Joyous, boyish cheering erupted from the Soldier Field home locker room for the first time in 13 months Sunday when, following a 30-12 win against the Raiders, Bears coach Matt Eberflus handed out game balls.
The first went to cornerback Jaylon Johnson, who, in the final year of his rookie contract and with the trade deadline looming on Halloween, doubled his career interception total Sunday.
The next went to Tyson Bagent, the undrafted rookie quarterback whom the Bears prepared well enough to snap a franchise-long 10-game home losing streak.
The last one went to D’Onta Foreman, whom general manager Ryan Poles gave a one-year, $2 million deal this year — and Eberflus made a healthy scratch for Weeks 2-5.
Sunday’s win meant a lot to each player — one trying to get paid, another trying to find his footing and the third starting his first career game. It meant something to Eberflus, too — it was his second in 17 days after having won three in his entire career to that point.
In a soul-crushing season, Sunday marked a delightful change of pace for the 2-5 Bears. But don’t confuse beating the Raiders and backup quarterback Brian Hoyer — whose last win as a starter came when Bagent was 16 years old —for big-picture progress.
Eberflus has so much more to do to get to that point. He has the worst winning percentage in franchise history and has never won a divisional game.
Much like injured quarterback Justin Fields — who is recovering from a dislocated right thumb — Eberflus is racing the clock to prove he belongs next year.
How he handles Fields in the coming weeks will be a challenge for a franchise not known for nimbly dancing through delicate situations. Fields is still the team’s starter, Eberflus said. His dislocated right thumb will be evaluated Monday, with the team hoping the swelling has subsided enough for him to grip a football. Fields wore a small brace on his right hand Sunday and was able to sign autographs.
Bagent won’t usurp Fields, but he was efficient enough Sunday for the Bears’ coaching staff to wonder whether he’d be a better choice Sunday at the Chargers than Fields at, say, 70% strength.
The Chargers will be a much more accurate measuring stick than the Raiders. The same Raiders were the only team to lose to Colts interim coach Jeff Saturday, perhaps the most under-qualified selection of his generation, last year. They also fell to the Rams last season when quarterback Baker Mayfield had just two days to prepare for the game after being claimed off waivers from the Panthers.
In retrospect, what was so remarkable about the Bears’ franchise-record 14-game losing streak under Eberflus — one that ended earlier this month against the Commanders — was that it ran counter to a modern NFL where the wrong team wins, somewhere in the country, every week.
The Bears have been here before. In Week 7, no less. Last year, a downtrodden Bears team trudged into a matchup with the Patriots — who, like the Raiders, were 3-3 — on “Monday Night Football.” They blew out Bill Belichick, 33-14 — and then didn’t win again the rest of the season.
The Bears knew it was a false positive. Two days later, Poles traded defensive end Robert Quinn, less than a year removed from setting the franchise’s single-season sacks record, to the Eagles. Five days after that, they sent star linebacker Roquan Smith to the Ravens. The Bears’ remaining defenders never recovered, becoming the worst unit in the league the rest of the season.
Poles’ experience last year makes him think twice about selling off what few pieces he has to offer a competitive team via trade. He’s unlikely to move Johnson. He shouldn’t, though, make any decisions based on Sunday’s game. The win wasn’t predictive of future success — even if it was better than the alternative.
Six weeks after Eberflus took over full-time play-calling duties because of Alan Williams’ departure, the Bears’ defense seems to have settled down. They held the Raiders to 3.9 yards per play Sunday and spanked Hoyer to the tune of a 37.1 passer rating. Josh Jacobs, last year’s NFL rushing leader, had only 35 yards on 11 carries.
The Bears’ blocking looked better with Teven Jenkins back at right guard. The Bears averaged 4.6 yards per carry and allowed just two sacks — one on a failed Hail Mary at the end of the first half.
Those gradual improvements can add up to something if it turns into a springboard Sunday night at the Chargers and the following week at the Saints.
Otherwise, it will look a lot like the team’s win at the Patriots last year — a brief diversion from a slow-moving, 18-week wreck.
