The Chicago Bears beat the Minnesota Vikings to move to 4-8. This was also the first time Matt Eberflus beat a division opponent as the Bears' head coach. Considering it happened this late into his second year, there are plenty of questions to ask about this team moving forward.
10. How impactful has Montez Sweat been for the Chicago Bears?
The addition of Montez Sweat was apparent from the second he stepped on the field for the Bears. The defense started getting healthier, and his addition has improved everyone.
In just four games, he has 2.5 sacks, which, funnily enough, is now just 0.5 away from leading the team. He will play half of the season and finish as the team leader. He gets a sack on 2.5% of the snaps he plays for Chicago. Rasheem Green is next at 1.4%, and Yannick Ngakoue is at 0.7%.
He has a 16.5% pass rush win rate for the Bears, compared to only 10.6% for the Commanders before the trade. When Sweat is on the field, the Bears allow a 40.4% success rate, but it goes up closer to 44.1% when he is off.
The Bears have seven sacks in the past three games, compared to ten in nine games before Sweat's arrival. They have also had seven interceptions in the last two weeks after just six in the first ten games. The rest of the rushers and the secondary look better, and the defense has improved with the addition of Sweat. This is not all due to Sweat, but it is clear that his presence has had a ripple effect.
9. Can Justin Fields limit game-changing turnovers for the Chicago Bears?
Justin Fields got a chance to win the game on Monday night football, but it only came after he had two chances previously and blew them. The Bears would not even have needed a fourth-quarter comeback if Justin Fields had just held onto the football. The Bears were up 9-3 and had the ball approaching the red zone when Fields had his first fumble of the game. All Fields had to do was take a knee, and the Bears would have gone up 12-3 and likely won the game with ease.
The fumble led to a Vikings touchdown, and a 12-3 potential lead turned into a 10-9 hole. Fields had a chance to rebound but fumbled on his first chance at a game-winning drive. If Minnesota got a first down, they would win, but they gained just one yard on three plays before punting.
Fields got over the hump of making the pass in the clutch, but only after the same old Fields emerged in the same scenario. Against Tampa Bay and Denver, he had game-changing turnovers, and against the Lions, he immediately was strip-sacked when he had a chance to lead a last-second comeback.
Fields has lost three fumbles since he returned from his thumb injury, and his turnover-worthy throw play rate is up nearly 2% from his career rate. He needs to protect the ball better.
8. How much better has DeMarcus Walker been since the Chicago Bears added Montez Sweat?
One of the big ripples from the Montez Sweat trade was the impact on DeMarcus Walker. It was actually a win that Walker was demoted from the starter spot to a reserve role. Now, Walker can fill in when needed and stay fresh to do what he does best. He was signed to play this role, and we now see why.
Week 12 was the second-lowest snap count of his season but the most productive game he played overall. Walker has nine pressures in the last two weeks, and his pass rush win rate is up from 8.7% in the first nine games to 15.8% in the last two games.
On Monday, the Bears used him on the right side to take on left tackles more. Yannick Ngakoue played the lowest snap count of his season. Meanwhile, Walker went from averaging 14.6 snaps against the left tackle per game in the first half of the season to 25 snaps per game in the last two weeks.
Sweat has allowed them to use Walker in a better role, which has allowed them to limit the snaps of Ngakoue, who has struggled. Now we can see if this wakes Ngakoue up.
7. Will we be seeing more Roschon Johnson for the Chicago Bears after the bye week?
It will be interesting to see what the Chicago Bears do out of the bye week. Before Khalil Herbert got hurt, he was the leading rusher. However, as the winter months have come, and as D’onta Foreman started to grind out yards, the Bears have decided to lean to a power back.
That is why the Bears gave Roschon Johnson a lot more work than Herbert when D’onta Foreman went down this past week. Johnson was the early down grinder, but also the pass catching back, so Herbert really just came in for rotational work.
There are now three ways that this could go. Herbert had a bad back injury, and they may have eased him back in. With the bye week, he could get back to his starting ways. Roschon Johnson is the rookie and is the future. He added the most as a pass catcher this week and that is what Chicago needs. The bye week is the perfect time for the rookie to get a breather and play better down the stretch.
Lastly, Foreman had the job, and the run game looked the best with him before he went down. Why not just get back to him? Each will have a strong case to make after the bye.
6. Are the Chicago Bears seeing an impact out of Gervon Dexter?
Gervon Dextr has started to come alive for the Chicago Bears in recent weeks. Weeks 10 and 11 were the most that he has played all season and week 12 was his best game on a per-snap basis. Who knew that rookies would get better with playing time?
Dexter has had eight pressures in the last three weeks. That is up from nine pressures in the first nine weeks. It helps that Dexter is playing more, but he is also just winning more. His pass rush win rate is up from 8.1% to 15%. On a per-snap basis he is doing better as well.
