Final Word: This is what the Caleb Williams Chicago Bears are supposed to look like

CHICAGO - The qualifier this week was the Chicago Bears should have an easy time with the Carolina Panthers.

A hapless team, reeling from picking the wrong quarterback in the 2023 draft, sat at 1-3 with a bad pass defense and a struggling offense.

The Bears, in the end, took care of their business. It was what was expected of them.

They should've had their way with Carolina and did. The Bears are 3-2 after drubbing Carolina (1-4) 36-10.

Don't let any of the talk of a bad Panthers team deter you. This was what Caleb Williams' Bears are supposed to look like.

"That's definitely how we want to play," Williams said. "Definitely what we envision as an offense and things like that and as a team. We've got to keep doing it."

The final count looks as such: 36 points, 424 yards of total offense, with 128 of those yards coming on the ground. 

Caleb Williams' final line: 20 of 29 passing for 304 passing yards and two passing touchdowns.

Both of Williams' touchdown passes went to DJ Moore on two separate strikes of 34 and 30 yards. They're supposed to. That's Williams' No. 1 receiver.

The 30-yard strike was one Williams and Moore had been trying to hit for weeks. It's been happening in practice, but had yet to materialize in a game.

On Sunday, it did.

"Took five weeks to get the down-the-field pass game going, and when it hits, it hits," Moore said. "It was good today."

It was very good today.

Williams came to Chicago to finally be the quarterback talent the franchise has never had. He was drafted to be a big-game player who could be that old-school gunslinger type of quarterback the Packers always had in Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers.

For a moment, that's what Williams was.

There was a drive in the third quarter where Williams threw the ball five times in a row. This wasn't like the Colts game where he needed to throw to keep the Bears in the game. 

He was so in rhythm, it didn't make sense to go to anyone else with the football. He completed passes of six, 11, 19 and 16 yards before an incomplete pass to Rome Oduzne stopped the rhythm. 

It was a marvel to watch as the Bears' rookie, in Week 5, showed more of his ascension into his role as the Bears' star quarterback.

As Williams keeps growing, so does the air around the Bears' offense. They believe as much as the city of Chicago is.

"We were building off that second half last week," Bears center Coleman Shelton said. "We had confidence going to the week of practice and it just keeps it growing and to me, the belief goes from one guy to the next. It's contagious."

Now, a Bears' offense that had no identity through the first three weeks of the NFL season is forming one that's centered around Caleb Williams' arm.

"Once you start doing it, everybody sees it," Shelton said. "Let's keep doing it, it keeps showing who we are."

This was a good win for a Bears team that's just a couple of games removed from Weeks 2 and 3, where the passing game struggled.

Even Odunze, Williams' fellow rookie who had five catches for 40 yards on Sunday, realized the magnitude of a 26-point win.

"I needed a blowout win," Odunze said. "Because at the NFL level, it's hard to come by a blowout win."

But for the Bears, this was a blowout win where it all came together.

The reasons why are simple. Carolina is not a very good team for reasons of their creation and just simply with some bad luck. The Panthers lost two starting offensive linemen and two skill players on offense during Sunday's game.

That kept a struggling defense on the field for most of the game.

But, even if it's because they're a bad team, the Bears needed to see it all come together at its highest level.

Against the Rams, they saw success. Against the Panthers, the Bears sustained that success and went beyond what they had done in their best offensive outing. Which, by all accounts, was last week.

Sunday was proof of what a peak Caleb Williams' offense will look like for the Chicago Bears.

Now, it's about getting to that point in games with much heavier gravity, such as against an NFC North opponent, and sustaining it for weeks to come.

"We need to keep building, keep going," Williams said. "Great win. But definitely not settled on this."