This, folks, is what relief looks like in the NFL.
It’s a satisfied Sunday afternoon locker room, the kind so obviously present at Soldier Field after the Chicago Bears’ 24-18 defeat of the Los Angeles Rams. It’s players recounting the day’s biggest plays with enthusiasm and captains framing the big-picture significance of their team’s weeklong rallying effort.
It’s safety Jaquan Brisker describing the victory-sealing takeaway, an interception of Matthew Stafford with 56 seconds remaining on a speed out he knew was coming.
“I just trusted my coaches,” Brisker said.
It’s D’Andre Swift, after three frustrating games, breaking free for 165 total yards and a key fourth-quarter touchdown run.
“I know who I am,” Swift said. “I know what I can bring to this team. When we’re not having success, I take it upon myself to go ahead and find different ways to be better.”
It’s Montez Sweat feeling like so many players delivered when they needed to. And it’s cornerback Jaylon Johnson describing the anxious vibe that had been percolating through Halas Hall early last week, enough so that team leaders felt compelled to push their coaching staff a bit more than usual.
“It was about getting that urgency across everybody in the building,” Johnson said. “Players and coaches. There’s a strong urgency needed right now. We can’t wait and say, ‘Oh, well, we’ve got time’ and things like that. Nah. We’ll never get this team like this again. So we have to take advantage of our opportunities.”
Make no mistake, the win — as sloppy as it was in spurts — was important in so many ways for the Bears, not the least of which was providing a chance for everyone to catch a deep breath and reset, to feel like the season wasn’t slipping away but rather playing out on their terms.
That’s the difference between a 2-2 September and a 1-3 nosedive. It’s a feeling of fulfillment. Of reassurance. Of direction.
It’s a belief that things may be coming together in meaningful ways, not the least of which was the awakening of the running game. And as impressive as Swift was, turning his 16 carries into 93 yards — including a clutch 36-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter — the game’s biggest tone-setting play may have come in the first half. On first-and-goal from the 1, coordinator Shane Waldron left little to chance. Not needing to see what defensive look the Rams might provide, Waldron deployed a personnel grouping that included his five offensive linemen plus three tight ends and backup center Doug Kramer — at fullback.
That was the group tasked with helping hard-charging running back Roschon Johnson into the end zone. Stay aggressive. Maul ahead.
“My mindset was ‘score.’ That’s it,” Roschon Johnson said. “We worked on that play all week. And we knew what the plan was going into it. So I already knew what the result was.”
Johnson got credit for that 1-yard touchdown run. But that was a teamwide effort, a teamwide mindset.
“No doubt,” he said. “We definitely came in here with the mentality of running the ball downhill and making the most of that.”
After three punts to open the game, that 1-yard score was the finishing touch on a three-play touchdown drive, one set up after Sweat bulldozed into the Rams backfield for a first-down strip-sack of Stafford. And if anyone needed another example of what relief looks like, it was Sweat — a magnet for frequent double teams and chips — drawing a one-on-one opportunity against Rams tight end Colby Parkinson.
Good luck with that assignment, kid.
“I felt disrespected, honestly, man,” Sweat said.
He turned that disrespect into a powerful bull rush, driving Parkinson backward, then darting inside past receiver Jordan Whittington to club the ball out of Stafford’s grasp.
“I kind of noticed that McVay was dialing it up,” Sweat said, “and that they were eating off the play-action and the run. So it was just a good play.”
Roschon Johnson’s follow-up score was the first of the Bears’ season-high three offensive touchdowns, including rookie quarterback Caleb Williams’ first career TD pass at Soldier Field. That one covered 9 yards to DJ Moore who, like Sweat, found his own favorable matchup with linebacker Christian Rozeboom trying to track him in coverage.
Said Williams: “When you leave a ‘backer on DJ, that’s the matchup that you wish for throughout games. And that’s how it happened.”
With Rozeboom’s back turned, Williams put ideal touch on his throw into the end zone. And Moore made a nifty catch, getting both feet down inbounds.
Oh, and as far as big-time special teams contributions down the stretch? What about the 66-yard missile punter Tory Taylor launched in the fourth quarter with the Bears protecting a six-point lead and Taylor angling his kick out of bounds at the Rams 8?
Or Taylor’s final punt, a 35-yarder that checked up and was downed at that very same 8-yard line with 1:13 remaining?
Jaylon Johnson was asked if Taylor’s contributions provided any extra juice to the win.
“Hell yeah!” he said. “I haven’t been that pumped up for a punter in a long time. He’s definitely special. He’s giving us that field-position (advantage) to be able to pin our ears back and go hunt.”
Taylor’s last punctuation punt came after the Bears offense successfully drained an additional 1:34 off the clock with Roschon Johnson — again with Kramer as his fullback — turning a third-and-1 carry into a grinding 3-yard gain.
“Exact same thing as the touchdown,” Roschon Johnson said. “We had the personnel in for it. And we knew what it was. (The mindset) was get downhill, knock somebody back, knock it forward.”
Added Cole Kmet: “That was a terrible (defensive) front look that we got. We were kind of outmanned. And Roschon was still able to break a tackle and get that first down himself. I thought that was the play of the day, to be honest.”
Unlike the previous week in Indianapolis, when the Bears couldn’t score on four shotgun running plays from inside the Colts 5, this time they chose force over finesse at key times and succeeded.
To be clear, the Bears weren’t taking a victory lap after seizing this “had to have it” win against a young and injury-depleted opponent. To the contrary, there was acknowledgment of how small Sunday’s step was toward the team’s biggest goals.
“There are still steps we need to take to keep going in the right direction,” Jaylon Johnson said. “Everything is just not fixed in this one game. But I think overall, we took a step forward.”
Kmet actually laughed out loud when one reporter wondered aloud whether Sunday registered as a turning-point triumph, particularly as it related to treating the offensive problems that had defined September.
“Turning point?” Kmet said with a smile. “That word gets used all the time. But I think there are a lot of things we’ll look back on on tape and see that we can mold into our identity going forward.”
Even that registered as a form of relief, with Bears offensive players feeling like they not only had an opportunity to voice their concerns to Waldron last week about their struggles in the first month of the season but that the feedback got home.
“We had a good conversation with Shane to start the week,” Kmet said. “By no means is that perfect. And by no means are we where we want to be. But I thought there were a lot of positives and there was a lot of good, efficient football today.”
That matters. Back at .500, the Bears found something to build on with a performance that should put some wind at their back heading into Week 5. Their obvious relief Sunday sure beat the alternative.
