Good, bad and ugly from Bears' dominant win vs. Jets in Week 4 - Bears Wire

The Chicago Bears got their third win of the season with their third quarterback as the Bears opted to have Tyson Bagent lead Chicago’s offense against the New York Jets. They are now 3-1, but are still chasing the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC North as they have yet to lose a game.

This was the first significant game action Bagent has had since his rookie year in 2023. It was not the best performance, but he did enough to get Chicago the win. The Bears’ run game also found a lot of success despite the Jets coming into this game as one of the best run defenses in the NFL.

Complementary performance: The Bears are really a force to be reckoned with this season. While the 23-12 score does not reflect it, Chicago was in complete control of this game from the start. The Bears’ defense stifled this offense with the exception of one blown coverage which resulted in New York’s only touchdown. Rome Odunze finally had his breakout game and tight end Colston Loveland also got involved. It was clear watching this game that this was not the maximum potential for the Bears and they still had no problem winning this game. 

Kyle Monangai: The best part about this game was seeing Monangai have his first breakout game of the season. All of the attention in Chicago’s running back room had been on D’Andre Swift prior to this game and that has certainly changed now. Monangai’s 30 rushing attempts are the most by a Bears’ running back since before Ben Johnson was the head coach. There really is not a more dangerous duo in the NFL than Swift and Monangai.

Rome Odunze: After not being much of a factor in the first three games, Odunze finally had his breakout game with six receptions for 94 yards. Chicago’s offense had been finding success moving the chains with Kalif Raymond acting as the leading receiver and Luther Burden III getting some action. If the Bears can add Odunze to the mix on a regular basis, this passing game will be hard to stop no matter if the quarterback is Caleb Williams, Tyson Bagent or Case Keenum.

Tyson Bagent: He was not terrible, but he was not great either. The thing that irritated me most was the interceptions. While only one of them actually counted because the Jets kept getting penalties whenever Bagent threw an interception, he still had four interceptions against a team that did not have a single pick all of last season. For someone that has been around since 2023, that was not expected. Assuming Williams is unable to play in Week 5, Bagent will need to clean up some of those mistakes. 

D'Andre Swift fumble: It was Chicago’s opening drive of the second half. Bagent had completed a 20-yard pass to Odunze to get the Bears out of their own end zone. D'Andre Swift had a first down run for four yards. But on second down, he fumbled the ball, the Jets recovered it and subsequently scored their second field goal of the game. They finished the game with six points off of turnovers. That fumble could have really changed the momentum of this game and any turnovers are always a problem.

Red zone efficiency: Thinking about Chicago’s miscues is infuriating because the final score easily could have been 49-0. If the Bears did not blow the coverage on that one play, avoided turnovers and scored on all of their red zone trips, that is exactly how this game would have turned out. Chicago was in the red zone seven times, which is even more than they had in their 59-37 win over the Carolina Panthers. They only scored on two of those red zone trips. This is also the second week in a row they struggled in the red zone. The Bears have all the offensive pieces necessary to put up touchdowns and if they can punch it in more, they will really start blowing teams away.

Blown coverage: New York’s only touchdown of the game came on their final drive. Tyrique Stevenson blew the coverage against Isaiah Williams who scored a 58-yard touchdown which is the longest touchdown they had given up all season. Chicago was so close to their second game this season without giving up a touchdown and that is really how this should have ended.