Bears edge Commanders in thrilling primetime battle

“I love D’Andre,” Williams said. “Being able to get him going is really important for us and I couldn’t be happier for him.”

Williams had a solid game in his return to his hometown, completing 17 of 29 passes for 252 yards with one TD, no turnovers and a 98.6 passer rating.

“Being able to come out with a win like that is big for us,” Williams said. “That’s a hell of a team over there, so being able to come out victorious in a dogfight where things weren’t perfect, weather wasn’t perfect … is big for us. I feel great.”

The Bears offense scored 10 points off two takeaways by the defense to take a 13-0 second-quarter lead. The defense held the NFL’s No. 1 ranked rushing attack to 124 yards—32 yards below its average—and sacked Daniels three times.

“The takeaways were huge for us,” Johnson said. “I thought [defensive coordinator] Dennis Allen and the defensive staff did a phenomenal job coming up with a sound game plan. That’s a very difficult offense to try to give answers for, and yet they were able to come up with something that we felt good about. And then the guys went out and executed it as well as they possibly could, so big shout out to them.”

The Bears overcame penalties on both sides of the ball.

In the second quarter, the defense had seemingly forced a punt after Daniels threw an incomplete pass on third-and-six from the Chicago 48. But a facemask penalty on Wright resulted in an automatic first down, and Daniels eventually threw a 22-yard TD pass to receiver Chris Moore to cut the deficit to 13-7.

The Bears led 13-10 midway through the third quarter when Williams threw an apparent 11-yard TD pass to receiver Rome Odunze that would have resulted in another two-score lead. But the play was nullified by an illegal formation penalty and Moody followed with a 41-yard field goal that made it 16-10.

Moody excelled from the outset, hitting a 47-yard field goal on the game’s opening possession to give the Bears a 3-0 lead.