The Chicago Bears have a chance to do something smart at the bye week. Justin Jones has slowly been losing snaps, but now he needs to become a part-time player because it is clear the playing time is helping Dexter progress. Will the Bears give in and let him play more?
5. Can anyone but DJ Moore step up from the Chicago Bears WR room?
Monday was another night where D.J. Moore carried the wide receiver room. Cole Kmet, Khalil Herbert, and Roschon Johnson all had more receiving yards than the next-highest wide receiver. This has become a problem this year. Moore has 65% of the receiving yards, 60.3% of the catches, and 75% of the touchdowns that this receiving corps has.
The rest of the room has 46 catches for 536 yards and two touchdowns combined while Moore has 70 catches for 1,003 yards and six touchdowns. When the quarterback targets Moore they average 10 yards. When the quarterback targets all of the other wide receivers, it is just 6.1 yards.
The Bears need any of these wide receivers to step up down the stretch. The Bears played Equanimeous St. Brown a lot more than Tyler Scott, but that may be because of the intense nature of screen passes. Darnell Mooney was coming along a few weeks ago but has not reconnected with Justin Fields. Can any of these players step up?
4. Was Monday concerning for Kyler Gordon with the Chicago Bears?
Before the Bears win on Monday, we had been praising Kyler Gordon for his play in recent wees. The Bears have faced Adam Thielen, Amon-Ra St. Brown, and Keenan Allen since Gordon returned to full health, and Gordon has been playing well. Of course, that is until he met his real foe, Brandon Powell. Powell beat Gordon for a 28-yard catch, but Gordon also committed pass interference on him, which resulted in a 26-yard penalty. It set up the Vikings first scoring drive of the night.
Kyler Gordon had a bizarre taunting penalty that can be forgiven, but there are questions emerging from his play overall. Was this just a bad night that he can rebound from, or were circumstances and a small sample size helping his play in the weeks prior?
3. Is the Chicago Bears offensive line coming together?
Even with the 12-point performanec there is a lot of be positive about when it comes to the offensive line. More than anything, it is important the group will head into the bye week healthier than ever. They spent the last two weeks with the combination of Lucas Patrick, Nate Davis, Teven Jenkins, Braxton Jones, and Darnell Wright. This is their best group on paper.
Now, they get the bye week to gel, and they can come out of it with no questions. The guards will be healthy and the tackles will be rested after Jones came back from injury and Wright played a gauntlet schedule as a rookie.
The final five weeks should be the best offensive line that the Bears have given Justin Fields. We need to see him take advantage and lead the team to wins.
2. How did Terell Smith look in place of Tyrique Stevenson?
The Chicago Bears started rookie Terell Smith in place of rookie Tyrique Stevenson. Smith was making his third career start, so it was worth following to see how he did. He spent most of the day on Jordan Addison, and while he gave up a few catches, PFF has him charted for five catches allowed for 33 yards against Addison. Overall he was credited for 45 yard allowed.
Smith had a shot at an interception but dropped it. He also had eight tackles. His first two starts featured some impressive tackling attempts as well, and it is easy to say that Smith is willing to stick his helmet in there and make a play. Overall, the Bears have to be happy with what Smith has done in his limited time as a rookie. The injury status of Stevenson will dictate how much more he plays.
1. What is the defense of Chicago Bears offensive coordinator Luke Getsy?
No one is saying that the 12 point outburst by the Chicago Bears was good enough. Also, it is easy to say that Brian Flores out schemed Luke Getsy. However, if you have been watching the Minnesota Vikings all year, you would know that their defense has been out scheming just about every offensive coordinator.
Flores brings a ton of complex blitzes that even the most experienced quarterbacks struggle with. So, Luke Getsy saw Justin Fields struggling after the initial game plan and made life easy for him.
On one hand, we did not learn much about Fields. On the other, the game plan worked. The Bears had a 9-3 lead and were driving into the red zone to go up 12-3 at worst before Justin Fields fumbled. Even if Minnesota went on the same scoring drive, the time taken off would have given Chicago an easy chance to ice the game late. It was not pretty, but a comfortable win was on the table.
More than that, Fields did not throw any interceptions and did not have any turnovers until the player's late collapse.
Fields also posted his lowest pressure-to-sack rate of the season and third lowest of his career. Fans wanted to see Fields get better at avoiding sacks. Getsy finds a way to do that against a defense that confuses and sacks the best quarterbacks, and fans are mad because he had them with a chance to take a two-score lead with just under ten minutes to play in the game. Yes, it was a low-scoring game, but the Bears just needed to protect the ball on offense and score when they got into position. They did that up until 10 minutes to go, and the plan worked, whether you liked it or not.