No Caleb Williams. A shuffling secondary. You're starting your third-string quarterback against a Vic Fangio defense in prime time. Saquon Barkley looks like he's about to go for 200 yards against this Chicago Bears defense.
And yet, at the end of the night, the Bears came away with a dominant win over those Philadelphia Eagles for the second year in a row.
Only this time, it was 38-year-old Case Keenum under center and suddenly looking like he was 10 years younger.
Keenum's praise of his head coach, Ben Johnson, after the game, said it all.
"This was taken for me a lot of times, and to have him (Johnson) call me and bring me back, the love of the game [returned] ... this is a special group led by a special man," Keenum said during his postgame locker room speech.
Case Keenum and Ben Johnson were made for one another
The gratitude and respect Keenum has for his head coach had been apparent all week long during interviews, and it only came to light even more after an unlikely and impressive victory on Monday night.
It's easy for Bears fans to love and support Johnson after the head coaches this franchise has had in recent years. He is unlike any of them in so many ways.
But, Keenum's words bring it to another level.
You've got to really think about it. He hadn't played in a regular season game since 2023.
He admitted earlier in the week, to Bears media members, that he thought his career was essentially done.
Until that phone call.
Keenum answered that phone call and took Johnson up on his offer to come to Chicago and basically be a player coach.
He knew, at that moment, he would probably never play -- but to work under Johnson?
That was worth it.
Now, fast forward to present day and Keenum has just come off a night that will go down as one of the most memorable starts of his career.
Johnson saw his backup quarterback, Tyson Bagent, clear concussion protocol two days before the game. Except, he was going to roll with Keenum.
After all, Keenum was the one who had gotten a full week of practice in. The game plan was built for Keenum, so it was his job this week.
Ben Johnson helped Case Keenum turn the Eagles defense into pidgeons
And boy, oh boy, did Johnson put on a clinic.
If you were to tell me that the Bears would pass the same amount as they'd run in this game, I'd have called you a liar. But, it was even: 34 pass attempts for Keenum and 35 carries for the Bears as a team.
For a large majority of the game, Keenum's pass attempts had far surpassed the Bears' run attempts. It wasn't until the end of the game where the Bears hammered the ground game to close things out.
When it came to Keenum and the passing game plan, though, Johnson executed to perfection.
Coming out of the gate with quick, easy completions helped get Keenum into a rhythm. When you're an older quarterback like Keenum, who hadn't played in a game in three years, this is crucial. You've got to see the ball come out and be caught early on.
Johnson gave him the perfect script right out of the gate.
And, as the game went on, the play calling and play designs got better and better. We saw Bears pass catchers open left and right. It almost appeared as though Eagles defenders were ignoring somebody on nearly every pass play -- and Keenum found them.
Let us not forget, that's a Vic Fangio defense with some stars in the secondary like Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean. That's also a defensive line with a game wrecker like Jalen Carter and his running mates who make up one of the better defensive lines in football.
And still, 38-year-old Keenum, paired with Ben Johnson, made them look like that Week 1 Carolina Panthers defense at times.
Prior to kickoff, we saw all of the "expert" game picks come in. Between ESPN and NFL Network, only three out of 16 people picked the Bears to win.
To be frank, I would venture to guess most honest Bears fans would have picked the Eagles from an objective standpoint.
Johnson and Keenum proved them wrong -- loud and clear, too.
We thought this might have been a death sentence without Caleb Williams.
Read more: Case Keenum backed Ben Johnson in a corner with Week 4 Bears QB decision
Thanks to what might be the NFL's Coach of the Year in 2026, it appears as though we were wrong.
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