The Bears showed who they are: Takeaways from the Chicago Bears win over the Patriots

Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams put it simply.

He also might have put it the best.

"These nights are awesome," Williams said. "You play versus another good team in a primetime game in a short week, these games are awesome because you get to see who we are as a team."

The Bears showed everyone who they are.

Here are our takeaways from a standout Bears’ 30-24 win over the Patriots on Thursday Night Football.

The Bears’ identity is confidence

There are those who don’t think much of the Chicago Bears after a disjointed first six weeks of the season.

This includes two-score wins over the Jets, Falcons and Eagles, a 59-point explosion over the Panthers, a water-logged divisional loss to Minnesota where Caleb Williams got hurt and a gut-punch, blow-out loss to the Packers.

Above all of that, the Bears try to stay in tune with who they believe they are.

"That's who we are. We're a smashmouth football team, innovative team, and then when things happen and things don't go our way and the water is rocky, we stay steady," Williams said. "We're going to keep going, we're going to keep fighting. That's who I know we are."

The Bears do keep fighting. They never lose confidence, either. They never waver, even when plenty believe they should.

This is who the Bears are. They have confidence they can win no matter what. This is a clear reflection of the head coach, and it’s why the Bears won Thursday. The Bears trusted players plenty have already questioned.

What they're saying:

Colston Loveland was extremely quiet in the first few games. He had seven catches, 69 yards and a score.

Rome Odunze was questioned after dropping passes this season before he committed offensive pass interference and dropped a pass. He had four receptions for 69 yards, including a critical and incredible snag on third and nine where he had to reach back behind his body to make the catch.

Even the hand off to left guard Joe Thuney, which was illegal, still elicited a response that feels very veiled of their head coach.

"Joe was supposed to score," Williams said.

One player who did score was Cairo Santos. He missed a 53-yard field goal that would have made it a two-score game in the fourth.

After Williams took a bad sack to set up fourth and long, the Bears went back and forth on punting to trying a 58-yarder. Santos said the three words that helped the Bears win.

"I want it," Santos said.

Santos got it.

"Our process pregame tells us a lot about how he's feeling and what we feel like those maximum distance lines are," Johnson said. "One, we felt good about being inside that line, and two, we asked him, he said, ‘Absolutely, I need redemption because I missed one earlier.’ He came through for us in a big way."

He believed. He was confident he could do it, and the coach was confident Santos has it in him.

Whatever you disliked about the Bears’ start to the season and who was doing what is moot. They were on the winning end of a great game. It wasn’t an accident.

"Things are just clicking," Loveland said.

Bears defense becomes inexplicable

It’s one thing to struggle, but it’s another to be inexplicable.

How does a play at the end of the first half, where Rhamondre Stevenson goes 48 yards to the house on a check down throw, happen?

It was reminiscent of a play late in the first half in 2024 when the Bears played the Cardinals. Emari Demercado took a hand off and went 53 yards for a score in a loss to Arizona.

This was a long-developing screen play that could have easily been stopped. Cam Lewis pursued Stevenson instead of trying to get an angle on him which would have forced the back out of bounds. That let Stevenson cut back, where Kyler Gordon, Jaylon Johnson and others couldn’t get a firm grip on him.

"I think we could have rallied to the ball there and gotten him down," Johnson said.

Simple, but true.

Dig deeper:

Beyond that, the defense struggled. New England’s first three drives were a turnover on downs and two three and outs. After that, the Bears struggled to have a response until later in the game.

"We protected when they pressured," Patriots coach Mike Vrabel said. "I thought that was a huge key for us as they continued to pressure and put a lot of guys on the line of scrimmage. Our ability to pick it up and hit some chunk plays was really the reason we were in it in the second half."

The bright spot was the run defense, limiting New England to 70 rushing yards, but the Pats were down two starting offensive linemen.

It’s worth pointing out New England’s shorthanded offense limited them when it mattered the most. On fourth and two near midfield, the Patriots lined up to go for it down six but a false state by former Bear offensive lineman Matt Pryor turned that into a punt instead.

The offenses still to come are varied. Seattle is a run heavy team. The Buccaneers spread teams out. The Saints mix the run and pass games well. The Lions are points waiting to be put on the board.

It doesn’t get easier.

The Bears can’t count on lapses that require a break to escape all the time.

Numbers do not lie

This is the kind of game where the stats can put it all into perspective.

By the numbers:

Kyler Gordon four sacks this season. He currently more sacks this season since being activated in Week 6 than Maxx Crosby, Josh Hines-Allen, Nick Bosa, Aaron Donald and Myles Garrett have combined (3.5) in 19 total games played.

D’Andre Swift scored a rushing touchdown in the first quarter. Swift has now scored four times in the last three games, and is the first Bears running back since Neal Anderson in 1990 with seven or more rushing touchdowns in the team’s first seven games.

Luther Burden III had 130 receiving yards and a touchdown on Thursday. Burden became the second Bear ever to record multiple primetime games with 130 or more receiving yards, joining Willie Gault as the other Bears’ receiver to do it.

This isn’t a comparison to Bears of season’s past.

This is a reminder that the Bears get results under Ben Johnson.

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