Bears overreactions: Will Jake Moody challenge Cairo Santos?

The Bears have won three straight games. This comes after starting 0-2, showing growth and development within head coach Ben Johnson’s vision.

They’re clearly getting better and, as important as anything, they’re winning without playing their best. That’s what the good teams do. They’re not going to win every close game. They’ll make some costly mistakes that’ll catch up to them even though that didn’t happen in a Week 4 win at Las Vegas or Monday night’s 25-24 stunner over the Washington Commanders.

The latest victory required skill, a little luck and big-time plays from surprising sources. That starts with the kicker. Practice squad elevation Jake Moody was called into action and delivered four field goals, including the game winner as time expired.

That doesn’t mean there’s a kicker competition starting in Chicago. That’s where we look first in these Week 6 Bears Overreactions:

Bears should open up a kicker competition between Jake Moody and Cairo Santos

Overreaction: Big time

Moody had an excellent game against the Commanders and was the hero in a nationally televised game but a few weeks removed from the 49ers waiving him. Moody was a third-round NFL draft pick 2023. That’s super high for a kicker. That brought expectations he didn’t realize, with subpar accuracy that ultimately cost Moody his job.

He had a great night filling in for Santos, who was dealing with a quadriceps injury. No one is discounting that. Let’s look at his career numbers. He converted just 70.6% of his attempts in 2024, and just 84.0% the week before.

Santos has been at 84% just once in his five-plus seasons and has been above 90% three times in that span. He’s a team captain and someone who excels kicking in Soldier Field’s tricky conditions. He got a game ball in Week 4. Johnson has said Santos is the guy here.

That shouldn’t change. The Bears should keep Moody available until Santos’ injury resolves, which could be another week or maybe more. Santos has earned this job. One good week by a young player – who also had a field goal blocked – shouldn’t change that.

Ben Johnson has fixed the run game

Overreaction: A little bit

We need a larger sample size before declaring that the Bears run game has been established. They ran extremely well against a good Commanders front, with solid blocking and play designs that got D’Andre Swift into space, where he’s dangerous.

[WATCH: Scott Bair: Bears played to D’Andre Swift’s strengths in solid development for run game]

He went over 100 rushing yards on the night and had 175 yards of total offense, with several explosive runs. The ground game was also a closer, marching down the field to set up Moody’s game winner.

These are all positives and signs that Johnson used the bye week well to recalibrate the rushing attack. The Bears must run with consistency to prove it’s better. Running well next week against the New Orleans Saints and beyond will make a strong statement. If this running game is unlocked, the Bears offense could be really good.

This win makes up for Hail Mary mistake in 2024

Overreaction: Yes

The Bears lost a winnable game at Washington in 2024 on the fateful Hail Mary that tanked their season. Chicago lost 10 straight games from that point, with a fired head coach and offensive coordinator after that point. They didn’t respond well to adversity then and the season spiraled. That will never change.

Performing well when it mattered most on Monday night provides a different type of statement. It doesn’t erase what happened. It does offer a stark contrast between Johnson and last year’s staff and this year’s group and the last. It’s more confident, more resilient, more capable of winning close games.

Williams agrees, That 2024 experience won’t be forgotten. It does show that these Bears are better and that progress is being made.

“I don’t think any of those memories necessarily go away, good or bad,” Williams said. “I think you move on from it, but it doesn’t ever necessarily fully go away. Being able to have this good moment is great, but we have got a big game coming up this week, so we got to move on again.”

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