2026 Week 4: Chicago Bears 23, New York Jets 12

By Kevin Schroeder
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Updated: October 11, 2026

General Unsoreness [Photo: Getty Images]

Player grades can be found at the Qwality Sports Substack.

Where should we start?

Let’s start with the defense so Devin Bush can get back to his nap. Outside of one big play given up, they were excellent. Some of this result is the Jets being a bad football team and missing Breece Hall, but even so, this is still an NFL team and to hold an NFL team to 32 plays is seriously impressive. The biggest improvements I noted were in coverage and up front in the run game. In the case of the former, it looked like they were running more zone, but it’s hard to state that definitively given they only ran 32 defensive plays. You can say it was a higher percentage of plays in zone than in previous weeks, but I’m not sure how much that means given, again, 32 snaps. In the run game, the tackles stood up better and didn’t give linemen a free pass to the second level and the ends did a much better job than they’ve been doing of setting the edge. After a lousy outing against Carolina, the defense has since allowed 9, 7, and 12 points, meanwhile Carolina has looked good. Put together another strong outing against the Packers and I’ll be ready to say this defense is actually okay and put them on “legit good” watch.

How was Bagent?

Few bad decisions, but overall good. He, like Keenum a week before, was late on some throws, but Bagent has the ability to make something happen with his legs if a play breaks down.

Of course the run game made it easier.

This was a paving. Maybe it wasn’t a ton of explosive plays on the ground, but it was still dominant in that the Bears simply controlled the whole game. This is why I can’t give the defense full credit just yet – the offense kept them off the field. The Jets had the long TD pass to cut the game to 11 with a little over 9 minutes left. They never got the ball back. A truly outstanding performance by the offense, particularly the line and Loveland.

What does this mean for Green Bay on Sunday?

In the Bears season preview when I looked briefly at the rest of the NFC, I described the Packers offensive line as “bites the big one.” That may have been generous. They cannot create space in the run game. They cannot protect Jordan Love. If the Packers are going to move the ball, Matt LaFleur is going to have to do some serious scheming. Now, we need to be prepared here because he absolutely can. On the other side of the ball, the Packers still don’t have Micah Parsons back and they just lost Edgerrin Cooper for the year. Even before that, though, the Packers linebackers have the eye discipline of a dog on cocaine, so if D’Andre Swift can hold onto the ball, he could be in for a big day.

Da Coach

Friday, Chicago and the football world as a whole lost Mike Ditka. If there was anybody to better personified the spirit of the Bears and of the city of Chicago as a whole, it’s only because Dick Butkus existed (and spent a couple years with Ditka as a teammate – what a locker room that must of been) and the tie goes to the guy who was born and raised here. But even though Ditka was from Pittsburgh, he became one of us. There aren’t a great many folks out there in any sport who are more of an icon that Ditka was to the Bears, and to Chicago. He will be greatly missed.

Monsters

Pretty much everybody

Chipmunks

No complaints this week. Davenport, maybe. But he’s already gone. Number 52 is open now. Just saying.

Four Stars of the Game

Jonah Jackson, Joe Thuney, Devin Bush, Colston Loveland, Darnell Wright. Four-star performances, all.