The stage for Monday night’s late game was awfully familiar. The Bears came out of the bye week for an October road game against the Commanders—just like last year.
Chicago had the perfect setting to show this wasn’t the same team that allowed an improbable walk-off Hail Mary to Jayden Daniels nearly a year ago. That booming gut punch started a string of 10 consecutive losses, many filled with chaotic drives from Caleb Williams.
What transpired for the second meeting between the top two picks of the 2024 draft wasn’t much different than the first one for the first 57 minutes of regulation. There wasn’t a Hail Mary 2.0, but it was obvious that the Bears would find a way to deliver more mayhem when they lost their double digit lead, then trimmed the deficit two points in the fourth quarter.
Chaos seems to always find the Bears, but Mother Nature decided to even the playing field when heavy rain fell in the final minutes to give the meticulous Daniels a wet ball before fumbling on a bad hand off to Jacory Croskey-Merritt.
These drama-filled Bears still aren’t very different from last year, but they can finally move on from 2024’s debacle after Jake Moody hit the game-winning field goal to give Chicago a 25–24 walk-off victory over the Commanders. As for another positive, there must have been a major shot of confidence for everyone associated with the Bears seeing a kicker calmly deliver in the clutch. (We all remember the double doink.)
And before we get to the QB comparisons, Williams didn’t have the best performance, but he had the perfect words during his postgame interview. Williams, the No. 1 pick in the 2024 draft, highlighted the team’s fight, which might be a better way to define the Bears’ entertaining one-score games. Yes, there’s chaos, but Williams & Co. often show plenty of fight. They’re not the skillful fighters that make it look effortless. However, they’re not afraid to swing back and rarely go down easily.
What’s truly different about the 2025 Bears with first-year coach Ben Johnson is that they now know how to end a fight. They started 0–2 before winning three consecutive games, including the ugly one-point win in Las Vegas. Eventually, Johnson would like to see Williams regularly play as well as he did in the Week 3 win against the Cowboys. He still hasn’t found consistency and is far from finding tranquility in the pocket. Still, the flashes and high upside are there, and his team seems to appreciate the fight he delivers on a weekly basis.
Even when the Bears (3–2) were ahead, they often seemed two steps behind the Commanders (3–3). Daniels’s teammates tend to feed off his composure, a trait that helped the reigning Offensive Rookie of the Year quickly find his footing in the league.
With Williams (17-of-29, 252 yards, two total TDs), chaos still follows him. It rarely looks easy for him, or at least not what it looks like for Daniels (19-of-26, 211 yards, three TDs, two turnovers), who was drafted one spot after Williams. Daniels is decisive with his arm and his legs. If there’s nothing downfield, he doesn’t hesitate to lean on his athletic gifts.
Maybe not being as mobile as Daniels is why Williams hasn’t found stability as a quarterback. Williams still rushes fast balls at the last second to his receivers too often. He holds onto the ball too long and takes a handful of hits that could easily be avoided. He’s far from a finished product, but it shouldn’t all fall on the second-year quarterback to help Chicago win games.
The Bears’ defense had some trouble against Daniels & Co., but they forced three turnovers, which led to 13 points. Playing complementary can be another area where this team has grown since last playing in Washington.
If these Bears keep fighting and helping one another, eventually they’ll get the elite performances from Williams. After a wet and wild night at the site where last season’s implosion began, Chicago might finally be headed in the right direction.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Chaotic Bears Show How Much They've Grown With Comeback Monday Night Win.
