Takeaways from the Chicago Bears' suffocating 23-12 win over the Jets

It was a complete win at Soldier Field.

The numbers showed it for the Chicago Bears. The offense controlled the ball and the defense got off the field. That limited the New York Jets to just 32 total offensive plays.

Here are our takeaways from the Chicago Bears' win over the Jets.

The fun difference in the Bears’ locker room

There wasn’t a more telling stat than the time of possession between the Bears and the Jets. The offense was dead tired. The defense felt great.

The offense had the ball for 42:45 of game time. 

"We were all dead," tight end Cole Kmet said after being on the field for the final nine minutes of the game,

Meanwhile, the defense guarded 17:15 of game time. 

"I got bored a couple times," linebacker Devin Bush said.

The Bears’ offense didn’t hit the 500-yard mark, but they came close to it. With 492 yards, they just controlled the line of scrimmages and grounded out yards when it mattered the most. 

Four yards here, five yards there, sometimes the 20-yard explosive, too. This was an example of coach Ben Johnson’s offense taking control and never giving it back.

The ball-possession offense ran 89 plays, had a franchise-record 34 first downs and had six drives with double-digit plays. 

The Bears players felt it. Running back Kyle Monangai said he felt what it was like when the dynamic shifted on the other side.

"They didn’t want to be out there anymore," Monangai said.

The final drive of the game started with 9:14 left in the game. The Bears ran 18 plays and the Jets never saw the ball again.

The same thing happened last week with the Bears’ offense as they closed out Philadelphia. That’s the work paying of in Johnson’s eyes.

"That’s two weeks in a row I think were able to find a way to finish with it," Johnson said. "It’s a good thing."

Big differences between Bagent and Keenum

The biggest takeaway from this game was that the Bears have three quarterbacks they can win with in the NFL.

That’s a luxury not a lot of teams have. Some teams barely have one quarterback who can win them a game.

The Bears have Williams and his rising talent levels. They have the grizzled veteran in Case Keenum. On Sunday, we got a look at where Tyson Bagent has gotten to in Johnson’s offense.

He showed how different he and Keenum are at processing plays.

Bagent’s processing clock is just a second slower that Keenum. That’s not meant to be a death knell to his career, Bagent has started five NFL games. Keenum has started 67. There’s a lot of learning Bagent has to do, and he’ll get there if he can play as long as Keenum has.

Minkah Fitzpatrick intercepted Bagent in the first half on a play where Bagent had a receiver over the middle. The pass would’ve been caught had he thrown it one second sooner.

But, that’s what experience can do. Bagent still completed 73.5 percent of his passes. That’s the benchmark Johnson wants from his quarterback.

Kyle Monangai’s big day

There’s a certain sound that Kyle Monangai has when he’s got the football in his hands. Left tackle Theo Benedet said even if you can’t see Monangai, you can hear him.

It’s not subtle. In fact, it’s familiar to those who like physical ball.

"Sounds like pads," Benedet said. "That's what it sounds like."

Monangai took over the ground-and-pound game. He grinded plenty of yards on his career day to the tune of 30 carries for 146 yards and two touchdowns. Those 30 carries were the career high of the day for Monangai, who looked like he was feeling it in the locker room after the game.

In the moment, the offense knew it had a job to do.

"Kyle was the hot hand today a little bit," tight end Cole Kmet said. "He's physical and we know we just got to kind of get him to the second level and he's going to run some dudes over, fall forward and we saw a lot of that today."

He was in such a rhythm, the play caller didn’t even know Monangai had 30 carries.

"I didn’t even know until I got into my office after the game," Johnson said.

That’s because Monangai was in his own personal heaven.

"I love it," he said. "Coaches checked on me and asked was I ok, and I said 'I’m good.'"

He’s very good. It’s why the Bears’ run game is so versatile.

Don’t sleep on the defensive improvement

The Bears’ defense allowed 37 points in the first week of the season.

They’ve allowed 28 in the last three games combined. That’s improvement, and a product of not playing an offense that had an entire offseason to prepare for Week 1.

Either way, the Bears’ defense played a complete game on Sunday. The trenches meshed with the secondary, and the linebackers were a weapon defensive coordinator Dennis Allen used however he wanted.

"DA be calling it up, man," nickel cornerback Malik Muhammad said. "Then we just make his calls come to life. He always say it don't matter about the call, it's about the way y'all play and how y'all make the calls come to life."

The Bears’ offense will get credited for running over 80 plays and controlling the ball, but the Bears’ defense didn’t allow the Jets’ offense to convert a third down on Sunday.

It all came together.

It’s a sign of a growing defense.

"Sometimes being in the trenches, it's the job to do the dirty work, right?" Defensive tackle Neville Gallimore said. "Make sure you stop the run, limit explosive plays and let our pass rushers just cook. So I feel like  the less we're on the field is typically a good thing because that means we're doing the job."

Bears