Bears coordinators Dennis Allen (defense), Press Taylor (offense) and Richard Hightower (special teams) spoke to reporters Monday after Sunday's 31-23 win over the Falcons. Here are five things that stood out from those sessions:
(1) Allen envisioned the type of performance Kyler Gordon delivered in Atlanta shortly after being hired as defensive coordinator.
When Allen was asked about the Bears secondary during his introductory press conference in January 2025, he mentioned only one defensive back by name.
"Kyler Gordon is an outstanding nickel player," Allen told reporters at the time. "I have a vision for how we can utilize him."
Injuries have limited Gordon since Allen's arrival, but the veteran coach's vision finally came to fruition Sunday. Blitzing off the edge, the fourth-year pro registered 3.0 sacks and two forced fumbles — all in the second half — in Sunday's victory. The impressive outing came in Gordon's season debut, one day after he was activated off the physically unable to perform (PUP) list.
"It was exciting to see because he did some things that we've always felt like that he could do for us," Allen said Monday. "I've always thought that there was a way that we could utilize him that he could really help us win games, and he was big in the game this week."
So big that Gordon became just the second NFL defensive back to record at least three sacks and two forced fumbles in a game (since sacks became an official stat in 1982), accomplishing the feat while playing only 17 snaps.
Asked what makes Gordon such an elite blitzer, Allen said: "He's got outstanding quickness and he's really elusive. His ability to stutter his feet and then accelerate, or his ability to dip the tip and turn the corner, he just has a knack for it and an innate ability to find the quarterback. Some guys really have that and some don't, and I think he does. I think he's got a natural instinct for it."
(2) Holding NFL leading rusher Bijan Robinson to his lowest output of the season was a group effort.
The Falcons star running back entered Week 6 with 580 yards on the ground — more than 18 NFL teams had compiled by that point. This season, Robinson has had outings of 194 yards against the Packers and 145 yards versus the Saints, but was limited to 61 yards on nine carries by the Bears.
"We had a plan to try to be able to do that," Allen said. "That's easier said than done. There's a couple plays in the game where we didn't play it the way we needed to play it or execute it, and he hurt us. It really went down to just the guys that we had in the game, for the most part, executing the plan and doing it the right way. Guys flew around to the football. We knew it was going to take all 11 to be able to stop that guy.
"We also knew it was going to be a team game with the fact that we were able to get out to a lead; it didn't allow them to just continuously try to run the football. It's a lot easier to stop him when he only touches the ball nine times in the run game. All those things played a factor."
The offense did its part by scoring touchdowns on its first two drives to give the Bears an early 14-0 lead and possessing the ball for 40:08.
"It was critical that we built an early lead," said offensive coordinator Press Taylor. "Building a 14-0 lead, kind of being able to control the pace of the game and the way it was flowing, not letting Bijan get 35 carries, we felt like as an offense we were part of the game plan there to limit their offense."
(3) Taylor marveled at Caleb Williams delivering one of his best performances as a pro after missing the previous three games with a hamstring injury.
The third-year pro set career highs with 12 straight completions and an 83.3 completion percentage while throwing for 305 yards and 1 TD with a 111.2 passer rating.
"The most impressive thing was that he hasn't played since Week 2," Taylor said. "To come back and to be on point, to be on rhythm, to be as accurate as he was in his first outing in a while, credit to him, credit to the skill guys to be able to get open, be available, be on time, and really be where they're supposed to be when they are supposed to be there for him.
"The thing you're most concerned about going into that game was just he hadn't played in almost a month. So, is there going to be some rust to it? I think our training staff did a great job of getting him ramped up for that. He threw on Wednesday well before we had a walk-through just to stay fresh because we knew we needed to walk through for the guys that had been playing. But him staying fresh in terms of the pass game and being on time and on rhythm, that was a big deal for us."
Williams spread the ball around, completing at least two passes to eight teammates.
"When a guy is in rhythm, you just kind of let him go," Taylor said. "It didn't feel like he was forcing things. It didn't feel like he was going off script too often. So, you're able to work through the call sheet, you're able to spread the ball all around, everybody's involved. That's good for guys getting catches early in the first half; it's going to help them in the third quarter, in the fourth quarter, whenever that may be. Because they have been involved in the flow of the game, all of that is big; all of that allows for you to get a number of plays in, spread the wealth and really eat up the clock a bit the way it was going as well."
(4) An efficient red-zone offense was a key factor in the victory.
The Bears entered Week 6 tied for second in the NFL for most red-zone possessions this season with 21. But they had scored touchdowns on only nine of those drives, a 42.9% rate that was worst in the league.
On Sunday in Atlanta, they showed major improvement in that aspect of the game, generating four TDs on five trips inside the Falcons' 20. Three of the four touchdowns came on running plays of 4 and 2 yards by D'Andre Swift and 4 yards by Roschon Johnson.
"Any time we get in the red zone, it's no secret we're trying to run the ball in when we can," Taylor said. "Thought we had some opportunities there. I thought we actually missed a throw to Colston [Loveland] there on one side, and then we also get an off-schedule scramble play that results in a touchdown as well for us. All those elements were things that we felt like had been there, we hadn't taken advantage of, so it was more of being able to execute on things we hadn't executed on as cleanly before.
"There weren't any schematic changes or anything like that. It was more just our guys did a great job of executing in those situations and punching it in for us. And we knew we weren't going to be able to settle for three in those situations against those guys. We know what that offense is capable of. Obviously, our defense did a great job. But we knew one of our keys to victory [was] scoring touchdowns, not field goals in the red zone there."
(5) Hightower was proud of the special teams unit for producing two takeaways.
One came on Josh Blackwell's recovery of a muffed punt and the other when Zavier Scott forced a fumble on a kickoff return that Nick McCloud recovered.
Blackwell's recovery swung the momentum to the Bears in the first half and marked the second time this season they have created a takeaway when a return specialist muffed a "banana ball" off the foot of punter Tory Taylor. The banana ball, which rotates sideways and bends like the shape of a banana, is something that Taylor has worked on since he grew up playing Australian Rules Football.
"Blackwell was flying on the play," Hightower said. "He was the fastest on the grass yesterday [for] special teams. I think he hit 21 miles an hour, so he was rolling.
"Tory hit an unbelievable banana ball. I saw the unit just make plays for the team, and that's really what they wanted to do. What I love about that play, along with the other takeaway, honestly, is you have a specialist involved with creating a turnover. You have an offensive player, Zavier Scott, involved in creating a turnover, and then you have basically two DBs, McCloud and Blackwell, recovering fumbles. So huge play, huge play with the banana ball, and huge play for all of those guys on the unit."
