After watching tape of Sunday's 31-14 win over the Cowboys, Bears coach Ben Johnson spoke to the media Monday about five things that stood out to him:

(1) Johnson was impressed with how the Bears ended the first half.

After the defense forced a three-and-out, quarterback Caleb Williams engineered a 7-play, 71-yard drive that he capped with a 10-yard touchdown pass to tight end Cole Kmet, extending the Bears' lead to 24-14 with :25 remaining in the half.

"We actually watched that part as a team [in Monday's meeting] just because it was really good complementary football," Johnson said.

"We got our defense out there with about four minutes left in the first half, and they came through with a three-and-out for us, gave us plenty of time on offense to where we didn't even feel like we're in two-minute mode until it really got underneath about a minute left there."

After the offense took over at its own 29 with 2:25 to play, Johnson called four straight running plays that gained 19 yards. Williams followed with completions of 13 yards to receiver Rome Odunze on third-and-2 and 29 yards to rookie receiver Luther Burden III, resulting in a first down at the Dallas 10 with :30 remaining.

"I thought the biggest one was the third-and-2 conversion that we ended up throwing the ball to Rome," Johnson said. "Caleb did a nice job of getting that ball out. But had we not converted that, that would have put us in a little bit of a tough spot because they still had a timeout left.

"That's a very dynamic offense that we were going against and so our goal was to score points going into halftime and not give them enough time for a rebuttal drive. And I thought our guys handled that really well."

After Kmet's TD, the Cowboys took over at their own 22 with :18 left. But the Bears held Dallas to a short completion and the clock ran out.

The situation was nearly identical to what had transpired in the season opener against the Vikings. In that game, the Bears scored with :24 remaining in the first half but allowed Minnesota to complete a 28-yard pass in the final seconds to set up a 59-yard field goal in an eventual 27-24 loss.

"It was almost déjà vu," Johnson said, "being in that same deal and our defense, being able to get the stop and go into halftime."

(2) Johnson felt that Williams performed exceptionally well from the pocket.

The second-year quarterback threw for 298 yards, posted a career-high 142.6 passer rating and matched a career high with four TD passes while not being sacked for the first time in 19 NFL starts.

"When the offensive line protects like that, it's a lot easier to play from the pocket," Johnson said. "We had a very clean pocket for the most part. That's a starting point. He's got the ability to escape and extend and all that, but man, if we can keep him in there, our playmakers are some dynamic route runners that we can get the ball to them in space. I think he saw when he plays on time … we can be an explosive offense that way. There's a lot of ways that Caleb Williams can hurt you, and when we have pass protection like we had yesterday, that certainly helps."

While the pass protection enabled Williams to play most of the game from the pocket, he still possesses the ability to scramble and extend plays with his legs.

"It's fun," Johnson said. "I don't have to be perfect as a play-caller. I've always tried to be that where you get the primary receiver open the majority of the time, and I don't feel that necessity anymore. If No. 1's open, he'll take it. We're getting to where he's progressing to 2 and 3, but if we need to escape or extend, it's his natural playmaking and that's the balance we want to strike."

(3) Johnson is pleased with the progress that Williams is making before and after the snap. He quarterbacked an offense Sunday that did not commit any pre-snap penalties or commit any turnovers.

"He's doing a much better job getting us in and out of the huddle," Johnson said. "I thought we weren't as pressed on the [play] clock as maybe what we'd been the first two games. We still have some room for improvement just in terms of our alignments and all being on the same page. I think there are a few plays we want back just as an entire unit that we didn't get off as clean as we wanted to from a procedure standpoint. But I do see growth there.

"And then in terms of the execution, he's getting a lot better, a lot more comfortable with his footwork, his repetitions, not just for the concepts that we've been doing from the springtime to training camp, but we're putting in new ones each week. He's got a good system in place right now that he's adhering to and it's showing up on gameday where we're starting to reap some of the awards from that."

(4) Johnson believes that cornerback Tyrique Stevenson's takeaway on the Cowboys' first possession of the game provided a huge boost.

After the Bears offense opened with a three-and-out, Dallas was driving when Stevenson ripped the ball away from running back Javonte Williams after a 26-yard rush at the Chicago 24.

"It was going to be an explosive run, and talk about giving us a lot of life and a lot of juice right there," Johnson said. "We didn't start the game offensively like we wanted to, and so defense, second play, they're able to get a turnover, breathes a lot of life into us, into that game, and gives us some confidence."

The Bears capitalized on the turnover, taking a 7-0 lead on Williams' 35-yard TD pass to Odunze down the left sideline, capping a 5-play, 76-yard drive.

"The best thing about it was the complementary nature of that football game, where, all right, that happens, and then the offense goes back out there and scores a touchdown," Johnson said. "I thought there was a lot of piggybacking like that throughout that game that that we really needed."

(5) Johnson lauded members of the offense for their 19-play, 76-yard third-quarter TD drive that extended the Bears' lead to 31-14.

The possession, which included 11 straight runs, burned 9:54 off the clock and culminated in Williams' 4-yard TD pass to receiver DJ Moore.

"The guys dug deep for that," Johnson said. "I know that our guys were feeling it, but there's something about when we look across the ball and you see the opposition equally fatigued, that brings out that competitive spirit, and you want to finish that drive with points."

Asked if that type of drive can help the Bears create an identity, Johnson said: "I think it goes a long way. We'll do whatever it takes to score points. That's what it comes down to. I don't care if it's a 1-play drive or 19-play drive, scoring points at the end of it, that's the No. 1 goal.

"It just goes to show we can do whatever we need to do in that moment to score. We were very explosive there in the first half. We kind of dried up a little bit there in the second half in terms of explosives, and that's what we needed. We needed a long drive to be able to score those points, and guys came through for us."