Opening day in Carolina was all about the Chicago Bears’ offense. It was pretty much unstoppable all afternoon. Despite the big offseason additions the Panthers made, none of them mattered. Caleb Williams, D’Andre Swift, and the offensive line led a full-on blitz of the scoreboard, racking up 59 points. It was a clinic. Meanwhile, the defense allowed 37 points, doing little to quiet concerns that the unit is not strong enough to complement the team. However, this overview missed some key details.
By far the biggest impact came from two of their promising draft picks. It started late in the 2nd quarter. Trailing 31-24, Carolina had a chance to add some points with 17 seconds left. Malik Muhammad, the Bears’ 4th round pick out of Texas, made a brilliant play to cut off a Bryce Young pass for an interception.
That helped preserve the Bears’ lead going into the half. Unfortunately, Carolina tied it up anyway early in the 3rd quarter. Chicago quickly scored twice to make it 45-31. It looked like the Panthers were in the process of answering to start the 4th quarter as Young hit Tetairoa McMillan for 21 yards. Then the wide receiver got a greeting from 1st round pick Dillon Thieneman.
The Chicago Bears’ youth movement on defense is already shining.
Muhammad had the best play of the game on defense, but the best performance was Thieneman’s. Aside from his forced fumble that pretty much put the game away, the safety finished with 10 tackles (8 solo), a QB hit, and a pass deflection. He was quite literally all over the field. This is a big reason why the Bears drafted him. Thieneman has a rare ability to do everything, be it squeezing throwing windows with his speed or delivering a bone-crunching hit over the middle. He alone won’t fix all of the problems the Bears still have on defense, but it looks like they might have that young building block they’ve been missing.
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As for Muhammad, the kid deserves a ton of credit. In truth, he probably wasn’t supposed to see the field this early in the season. It was supposed to be Jaylon Johnson, Tyrique Stevenson, and Kyler Gordon. Sadly, Gordon still isn’t healthy. A knee injury to Coby Bryant and a groin injury to Xavier Woods also forced Cam Lewis to play safety. That meant the Chicago Bears had to trust Muhammad at the nickel spot. It wasn’t perfect, but he did more than enough to help ensure the victory.
This was more than the Bears could’ve hoped for.
There is so much for this team to clean up on defense before their next game. Their pass coverage wasn’t nearly good enough. The run defense allowed 5.7 yards per carry. These are problems carrying over from last season. Alas, it can’t be considered a big surprise. Nothing they did this offseason indicated they’d take a drastic jump in either department. Especially if guys couldn’t stay healthy. Still, the early signs from Thieneman and Muhammad suggest they’re finally laying the foundation for improvement in the near future.
Until then, their continued development must take priority. If they can reach their full potential, the Bears’ secondary will be in great shape. Thieneman has a chance to show everybody why it was a surprise that he fell all the way to the 25th overall pick. Coaches had been careful with what they said about the safety throughout training. Looking back, they may have been keeping their excitement downplayed so as not to tip off opponents.
