Case Keenum got the game ball. Caleb Williams, standing a few feet away in a bathrobe, looked like the happiest man in Chicago.
That is the image from Soldier Field on Monday night, and it tells you almost everything about where the Bears are right now. Williams sat out with a Grade 2 hamstring strain suffered in the Week 2 loss to Minnesota. Backup Tyson Bagent was stuck in concussion protocol. So the job fell to a 38-year-old who had not started an NFL game in 1,009 days, and Chicago beat the Philadelphia Eagles 27-7 anyway.
Fans on social media spent the night asking why the franchise quarterback was dressed for a spa day. The better question is why he looked so thrilled about being the third option. Teams with a fragile locker room do not produce that scene.
Keenum Was Not Just Along For The Ride
This was not a game where the defense dragged a caretaker across the finish line. Keenum went 24 of 34 for 247 yards with two touchdown passes and a 110.8 passer rating, then added a one-yard rushing score that made him the oldest player in Bears history to run one in, at 38 years and 223 days.
Ben Johnson built the whole plan around getting the ball out fast. On throws under 2.5 seconds, Keenum was 14 of 20 for 145 yards and both passing touchdowns. He hit Luther Burden III from eight yards out to make it 10-0 and found Kalif Raymond for 41 yards on a busted Philadelphia coverage to put the game away at 20-7. Cairo Santos handled the rest with field goals from 29 and 48 yards.
Chicago finished with 375 yards of offense with its QB3 under center. Johnson has been on the job for a season and a half and he already has a system that does not care much which quarterback is operating it. That is the most encouraging thing about this football team.
The Defense Turned Philadelphia Into A Punting Machine
The Eagles lost the football three times. Austin Booker knocked it out of Tank Bigsby’s hands and Xavier Woods recovered. Rookie safety Dillon Thieneman picked off an Andy Dalton throw in the end zone. T.J. Edwards read Jalen Hurts on fourth-and-5 and took it away on a pass intended for DeVonta Smith.
Hurts finished 16 of 25 for 153 yards with no touchdowns, an interception and a 64.2 rating, and he briefly left for a concussion check after an illegal hit. Saquon Barkley ran for 73 yards on 11 first-half carries and managed nine the rest of the way. Philadelphia’s entire second half produced 52 net yards.
Three straight three-and-outs opened the third quarter. By the time Keenum punched in the last touchdown, the Eagles had stopped resembling a contender and started resembling a team with real problems on both sides of the ball.
What This Says About Chicago
Both teams sit at 2-1, which undersells how differently they are trending. Philadelphia got outclassed in every phase by a roster missing its most important player. Chicago now has interceptions from two rookie defensive backs in the first three games, a franchise first, and an offense that scored 27 on one of the league’s better defensive fronts without its starting quarterback.
The Bears host the Jets next, and 3-1 is very much in play before Williams is even back. He can keep wearing the robe. What matters is that the team behind him no longer needs him to survive a week.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.