The Chicago Bears needed a statement win with Caleb Williams coming back from injury and the team having just suffered a tough loss to the Packers the week before. With their matchup against the Falcons on Sunday, they found exactly that.
The 31-23 score isn’t quite reflective of how the game went for most of the time. Atlanta was able to score 16 points in the fourth quarter, partially due to Ben Johnson’s decision to put in his defensive backups early in the quarter, giving the Falcons more time to eat into the lead. But that snafu aside, this was a game that the Bears dominated a vast majority of the time. Offensively and defensively, Chicago was the better team.
As the Bears move to 4-2 for the season, here are some of my takeaways from the game.
After missing three games with a hamstring injury, Caleb Williams made his long-awaited return to the field on Sunday. Upon first review, he didn’t have a single incompletion that wasn’t a throwaway. That’s an absurd level of efficiency. He finished the game going 30-for-36 (83.3%) with 305 passing yards, a touchdown, no interceptions, and a 111.2 passer rating. His accuracy helped elevated the Bears’ offense to a strong performance against the Falcons’ defense.
As of this writing, Williams’ 80.6 initial [PFN QB Impact](https://www.profootballnetwork.com/nfl-hq/rankings/quarterback) grade ranked No. 4 among all NFL quarterbacks in Week 6. Most advanced analytics had him as at least a top-five quarterback for the week, and he ranks No. 6 in the league in the aforementioned PFN QB Impact grade throughout the entire season. His ability to play on time within Ben Johnson’s offense has been remarkable in the two non-monsoon games he’s played, and his confidence and poise stood out on Sunday.
The 23 points that the Bears gave up are not entirely reflective of how their defense performed over most of the game. Defensive coordinator Dennis Allen did a great job of manufacturing pressure up front, as Michael Penix Jr. ended up sacked five times on Sunday. Three of those sacks came from Kyler Gordon, who had three sacks and [five quick pressures](https://x.com/minakimes/status/2111912557451833736?s=20) on just eight pass-rushing snaps.
Allen has done a great job of using the blitz to make up for a lack of pressure from a four-man rush, and his consistent looks of double-mug A-gap blitzes, only to drop certain defenders back in coverage, have kept quarterbacks guessing snap after snap. Gordon has been a tremendous blitzing defensive back during his time with the Bears, and as Allen has taken a blitz-heavy approach to calling plays, Gordon’s physicality and urgency has been a tremendous fit. He looked right at home in his first game of the 2026 season.
As a head coach, there haven’t been too many games where Ben Johnson has had to protect a massive lead. Any Bears fan will tell you that many of their matchups in that electric 2025 season often came down to the wire, with Chicago either playing from behind or engaged in an evenly-matched shootout until the very end. The Bears held a massive lead over the Falcons going into the fourth quarter, and though they almost gave it up, they didn’t collapse.
Is that a low bar to reach? Potentially. But the Bears have had so many blown leads over the years under previous head coaches, and for a moment, Sunday’s finish felt like another instance of the team falling apart in the final stretch. When Kyler Gordon had that strip sack on third down to give the Bears the ball with three minutes left in regulation, and the offense was able to kill the clock with a well-executed run game, some of those demons became exercised. As Johnson becomes more comfortable with a big lead, it would be surprising to see him take his foot off the gas as much as he did on Sunday. It was a great learning experience, and Chicago picked up the slack before it was too late.