5 big takeaways from Chicago Bears’ Week 4 win over the Los Angeles Rams

CHICAGO – The Chicago Bears faced an early pivotal moment in their season when they took on the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday at Soldier Field. They responded with a complementary game that led to a 24-18 win.

Rookie quarterback Caleb Williams and the offense had its most productive game of the season, scoring three touchdowns. The defense produced two more turnovers and made stops at the end of the game to secure the win.

The Bears improved to 2-2 in their best showing of the season. Both sides of the ball played well off each other to come together and earn a win.

Below are the five big takeaways from Sunday’s matchup.

1. Bears defense makes critical late stops

The Bears defense needed to make one last stop when the Rams started their final drive on their own 8-yard line trying to overcome a 24-18 Bears lead with 1 minute, 3 seconds left in the game. So how confident was the defense when it went onto the field?

“Extremely confident,” cornerback Jaylon Johnson said. “I feel like for us, it’s not even about a stop, it’s about getting a takeaway. We were able to go out there and do it on the first play.”

Safety Jaquan Brisker stepped up on that first play when he intercepted a pass from Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford after he was hit by Bears defensive end Darrell Taylor. The Bears ran out the clock after the pick to earn the win.

The play capped two dominant stops from a Bears defense trying to protect a 24-18 lead. The group forced a three-and-out when the Rams started a drive from its own 8 with 6:25 left in the game before Brisker sealed the win with his interception.

Brisker felt motivated to redeem himself after he had a late-hit penalty and an overturned interception in the second quarter. He responded with a big sack in the fourth quarter to go along with the game-winning interception.

“I owe the team one,” Brisker said of his mindset toward the end of the game. “Just getting my mind right, stay locked in, stay focused and try to get the ball at some point today.”

2. Tory Taylor has breakout game

Bears punter Tory Taylor was pretty hard on himself after last week’s loss to Indianapolis. The Bears downed just one of his three punts inside the 20-yard line and he averaged only 42.3 yards per punt.

“It was really one of those things, like last week was pretty [expletive], to be honest,” the Australian rookie said. “Wasn’t good enough. Had the chance to help the team last week and I didn’t. It was really one of those things that I just wanted to go into the game and be myself.”

Taylor redeemed himself Sunday in a major way. Three of his five punts were downed not only inside the 20, but also inside the 10. His 66-yard punt midway through the fourth quarter could arguably be called one of the plays of the game.

It came after a quick three-and-out for the Bears offense, leading by only six points. The Rams looked like they’d have a chance to make a fourth-quarter comeback, but Taylor’s booming 66-yard punt gave the Rams the ball at their own 8-yard line. The Rams couldn’t do anything and were forced to punt.

Taylor pinned them inside the 10 again a few minutes later. He averaged 55.4 yards per punt on Sunday. He said he put his bad game in Indy behind him by sticking to his routine.

“Not much really changes too much,” Taylor said. “I think it’s more so just the mental framing of everything, just trying to get my mind right so I can go out there and capitalize when I’ve got the ball in my hand.”

3. Offense builds second half momentum

Williams and the offense started the second half with two of the best drives they’ve had this season.

The Bears first used 12 plays to go 74 yards on their opening second half drive, scoring when Williams found DJ Moore for a 9-yard touchdown pass in the back of the end zone. On their next drive, the Bears went 75 yards on five plays and D’Andre Swift scored off a 36-yard run.

With the offense building momentum on the second drive, the Bears switched to a no-huddle offense and took advantage of a tired Rams defense. Williams completed a 22-yard pass to tight end Cole Kmet up the middle before Swift broke free for his scoring run.

“I think when you get no huddle it doesn’t allow the defense to do what they want to do,” Williams said. “I think that’s the biggest thing with no huddle. If they have a personnel or certain front, like here today, the Rams have so many different personnels with their fronts. When they get into different things we want to make sure that we can do our best to exploit it.”

That second-half success was contagious and motivated the Bears defense to get stops.

“It was great just the way they came out,” Brisker said. “They came out how they did in practice, and you practice how you play. They came out in a fast pace like they do in practice and they did their thing.”

4. Bears come together to overcome adversity

After a loss to the Indianapolis Colts where it seemed there were more questions that answers, the Bears felt an urgency to win Sunday’s game and avoid a 1-3 start to the season.

“There’s a strong urgency right now,” Johnson said “We can’t wait and say we have time and things like that. We’ll never get this time like this again. We just have to take advantage of the opportunities, get on the same page, communicate, have eye-to-eye communication and go out there and figure out ways to win. I think we did that.”

The call to urgency came during a week where there were plenty of questions about play calling by both Bears head coach Matt Eberflus and offensive coordinator Shane Waldron. Bears tight end Marcedes Lewis told reporters during the week that the players wanted to be coached and held accountable.

Although Sunday wasn’t a perfect outing, Johnson said he saw progress.

“There’s still steps that we can take and go in the right direction, everything’s not fixed in this one week,” Johnson said. “But I think overall taking steps in the right direction is all you can ask for.”

5. Offensive line loses Teven Jenkins

An inconsistent Bears offensive line lost one of its starters in the second quarter when left guard Teven Jenkins left the game with a rib injury. Jenkins suffered the injury on a Williams run and went straight to the locker room after he left the field. He was ruled out for the rest of the game.

“It’s always tough to lose an offensive lineman, especially Teven,” Williams said. “He’s an unbelievable player and I love when he’s out there blocking for you.”

Nate Davis came into the game and played right guard while Matt Pryor moved over to left guard. The Bears played without offensive linemen Ryan Bates and Larry Borom, who are both battling injuries.

The Bears offense did find success despite missing Jenkins. The offense got into a flow and relied on its leadership to score in the second quarter after Montez Sweat forced a strip sack and then add two second half scores.

“I think it’s a testament to us as a team, our coaches, our players and our leaders to be able to, when a guy like Teven goes down, to keep going,” Williams said. “It sucks, like I said, but to be able to keep going and get the offense going, it’s a testament to our personality as a team and us overall.”