It wasn't pretty, but a win is a win.
The Chicago Bears' defense dominated an ugly Thursday Night Football Game game against the Carolina Panthers at Soldier Field, winning 16-13 and improving their 2024 NFL draft pick in the process.
But large part of the credit for the Bears' win Thursday should go to the Panthers' horrific offense, NBC Sports Bears Insider Josh Schrock said.
"While the Bears spent most of the first half spinning their wheels, the Panthers' offense was an utter abomination," Schrock wrote in his analysis. "It had no plan, no tricks, and no point. If you're going to face that level of pointless attack, you need to shut it down."
As the Bears' look ahead to their next game -- not until Nov. 19, against the Lions in Detroit -- here are four takeaways from Thursday night's game.
Bagent wasn't great, but Young was worse
Undrafted rookie Tyson Bagent didn't play well, but No. 1 overall pick Bryce Young was worse.
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Bagent has had an up-and-down four weeks as the starter. That's to be expected from any rookie, let alone an undrafted rookie from Division II.
But the first half of Thursday's game was the worst he has looked to date.
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Bagent missed several throws and almost threw multiple picks in the first half, but luckily, the Panthers' defense could not secure an early game-changing play.
MORE: Bears studs and duds in win over Panthers on Thursday Night Football
At halftime, Bagent was 14-for-24 for 127 yards. It wasn't pretty by any standard. And yet, Bagent still thoroughly outplayed Young. The 2023 No. 1 overall pick went just 7-for-14 for 63 yards in the first half as the Panthers' trainwreck offense struggled to do anything to scare the Bears' defense.
Bagent didn't see the field well all night. Once they took the lead on a D'Onta Foreman touchdown run in the third quarter, the Bears mostly took the ball out of his hands. Bagent was off-target all night. He finished the game 20-for-33 for just 162 yards. But he didn't make the back-breaking mistakes he did in New Orleans to cost the Bears a winnable game.
Meanwhile, Justin Fields is expected to return to the starter’s role when the Bears take on the Detroit Lions at Ford Field on Nov. 19.
Bears' pass defense dominates
It was a good day for the pass defense. Only the turnovers were missing. The Bears mixed looks and coverages all night against No. 1 overall pick Bryce Young, and that plan worked to perfection.
Young finished the day 21-for-38 for 185 yards and averaged just 4.9 yards per attempt. The Panthers' passing attack was a soggy house of cards built out of checkdowns and dump-offs.
Outside of a dart on a 45-yard strike to Mike Strachan, Young looked pedestrian, and the Panthers' aerial attack never got off the tarmac.
"We did a lot of things with giving him different looks and things he hasn't seen on film," safety Eddie Jackson said after the win. "We just kept switching it up in the backend with us and playing tight coverage."
With Young guess, the Bears' defense took control in the second half and carried the team to win.
"It's a good feeling," Jackson said. "That's what you want to do against a quarterback, no matter if he's a rookie or a 10-to-12-year vet. You always want to give them good looks because they know where they are going with the ball before the snap if you give them that pre-snap look, so we just wanted to keep disguising. Moving in and moving out -- the linebackers, the DBs. I felt like we kind of confused him a little bit."
The Bears' defensive line also had its best game of the season, notching three sacks and nine hurries.
New edge rusher Montez Sweat had three hurries and eight total pressures, per Next Gen Stats.
"Those guys, we want them to go get it," head coach Matt Eberflus said of the pass rush's effectiveness. "Didn't do a lot of stunts or movements. I did that with mostly with some of the pressures, but yeah, just let them pin and go because it was being effective. It really was effective. Not only on third down. It was effective even in early downs, so they did a good job."
DJ Moore says 'maybe we need other refs'
Star wide receiver DJ Moore, who caught five passes for 58 yards, did have one gripe after the Bears' third win of the season.
Officials penalized Moore twice for offensive pass interference in the win. Both calls landed somewhere between questionable and unacceptable on the "bad call" spectrum.
"No," Moore said after the win when asked if the refs explained the PI calls to him. "They was getting on my nerves today. They called me twice for it, and then they going to have the nerve to talk to me afterwards. Don't talk to me afterward because neither of them were pass interference, so it's OK."
The second flag was an egregious call.
Facing a third-and-9 late in the third quarter, quarterback Tyson Bagent dropped back and hit Trent Taylor on the left side for a gain of 16. Moore's feet got tangled up with a defensive back while he and Taylor were running their routes, and the officials flagged Moore for pass interference when the defensive back stumbled after making contact with his feet.
Moore wasn't pleased with how he was officiated Thursday, and he had a light-hearted message for the refs that was undoubtedly softened by the win.
“The second one, they ain’t say nothing about the second one," Moore said when asked about his communication with the refs. "The first one, they said I drove him downfield to far. He initiated contact with me first, so I don’t know.
"Maybe we need other refs.”
Coaching gets a B+
Even if you take out the bad pass interference calls on DJ Moore (one of which was declined), the Bears' coaches still have a lot to clean up.
The tackling was spotty in the first half, especially on Ihmir Smith-Marsette's 79-yard punt return touchdown that gave the Panthers a 7-0 lead. The Bears cleaned things up for the most part and didn't make any egregious mistakes that have become commonplace this season.
Matt Eberflus said he had something "up his sleeves" at halftime. We're still waiting to find out what tricks he has -- or perhaps it was just the realization the Panthers are an atrocious operation that his defense could manhandle.
