The Bears' biggest win since when? Takeaways from the Chicago Bears' 24-15 win over the Eagles

The Chicago Bears are 9-3. They have an outside chance of winning the top seed in the NFC, but it's there. They still remain atop the NFC North.

The Bears' 24-15 win over the Philadelphia Eagles was the franchise's biggest win in years, and it was validation for the Bears in a myriad of ways.

Here are our takeaways from the Bears' biggest win in over half a decade.

This is the Bears’ biggest win since…

Winning the NFC North against Green Bay in 2018? The win over the Rams on Sunday Night Football in that same year? Maybe the win over the eventual Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2020?

Whatever the answer is, this win now takes that spot.

The Bears have beaten the reigning Super Bowl champs, who were also 8-3, in late November to improve to 9-3. It depends on who you ask, but the Bears are validated in different ways. Plenty of the players see it as a validating moment for the team that knew it had the goods.

"For us, we’re trying to validate our internal belief and our internal goals," Receiver Rome Odunze said. "It’s a statement win for those reasons."

"It really confirmed to us that we know who we were," safety Kevin Byard said.

But the Bears aren’t just good, now.

Beating a top NFC team on the road in November is a sign they’re near the top of the playoff race. The Bears are currently the No. 2 seed in the NFC playoff picture, ahead of the Eagles and behind only the Los Angeles Rams.

The Bears have always believed they had the makings to be great. Still, walking the walk means much more than talking the talk. Friday was walking that walk, strutting into Philadelphia and running over the Eagles with two forced turnovers, gaining 281 yards on the ground with a six-yard per carry average and grinding the Eagles’ defense with 85 total offensive plays for 425 yards.

What the staff is preaching, though, is that there’s still work to be done.

"These guys should feel pretty good about what they just did," Ben Johnson said. "I think they still know they have got to get back to work next week."

Make no mistake, the Bears are a legit power in the NFC this season. At 9-3, they’re above the perennial contenders and ahead of the NFC North. The noise about the Bears focused on how they beat teams with losing records and would fold against some of the better competition.

That’s no longer the case. The narrative has become: How good can the Bears be in Game 13 under Ben Johnson? In 12 games, they’ve clinched the Bears' second winning season since Lovie Smith’s final season in 2012. 

"We’re for real," Swift said.

Fourth Quarter Caleb shines bright

The biggest play of the game wasn’t supposed to be a toss over the top of the defense.

Caleb Williams rolled to his left, pumped once and had D’Andre Swift right in front of him for a short gain. Instead of taking the easy yards up 17-9, Williams’ eyes drifted up.

"I was about to consider a check down," Williams said. "I peeked up and saw Cole (Kmet)."

It was a tough throw to make. Williams made it anyhow. He lofted a pass to Kmet who made an over-the-shoulder catch.

That’s the 28-yard touchdown that basically sealed the win. It was a confidence throw, too. Williams was intercepted in the third quarter on a screen play that didn’t get over Jaxlyn Hunt’s head. 

"I gave him a good ball and let him make a good play," Williams said.

Sure, the running game was the star on Friday. But this was a moment where the Bears wanted to make sure the passing game remained something the Eagles needed to respect.

It was not a great day for Williams by any means. He completed fewer than 50 percent of his passes. He completed 17 of his 36 pass attempts for 154 yards, a touchdown, an interception and 4.3 yards per attempt.

Williams moved the chains with his arm on third downs in three key moments in the fourth quarter. He completed five of his six passes in the fourth quarter for 57 yards and a score. 

He still delivered on Friday during the most critical moments of the game in what’s the most critical win of them all. Fourth Quarter Caleb has been a conduit for offense all season long, as the Bears lead the NFL with 54 points scored in the final frame.

"To be able to throw a dime like that in that part of the game, it was really big for us," Bears head coach Ben Johnson said. "You want to keep the element of the pass threat over the course of the game."

Johnson and Gordon return, now to a winning team

The Bears got to this point largely without Jaylon Johnson and Kyler Gordon. Those two finally got back on the field against the Eagles.

They were a large reason why the Bears’ defense held the Eagles’ offense to just two red zone attempts, where the Eagles converted just one of them.

Jaylon Johnson was a player who didn’t buy into what the new coaching staff was selling right away. He didn’t have a reason to after he lost so many games in his first five seasons in Chicago.

Now, he was on the field when the Bears sealed win No. 9 and officially clinched a winning season.

"It feels a lot better to be on the field and contributing," Johnson said. "It feels really good being a part of it."

Johnson just wanted to make a positive contribution in his first game back. He did so with solid coverage on Philadelphia’s receiver corps, which possesses size and speed.

Gordon got in on the action, too. They both didn’t make much of an impact on the box score – Johnson and Gordon finished with two tackles combined – but their contributions were felt away from the stat sheet, especially as the Bears finally got some healthy bodies back.

"We not finished. Nine’s not enough," Gordon said.

The running game has to carry the Bears to the playoffs

The best description of the Bears’ offensive game plan came from a defensive player.

"We knew it was going to be won in the trenches," Byard said.

He was right. That’s just in the offensive sense, though. Kyle Monangai rushed for 130 yards and a score; D’Andre Swift ran for 125 yards and a score.

The last time the Bears had two 100-yard rushers in the same game was Week 10 of the 1985 season. Walter Payton (105 yards) and Matt Suhey (102 yards) ran through the Detroit Lions.

The Bears’ offensive strength is its running game. The two-headed monster of Swift and Monangai has emerged as a true offensive threat, and running through the Eagles is proof they’re a threat to run on most of the NFC.

The Bears aren’t afraid to commit to it. They ran the ball 47 total times on Friday. They’ll need it in the final stretch of the season. The Bears face the Packers, 49ers, Browns and Lions. Those teams rank eighth, 10th, 11th and 14th in the NFL in rushing yards allowed per game.

The Bears’ defense has shown it will grab the takeaways it needs to give the offense the opportunity. Byard and Nahshon Wright proved how that turnover mentality is what drives the Bears’ defense.

"There’s a reason why we’re the best in the league at taking the ball away," Byard said. "Any ball that’s in my vicinity is mine."

Williams has a chance to grow into a stone-cold killer as a passer, but he doesn’t need to when the running game gashes defenses like it did on Friday.

That can carry the Bears.

"I don't think we win that game if we're not able to run the ball like we were," Johnson said.

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