Looking back on the Bears’ wild win over the Bengals

The last two minutes of Sunday’s Bears game felt like a roller-coaster ride for players and fans alike.

It seemed like the Bears had blown a 14-point lead in the final minute. But quarterback Caleb Williams found rookie tight end Colston Loveland for a go-ahead 58-yard touchdown pass to help Chicago avoid disaster.

There’s a lot to dissect from Sunday’s game as the Bears move on to the second half of the season. They’ll break it down this week as they prepare to host the New York Giants on Sunday at Soldier Field.

Here are three of the most interesting things the Bears said Monday.

On Caleb Williams’ development

Once again, Williams showed how he thrives with the game on the line. Sunday’s comeback was his third game-winning drive this season on the Bears’ final possession. But Williams also showed growth in other parts of his development.

One area was his play from the pocket. Williams took advantage of a mostly clean pocket Sunday and went though his progressions well, which has been a big point of emphasis since head coach Ben Johnson and his staff took over during the offseason.

Williams aired the ball out because of that improvement and threw for 280 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. It was a step in the right direction as Williams’ pocket awareness started to look more how he and Johnson want it to look.

“I think he’s starting to play faster,” Johnson said. “The more reps we’re getting on some of these concepts, he’s understanding the intent, the coverages that we’re really looking to get and if we’re not getting those coverages, can we quickly get to number two, number three or even look to run with that ball? It’s coming along nicely.”

Johnson also wanted to see Williams use his scrambling ability to pick up more positive yardage than he had in the past. Over the past few games, Williams continued to scramble on some plays instead of throwing the ball away or taking advantage of free space.

Williams had more success scrambling as well. He did a better job throwing balls on the run that were catchable for his receivers. Williams also rushed for 53 yards on five carries to keep drives moving.

“It was a good mix of that,” Johnson said. “It wasn’t like he was trying to overdo it with his legs or try to force anything with his arm. I think he found the right balance with playing fast and making the defense hurt.”

On improving Bears’ killer instinct

The Bears found another impressive way to win a game in the final minute. But it was another game where Johnson felt it was much closer than it needed to be.

“There’s been at least three games in my head that we’ve allowed the opponent to hang around, and we’ve allowed them to have a little bit of life late in games that we want to start to eliminate that feeling,” Johnson said. “We want to close these games out a little bit cleaner, earlier in the game. And I thought yesterday was an example of that.”

Chicago has tried to find that killer instinct since the first week of the season. The Bears couldn’t finish off the Minnesota Vikings in Week 1 and blew an 11-point lead in their season-opening loss. They also played close games against the Las Vegas Raiders and Washington Commanders that needed late-game heroics because they couldn’t pull away earlier.

“That’s something that we discussed at a team meeting today and I think all three phases had a chance to win the game where it doesn’t even have to come down to a play like Colston’s play at the end,” wide receiver Olamide Zaccheaus said. “So there’s definitely room to improve and, like just, when we have a chance to win the game we have to end the game whether that be on special teams or on defense or on offense. So definitely we keyed in on that (Monday).”

On injuries, trade deadline

Chicago received more bad injury news Monday. Johnson announced defensive end Dayo Odeyingbo, the team’s top offseason pass rush addition, suffered an Achilles injury Sunday and will miss the remainder of the season.

Odeyingbo was the latest of several defensive injuries. Chicago is without star cornerback Jaylon Johnson, who is out indefinitely after suffering a groin injury in Week 2, and cornerback Kyler Gordon, whom the team placed on injured reserve last month. The Bears also lost rookie defensive tackle Shemar Turner to a torn ACL while defensive end Dominique Robinson (ankle) has missed the past couple games.

“It feels like we take some strides at particular positions, then we take some steps back,” Johnson said. “It’s wild. I felt like we had a solution there with Shemar at defensive end a couple weeks ago. Then we lost him. Then we finally get (defensive end Austin) Booker back and we lose Dayo. So it’s a little bit of give and take. That’s, of course, the NFL season. That happens.”

The Bears need to quickly decide how much they’ll want to add to their roster before Tuesday’s 3 p.m. trade deadline. They could make a move that brings in an impact player either for the short-term or the long-term.

Johnson said the team could never have too much depth at cornerback and the pass rush. He said he believed Bears general manager Ryan Poles was putting in the proper work to make the right moves for this year’s roster and future teams.

“He’s doing, like I said, his due diligence to making sure that we look at everyone that could be available and that could help this football team in the here and the now, and also have in the back of our head what the ramifications of that also are, the consequences when you give up capital, whether it’s players or draft picks, what that does to your roster in the long-term,” Johnson said. “It is a balancing act, but it’s one that I think we have a really good process and a lot of communication on.”