week for his 298 yards passing and four touchdowns against the Cowboys, and figuring out what players on the roster will be core pieces moving forward.

There’s probably more work to be done than anyone could have imagined in January, perhaps Johnson included. As each game is analyzed in a vacuum from week to week, how it all fits into the long view is important to remember.

“We’ve got a long way to go to where we need to be,” Byard said.

If the process begins to take root, it’s not inconceivable the Bears can reach 5-4 or 4-5 after Week 10. That would represent progress.