Bears Put 59 on Carolina, Their Most in 46 Years, and Ben Johnson Says That Was Always the Target
Chicago's 59-37 win over the Panthers was the franchise's highest-scoring game since the 1980 season, and Caleb Williams became the first Bear ever to post his particular line.
Fifty-nine points. That is what the Chicago Bears hung on the Carolina Panthers on Sunday afternoon, in a 59-37 win that was not really a contest by the time the fourth quarter arrived. It is the most the franchise has scored in a single game since the 1980 season, which is to say the most any living Bears fan under fifty has watched them score. Week 1 results are the most over-read data points in the sport, and everyone involved knows it. But there is a difference between winning a game and dismantling one, and what happened at the end of this one was closer to the second thing.
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Caleb Williams finished with 269 passing yards, two passing touchdowns, 65 rushing yards and two more scores on the ground. That combination has never been done in Chicago before: he is the first player in franchise history to clear 200 passing yards, two passing touchdowns, 50 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns in the same afternoon. It was not a one-man performance either. D'Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai each rushed for more than 100 yards, which is the kind of stat line that usually means an offensive line spent the afternoon winning every exchange it entered.
That will always be the goal. We want to be the highest-scoring, we want to have the most wins, we want to win Super Bowls. That's what we do. We didn't get into this profession trying to be mediocre or average.— Ben Johnson, Chicago Bears head coach
The most revealing moment came after the whistle. In the handshake line, Williams told Panthers head coach Dave Canales that Carolina had a great defense — a strange thing to say to a man whose unit had just conceded 59 points, and it travelled quickly as a supposed dig. Canales was asked about it the next day and did not take it that way at all. "To me, it was a common postgame humility," he said. "It was Caleb just talking about preparing for the guys that we had and all that. They took advantage of things and they executed better than we did, so I didn't take that as a dig at all. I thought it was just a good kid being respectful." That is a more generous reading than the internet reached, and it is also the one that came from the person actually in the conversation.
Chicago's afternoon by the numbers
Chicago 59, Carolina 37 — the Bears' highest-scoring game since the 1980 season.
269 passing yards, two passing touchdowns, 65 rushing yards, two rushing touchdowns.
No Bear had previously posted 200+ passing yards, 2+ passing TDs, 50+ rushing yards and 2+ rushing TDs in one game.
D'Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai each rushed for more than 100 yards.
The 13 Sunday games averaged 53.3 points, the highest-scoring Week 1 Sunday on record.
The necessary caveat is that Chicago's outburst happened on a day when scoring was up everywhere. The thirteen Sunday games averaged 53.3 points between them, the highest-scoring Week 1 Sunday in league history, and the full slate averaged an even 50. So some of this was Chicago, and some of it was a league-wide afternoon in which defenses across the country looked a week behind. The honest position is that 59 points is genuinely remarkable and also that a single September afternoon proves less than it feels like it proves. What it does establish is intent, which is the part Johnson seemed most interested in claiming.
Whether this was a statement or a sample size is the only question that matters now, and the schedule will answer it soon enough.
What Week 1 Actually Told Us
The rushing attack. Two 100-yard backs behind a line that controlled the afternoon is not a fluke stat, and it is the least weather-dependent part of what Chicago did.
The raw point total. A league-record scoring Sunday inflated everybody, and Carolina's defense was the one giving the yards away.
Whether Williams' rushing volume is a design feature or an early-season improvisation. Two rushing touchdowns is a usage decision, and usage decisions tend to reveal themselves by October.
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Sources: NFL.com — Five storylines from Week 1, NFL.com — What We Learned from Sunday's games, Sports Illustrated — Canales responds to Williams