These 4 Bears earned a game ball in Chicago’s Week 12 win over Vikings

If there’s an uglier way to win a game, I don’t want to see it. What the Chicago Bears did on Monday night, barely scraping by a team that turned the ball over four times, is not the kind of win that invigorates a fan base. If the Bears were in the thick of the playoff race, fine.

Ugly wins are still wins, as they say. But in a season largely seen as lost by Week 12, when all the coaches and the starting quarterback are in danger of losing their jobs? I don’t know what to tell you, Bears fans. Enjoy the win if you want to, but it’s hard to see many positives on a “big picture” level.

At the individual level, however, there is plenty of praise to be given for some dominant performances. All of the game balls for this week … except for one … go to the defense. They earned them.

DJ Moore

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: DJ Moore lit up the stat sheet with double-digit catches and over 100 yards receiving against a stingy defense.

Moore crossed over the 1,000-yard mark for the fourth time in his six-year career and still has five games to go. He’s now within striking distance of Chicago’s franchise record for receiving yards in a season, currently held by Brandon Marshall when he put up 1,508 yards in 2012.

Hell of a response by Justin Fields after fumbling twice. He hit DJ Moore for a big gain to setup the GW field goal. #Bears pic.twitter.com/szZai1iqf1

— Zack Pearson (@Zack_Pearson) November 28, 2023

He’ll need 102 yards per game the rest of the season to do it, but I believe in Moore. Unless and until Chicago drafts a superstar receiver, Moore has the potential to be the best receiver ever to wear a Bears uniform.

Montez Sweat

A week after a hearty heaping of turkey, many national football pundits were served a plate of crow after lambasting GM Ryan Poles’ decision to trade for and extend Montez Sweat, who stuffed the stat sheet like a Christmas goose with 1.5 sacks and two quarterback hits.

Ok, enough with the holiday puns.

Montez Sweat vs. the Vikings:

7 pressures
1.5 sacks
25% pass rush win rate

pic.twitter.com/XgtVVot9AV

— PFF CHI Bears (@PFF_Bears) November 28, 2023

Sweat has been on a tear this season and has delivered a badly needed shot in the arm to the Chicago Bears’ defensive line. Led by Sweat, the Bears’ front four had Vikings quarterback Josh Dobbs under fire on almost every snap, and he’s been a stud in stopping the run, too.

The difference he’s already made for this defense is remarkable, and I’m excited to see how the rest of his career in Chicago pans out.

TJ Edwards

Another week, another takeaway for linebacker TJ Edwards. He pulled in one of Chicago’s four interceptions of Josh Dobbs, added two pass deflections, and had a critical stop on third down late in the game that required him to run across the field to make the tackle short of the line to gain.

Edwards already has 127 tackles on the season, along with two sacks and three takeaways. He’s well on his way to setting a new franchise record for most tackles in a season, no small feat for a franchise with as storied of a history at the linebacker as Chicago.

TJ Edwards is having a YEAR. He’s leading the NFL in tackles and is the 8th graded LB in the NFL vs the run 14th overall (per PFF). #DaBears #Bears pic.twitter.com/5RtvPEoilA

— Clay Harbor (@clayharbs82) November 28, 2023

Edwards has a strong case to be an All-Pro this season.

The Entire Secondary

For the second straight week, I’m forced to give a game ball to an entire position group rather than just one player. Jaylon Johnson, Jaquan Brisker, and Kyler Gordon all pulled in an interception in Monday night’s dominant defensive performance and forced five pass breakups between them. It was a solid day for the secondary overall, but I would have loved to single Jaylon Johnson out for this game ball if he’d only caught what would have been an easy pick-six.

That dropped interception, much like the dropped pick-six last week, could have been a significant difference maker, and right now, these dropped game-changing plays are the only thing keeping Johnson from a massive payday this offseason. He’s had a great year, by far the best of his career in ball production, and hopefully, he will get a handsome contract extension from Poles. However, if he’s trying to leverage a market-resetting deal out of all this, he will face the franchise tag.

Honorable Mentions: Gervon Dexter, who didn’t show up much on the stat sheet but is clearly taking significant strides in his development, Cole Kmet, who caught all seven of his targets for 43 yards and a couple of huge first downs, and Cairo Santos, who came up clutch in the game’s waning minutes after a missed field goal to start the game.

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