Bears Bye Week Review: Caleb Williams Slips, Devin Bush Rises After Win Over Bucs
The Bears survived four Caleb Williams interceptions to beat Tampa Bay 27-24. Devin Bush and the secondary carried the night heading into the bye.
The Chicago Bears are 7-2 and lead the NFC North after a 27-24 Sunday night win over Tampa Bay. They got there even though Caleb Williams threw four interceptions. Sam Householder's weekly stock watch for SB Nation puts the quarterback in the down column for the first time in a while. Linebacker Devin Bush and a patched-together secondary are in the up column.
Householder sees the Williams night as an outlier rather than a trend. Two of the interceptions came on throwaways that fell short of the sideline, and one came off a tipped pass. The fourth happened when Williams trusted his arm too much and misread a disguised coverage. It was the first time in 40 career games that he threw more than two interceptions. His only other multi-interception regular-season games came in the second and third starts of his rookie year. Yahoo Sports cited Next Gen Stats showing that no quarterback had thrown more interceptions in a win since Jared Goff threw five against Houston in 2024. Williams called the night frustrating and said, "I don't get gun shy." He also opened the game 6 of 8 for 105 yards and two touchdowns in the first quarter.
The defense made up the difference. Bush led the team with nine tackles and added two passes defensed and a tackle for loss, a turnaround from criticism of his play two weeks earlier. Jaylon Johnson returned an interception 67 yards for a touchdown while the offense was stalling. Cameron Lewis, viewed mostly as a depth player, had his first interception since 2024 along with five tackles and a pass breakup.
The down column also includes D'Andre Swift, who has looked worn down while the run game struggled against two strong run defenses. Rookie receiver Zavion Thomas is there too. He had a good kick return called back through no fault of his own, then drew an unnecessary roughness penalty after a play. Williams threw an interception on the next snap, and Thomas did not play another offensive snap. Householder also noted that the secondary is hurt, the backfield is beaten up, and turnovers and penalties are up from 2025. That makes this bye week matter for health. Kyle Monangai's expected return should give the backfield some relief.
What it means for the Saints
Chicago comes out of the bye to host New Orleans on Sunday, November 22, on Fox. The Bears have won four straight: Atlanta 31-23, New England 30-24, Seattle 34-17 and now Tampa Bay. They have scored at least 27 points in each of those games. Both of their losses came against division opponents, 9-3 to Minnesota and 31-7 at Green Bay.
The board for the game has the Bears as heavy favorites across seven venues. On the moneyline, Novig has Chicago favored at -567. The best Bears price anywhere is -470 at DraftKings, a wide gap between venues. New Orleans is +426 at Novig and +430 at FanDuel. The spread is Bears -9.5. Novig prices Chicago's side at -115 and the Saints' side at -100, and DraftKings has the best Bears price at -110. The total sits between 48.5 and 49.5 depending on the venue. Sportsbook hold runs from about 4.2% to 5.0% across these markets.
If the turnovers from the Tampa Bay game were a one-off, as Householder argues, the numbers suggest the Bears should handle this one.