The Chicago Bears closed out the 2025 preseason with a 29-27 win over the Kansas City Chiefs in their first and only road game of the exhibition season.

Kansas City is one of the best teams in the NFL. They have the most recent run of pure success, and all of their superstars were playing to begin this game. Some of those typical road woes were in full effect for the Bears, but they were able to have good moments once the first quarter was over. In the end, they earned a comeback victory over the Chiefs in the final seconds of the game.

Advertisement

On offense, defense, special teams, and coaching, how did the Bears do? After getting A’s across the board last  week vs. the Buffalo Bills, here are their latest grades to wrap up the preseason.

Offense: C

It’s fair to grade the offense on a curve. Obviously, what Caleb Williams and his crew do is more important than the backups. If Ben Johnson pulled them after the first quarter, they’d be getting an F. Instead, he let them finish out the first half. In the second quarter, they got back on track. They scored 10 points, including a Williams to Rome Odunze touchdown in the final two minutes, which put the backups in a position where they were too far out of it going into the second half.

Down by 17 points going into the fourth quarter, Tyson Bagent’s crew came all the way back to win the game with three touchdown drives. He made his throws, guys fighting for jobs gave it their all, and the unit looked like a smooth operation. As a whole, the units deserve a collective C. They need to fix that first-quarter issue and fast.

Advertisement

Defense: D

The defense was not good enough. Yes, Patrick Mahomes picked them apart while he was playing, which he is going to do to a lot of teams this season. However, their pass rush and defensive backfield weren’t good enough. That includes guys fighting for starting jobs like Tyrique Stevenson and Nashon Wright.

Allowing 27 points by the start of the third quarter is unacceptable, especially for a team with an offense still working through its development. It avoids being an F because of their decent red zone play and fourth quarter performance, where they shut out Kansas City’s reserves.

Special Teams: C

Some weeks make it seem like the Bears need a new kicker, and some weeks Cairo Santos looks the part. This week, he was a little shaky, including his first missed field goal of the season. Some guys looked good on their coverage during special teams situations, which could be tiebreakers for roster spots. A C-grade seems fair for this performance as it was fine, but not where they want to be as a whole.

Advertisement

Coaching: A

Even when things weren’t going well early, you knew that Ben Johnson and his staff would be able to adjust. That may have meant even leaving starters in for longer than they wanted coming in.

By the end of the game, it was clear that Johnson was going to be competitive enough to try and earn a meaningless win. His operation on offense looks so smooth week after week, practice after practice. Adjustments are made on the fly, and the team improves as the game goes along without it taking the whole game.

There is the “new toy” feel to Johnson’s ways, but this game was a prime example of a match they find a way to lose if their old coaching regime were in town, preseason or not.

Follow Bears Wire on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram

This article originally appeared on Bears Wire: Bears report card: How we graded Chicago in preseason game vs. Chiefs