(670 The Score) Nobody is getting fired Friday at Halas Hall.
Nobody needs to worry about cleaning out an office or clearing up confusion. Not this week.
Nobody needs to explain why the Bears blew it and how to divvy up the blame.
What a relief for everyone in a football city already fed up by a season that felt over after its first month, with frustration palpable enough this week for Bears coach Matt Eberflus to field questions about his job status.
His team came up with a better answer Thursday night than anything Eberflus could say.
For the first time in 346 days – since Oct. 24, 2022 – the Bears celebrated a victory.
This time, they finished what they started by delivering a 40-20 victory over the Commanders at FedEx Field in Landover, Md. Finally, they got what they needed – and much more.
Too much Moore for the Commanders, that is.
Wide receiver D.J. Moore enjoyed a career night with eight catches for 230 yards and three touchdowns, reminding his first NFL head coach in Carolina – Commanders coach Ron Rivera – how explosive he remains and reviving a moribund season for the Bears.
“To have this first win off our back is the best feeling now," Moore told reporters postgame.
What an emotional night it was for everyone associated with the Bears.
Players took the field within hours of the team confirming the death of legendary linebacker Dick Butkus, the epitome of toughness and the standard for his position. Butkus, one of the NFL’s greatest players ever, attended the Bears' season opener at Soldier Field against the Packers with the use of a cane but still carried himself with familiar vigor. He was the ultimate Monster of the Midway, an idol to generations of Bears fans, a fierce and physical force every opponent feared. He was 80, but his impact on the game endures at every level thanks to the Dick Butkus Award given annually to the best linebacker in high school, college and the NFL.
“Dick was the ultimate Bear," chairman George McCaskey said in a statement. “He exuded what our great city is all about and, not coincidentally, what George Halas looked for in a player.’'
The only team Butkus ever played for came out with passion that would have pleased No. 51.
By halftime, the Bears already had exploded for 27 points and resembled anything but a winless team, stunning the Commanders and a national television audience.
"If you're just tuning in, that's not a typo," play-by-play icon Al Michaels said after the Bears extended their lead to 27-3 after Cole Kmet’s touchdown in the second quarter. “An astonishing first half."
It was a surprising enough effort from the woebegone Bears to wonder if Michaels was going to ask everyone if they believed in miracles.
And the excellence started early.
Moore had five catches for 137 yards by the time Beltway traffic cleared, racking up yards after the catch and showing amazing dexterity by dragging both feet in the end zone on his 20-yard touchdown reception on the first drive– one of Moore’s three scores. Several times, Moore picked on rookie first-round cornerback Emmanuel Forbes by running precise routes that kept Forbes guessing. Forbes struggled badly enough trying to cover Moore that the Commanders benched him in the fourth quarter. But it didn’t matter who the Commanders tried. Moore beat Commanders cornerback Kendall Fuller on his 56-yard catch-and-run for his third touchdown, which came in the fourth quarter and sealed the Bears' win.
As he did against the Broncos, Moore showed Chicago how much easier an experienced playmaker can make life for a young quarterback. Every tough catch Moore made early fueled Justin Fields’ confidence on a night he flourished.
Fields completed 15 of 29 passes for 282 yards and threw four touchdowns for the second straight game while posting to a 125.3 passer rating. Unlike he did when posting big numbers against the Broncos, Fields didn’t turn the ball over – a key area of improvement.
Play-caller Luke Getsy also improved, mixing in more designed runs with moving pockets to utilize Fields’ uncanny mobility. Those runs resulted in 57 rushing yards on 11 carries for Fields.
That threat of explosiveness neutralized an aggressive Commander front four that found Fields as elusive as ever, especially in a first half the Bears dominated. No pass rusher could focus solely on the quarterback in the pocket due to fears of Fields breaking contain around the edge.
Each game, the chemistry between Fields and Moore keeps improving as the statistics become eye-popping: Fields is 27-of-34 for 531 yards and a perfect 158.3 passer rating when connecting with Moore. That makes the duo potentially as dangerous as any in the NFL.
“From the moment he’s got here, he’s done nothing but work," Fields said postgame on the Amazon Prime set. “From the first day he got here, you could just tell he was different."
The Bears' second half lacked the sharpness of the first 30 minutes but, overall, the offense scored enough points to win for the second straight game. Also for the second straight week – even with three running backs out with injuries – Getsy became overly conservative protecting a second-half lead before Moore’s final 56-yard catch-and-run allowed everyone to exhale.
This was what the Bears envisioned in 2023, before four straight losses knocked them off course. This was Fields dazzling with his dual-threat ability and Moore dominating the way elite wide receivers do. This was the offensive line protecting the pocket and the defensive front disrupting. This was Teven Jenkins filling in capably at left guard after not having contact since mid-August and Cody Whitehair sliding over to center to stabilize a unit facing its fiercest challenge of the season. This was running back Khalil Herbert finding holes hardly detectable in the first month of the season and carrying Commander defenders five yards down the field when he couldn’t.
This was the complementary football Eberflus keeps talking about, at last.
Defensive tackle Andrew Billings plugged holes like he was signed to do. Ends DeMarcus Walker and Yannick Ngakoue flashed once the Bears built a comfortable lead. The secondary played without three starters, but Commanders quarterback Sam Howell never really made the Bears pay, partly because of unexpected pressure applied by a pass rush that previously was a rumor. Linebacker T.J. Edwards led the defense with 10 tackles. Cornerback Greg Stroman Jr. – you might want to Google him, Bears fans – intercepted Howell in the second quarter for a pick against the team that drafted him in the seventh round in 2018. Rookie Terrell Smith, taking advantage of the absence of starters Jaylon Johnson and Kyler Gordon, forced a fumble in the third quarter that stymied a Commander drive.
Who were these guys?
They were the team that arrived with the greater sense of urgency, players who shocked the football world by turning desperation into execution, a wounded bunch of proud pros who responded to adversity with resolve.
Beating the Commanders in convincing fashion didn’t necessarily change expectations for this Bears season. But winning definitely changed the mood – and the subject.
On this night, that was enough.
David Haugh is the co-host of the Mully & Haugh Show from 5-10 a.m. weekdays on 670 The Score. Click here to listen. Follow him on Twitter @DavidHaugh.