Hello, Chicago Bears Fans!  Well, that was a roller-coaster of a game, wasn’t it?  In this week’s Good, Better, Best, we look back on a wild game against the Cincinnati Bengals where Joe Flacco did Joe Flacco things – and every Bears fan had their hearts in their throat, knowing how these kinds of games have traditionally gone for the Beloved.  But yet again, we get proof that this is a new era of Chicago Bears football.  So let’s take a look at what was good, better, and best in the best game of week 9 of the NFL.

Good

Ben’s Creative Play Calling

Ben Johnson had a reputation for “trick” or “special” plays as offensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions.  He has brought his bag of tricks to the Chicago Bears as head coach.  Each week, we have seen a creative play call or two, but in the game against the Cincinnati Bengals, he really stepped it up.  Whether it was the “Philly Special” (which as Chicago Bears fans know, should be called the Chicago special, since Doug Pederson copied it from the Bears) to secure a touchdown or the “Baby Daddy” play with Tyson Bagent throwing back to Caleb Williams for a big winner, we are seeing the full scope of Ben Johnson’s creativity as we head to the midpoint of the season.

Turnover Ratio

The Bears won the turnover ratio against the Bengals, after losing it for the first time this season against the Baltimore Ravens.  The Bears picked off Joe Flacco twice, added a strip-sack fumble, and did not turn the ball over in this game.

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Better

Bears Pass Rush

It sure is good to see Austin Booker out there on the Bears’ defensive line, isn’t it, Bears fans?  The young pass rusher picked up where he left off in the preseason, now finally healthy, strip-sacking Joe Flacco.  Booker would earn a 90.0 grade from PFF, the highest on defense in the Bengals game.  The newly acquired CJ Gardner-Johnson contributed a sack, and Montez Sweat, who Ryan Poles said is looking more like his old self, contributed another.

Theo Benedet

I took Theo to task last week for his leaks in the pass rush against the Baltimore Ravens.  Theo held his own this week against the Bengals’ rush, aided by the absence of Trey Hendrickson on the edge.  But Theo showed out in the run game.  As Brian Baldinger said, Theo just sticks to his man and “battles.”  The arrow is pointing up on the Canadian Eagle.

Penalties

The Chicago Bears have been plagued by the men in stripes this season.  Not only have they been one of the most penalized teams in the NFL, but their opponents have been near the least penalized teams.  While the Bears do have to look at themselves in the mirror on some of these calls, particularly the pre-snap penalties, I think it is inarguable that the Bears have faced backbreaking and incomprehensible calls against them in nearly every game this season.  While there were some questionable calls in the Bears-Bengals game (the illegal contact call on Nick McCloud that called back a pick six touchdown was particularly egregious), the Bears managed for the first time this season to suffer less yards in penalties than their opponent (43 yards vs 47 yards), and matched the Bengals in total penalties called (7 to 7).

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Best

Joe Flacco

Have to give our props.  Just like two years ago when Flacco was with the Cleveland Browns, Flacco led the Bengals in an impressive and thrilling comeback against the Bears.  Flacco was 31-47 on the day, throwing 4 TDs and 2 INTS, although one of those was on the Hail Mary pass to end the game.  Flacco threw for 470 yards!  Just an incredible performance for any quarterback, let alone one who is forty years old.

Darnell Wright and the Bears OL

As often happens when an offensive line is remade, it takes awhile for the line to gel and begin to plays a unit.  The Chicago Bears’ offensive line has hit its stride, particularly with the addition of Theo Benedet at left tackle in the run game.  The Bears had 283 rushing yards against the Bengals.  That is to the credit of the offensive line, particularly Drew Dalman and Darnell Wright.  Wright and Benedet both delivered pancake blocks, and Wright put the cherry on top with a cartwheel on the Loveland game-winning touchdown.

Caleb Williams

Caleb Williams did everything in the game against the Cincinnati Bengals.  He caught the throwback from Bagent on the “Baby Daddy” play, he caught the touchdown on the “Philly Special” play, and he threw for 280 yards and 3 touchdowns.  But most importantly, when the Bears were down and seemingly out, as Caleb has done several times in his young career with the Chicago Bears, he put the team on his back and led them down the field for the touchdown to win the game.

Kyle Monangai

Kyle Monangai was asked to step up into the RB1 role against the Cincinnati Bengals, with Swift ailing and unable to go, and boy did he not disappoint.  Monangai rushed for 6.8 yards per carry and totaled 176 yards on the ground against the Bengals.  The only thing he didn’t do was break the endzone in the game.  Monangai ran hard, downhill, and angry, earning the “angry run” award from Kyle Brandt.

Colston Loveland

Colston Loveland had not had many opportunities in the first few games of his rookie season, having been injured and not a focus of the offense in the first games of the season.  Many in Twitter land were mocking the Chicago Bears for having taken Loveland over Tyler Warren, who has been lighting it up for the first place Indianapolis Colts this season.  The more sagacious NFL observers cautioned against early verdicts, as Warren’s targets greatly exceeded that of Loveland.  Well, Loveland shut down the haters in the game against the Cincinnati Bengals.  He caught all but one of his targets against the Bengals, put up 118 receiving yards, two touchdowns, and had 19.7 reception yards per target.  This earned him NFC offensive rookie of the week honors.  He wasn’t good, he wasn’t better, he was the best.