CHICAGO (WGN) — As the Chicago Bears saunter into the weekend of their bye week, we’re left to ponder what will become of the rest of this season. If the thoughts spoken aloud at Halas Hall since a miraculous victory in Las Vegas serve as any clue, Chicago’s success (or failure) likely hinges on one word.
Belief.
After long snapper Scott Daly talked some inside baseball with Josh Blackwell, the Bears’ special teams ace flew full extension around the edge of the Raiders’ line to block Daniel Carlson’s potential game-winning field goal, and all of a sudden, there was that long-lost phenomenon that usually disappears by this time of year.
Belief.
The word “belief” was used nearly a dozen times when Chicago recapped what was a victory snatched from the jaws of defeat after a less-than-stellar afternoon on the turf of Allegiant Stadium.
“You know what it took? It took belief that we were going to find a way,” Johnson said during his postgame locker room speech on Sunday.
The Bears victory was so miraculous that it was the first time they won a game where they gave up 240-plus yards rushing in nearly 46 years.
So, it made sense that Johnson doubled down once he reached the mics of the postgame press conference.
“We’re building something special here, and I think they’re feeling it, just the belief they have in each other, the belief they have in this coaching staff,” Ben Johnson said. “This is a huge win for our team, finding a way in the fourth quarter to come out on top.”
As it would turn out, that was the theme of the afternoon for the Bears—from the opening kickoff, to halftime locker room discussions, all the way up through what turned out to be the game-winning touchdown run, and the subsequent blocked field goal attempt that sealed the win.
Belief.
What was it that kept Chicago going when the Bears went into halftime with 88 yards passing and just two (2) yards on the ground?
“When we got into that locker room, Ben’s calmness, his belief, his understanding of that’s not our brand of football,” Williams said. “That’s what he told us. We went back out there and we found ways to stop them, to move the ball down the field, and special teams [to do] their job also.”
What was it that Caleb Williams felt on the Bears’ final offensive drive? An 11-play, 69-yard possession capped by D’Andre Swift scampering inside the left phylon for the game-winning touchdown?
“I think the belief, I think those moments we’re born for, that I’m born for. I think being able to portray the belief that, ‘Guys, this is all we got, it’s all we need. We’re not in a favorable position. We’re down. It’s all 11 of us on the field, and we got to go do a job,’” Williams said postgame. “The belief, the trust, the hard work that we put in, those are the moments that you wish for. Those are moments that you dream about.”
And what did his head coach tell him before the drive started?
“To be honest, in that moment, Ben [Johnson] came over to me right before, and he goes, ‘You know these are times that you’re made for,’” Williams said. “He provided [the] belief and confidence he has in me. From there, I went into the huddle and looked everybody in the eyes. This is the moment. This is where we go and win the game.”
How about right after Williams and Swift took back the lead for the first time since it was 3-0 with nearly ten minutes to go in the first quarter? When Dylan Laube returned the following kick 38 yards out to the Raiders’ 42-yard line, and Geno Smith drove Las Vegas inside the Bears’ 40-yard line to set up a potential game-winning field goal?
How did the rest of the team feel when it all came down to the biggest play of the game?
“I think it’s just a testament to the team that we have really. I think everybody has belief, and I don’t think there was any doubt in anybody’s mind,” Blackwell said after the game. “In that moment, I think you just got to go out there and just execute. That’s what we did.”
I use all of this as an example to say, this team and its coaching staff have something in each other that has been missing since the Lovie Smith era.
Belief.
To borrow from the younger generation of football fans, the teams led by John Fox, Marc Trestmen, Matt Nagy and Matt Eberflus lacked the aura we’re seeing with the modern-day Bears.
Those teams found ways, time and again, to lose in inventive new ways that continually tested the mental sanity of those who supported them.
But this team? It feels different, in a good way. Sunday served as an example of just that.
And look, I completely acknowledge that Chicago is far from a complete team. The pass rush is as absent as ever. The revamped offensive line is still struggling to run block. The defense is missing a litany of key starters. A robust amount of penalties continue to be called, both before and after the snap.
If they give up 240 yards rushing to the Commanders next Sunday, they are not going to pull off the win like they did two weeks prior on the other side of the country. In fact, the score will more likely resemble what happened in Week 2 against the Detroit Lions than what it did in Week 4.
But based on what I’ve seen through four weeks of football, backwards is not the direction this team is trending. Unlike days past, this crew believes in each other more than the groups who have come before them.
And when they walk in the building with the same convictions on day 250 as they had on day one, that lays the bedrock of greater things to come.
“It’s the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.” – Muhammad Ali
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