3 lessons from 35-16 Bears win over the Jaguars in London: Bears enter bye week on a high note

I don't know about all the readers out there, but Sunday is typically a pretty stressful day in my house. I wake up, start my morning, and then the wait begins for the Chicago Bears to appear on my TV. The anticipation can be excruciating, even if I believe the Bears are going to win. I have to say, I could get used to these early starts, even if I'd rather the Bears not give up a home game to play in London.

By the time the early slate of games had rolled around this Sunday, my day was already made. The Bears had thoroughly dismantled the Jaguars at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium by a score of 35-16, which moved them to 4-2 on the season and made them the proud owners of a three-game winning streak. The rest of the day was spent watching the rest of the games and thinking, "Wow, my team looks pretty good compared to them."

As we'll get into, the Bears were the better team in every phase of the game. The offense scored five touchdowns for the second week in a row, the defense held Trevor Lawrence and company to 10 points in the first three quarters, and Tory Taylor, even with only two chances thanks to the offense's big day, once again kicked the ever-loving stuffing out of the ball on his pair of punts.

We're now more than a third of the way through the season. Time flies when you're having fun, and this Bears team is definitely doing that, as they all got in on a well-played tea time celebration in the end zone after Keenan Allen's first touchdown catch. The Bears have a bye next week before a titanic rookie quarterback clash in Week 8 against Jayden Daniels and the Commanders, but what lessons did we learn in this game that can give us an idea of what to expect after the bye?

The Bears really do have one of the best sets of offensive weapons in the league

It took a few games for Shane Waldron's offense to get going, but it seems that all the talk this offseason about what a great situation Caleb Williams was walking into was justified. What's become abundantly clear is that it's not just one or two guys that can make a difference — there seems to be someone new going off every week.

Let's pretend the first two games of the season don't exist because Chicago's offensive line play never gave Caleb and the skill position guys a chance to succeed. Since then, though, the line has played better every week, which is a credit to the players and the coaching staff. Matt Pryor has provided a huge boost since entering the lineup, and everyone around him has really cleaned up their games to the point that the O-line has actually become a strength in recent weeks.

That's been evident in both the run and pass games. D'Andre Swift had his third straight big week with 91 yards and a touchdown on the ground, and Caleb continued his meteoric development by throwing for four touchdowns and completing over 79 percent of his passes, both career highs. He took three sacks, but they were mostly a result of trying to make too much happen. All in all, the line gave him a lot of time to throw.

Four weeks ago, Rome Odunze busted out against the Colts with six catches for 112 yards and a touchdown. It was Swift's show against the Rams, as he paced the offense with 165 all-purpose yards. DJ Moore exacted revenge on his former Panthers teammates last week, with five catches for 105 yards and two scores.

This time, it was Cole Kmet and Keenan Allen who got to have most of the fun. DJ and Rome had quiet days, with only six catches for 60 yards between them, but the Bears offense was humming all day. Kmet had five grabs for 70 yards and two touchdowns, the first of which featured him beasting his way through the Jaguars secondary on a gorgeous double fake screen play design by Waldron.

Allen, who looks like he has fully overcome the heel injury that cost him two games already this season, scored his first two touchdowns as a Bear on a couple of real bobby-dazzlers, which I'm happy to report is one way to say "pretty" or "beautiful" in England. Maybe this trip was a good idea after all.

Allen showed off the extra dimension he brings to this offense by finding small creases between defenders all day on third down and in the red zone, and he was the recipient of an absolutely gorgeous goal line fade from Caleb in which he beat his man with his trademark superlative footwork before coming down with the touchdown just inbounds.

Between the offensive line's improved play, Caleb's continued development and Waldron's willingness to open up the playbook, the Bears are finally taking advantage of having playmakers all over the field. This is going to be a fun offense to watch the rest of the season.

The defense is good enough to survive multiple injuries

Some defenses around the NFL are an injury away from crumbling like a house of cards. Look, for example, at what the Lions did to the once-vaunted Cowboys defense on Sunday without Micah Parsons in the lineup.

Matt Eberflus has built a defensive unit in Chicago that has plenty of star power. Jaylon Johnson, Montez Sweat, TJ Edwards and Jaquan Brisker are just a few of the special playmakers on that side of the ball, but what's most impressive about the Bears D is that it's still formidable even when missing important pieces.

Brisker and Tyrique Stevenson didn't play a single snap in this game, and the Bears lost do-everything slot corner Kyler Gordon to a hamstring pull shortly after halftime. "No worries, mate," I imagine the Bears said to the Englishfolk in attendance, as they collectively bottled up the Jaguars offense all day.

Jaylon Jones, who got the start in place of Stevenson, led the team in tackles with 10. Elijah Hicks was all over the field as he filled in for Brisker. He helped break up a potential touchdown on Jacksonville's first drive, and he recovered a fumble after Edwards punched the ball away from Evan Engram later on. Josh Blackwell, who was pressed into service after Gordon went down, kept the team's interception streak alive at four games after he picked off Lawrence in the third quarter.

It's a cliche with a lot of teams, but the Bears really do have a "next man up" mentality, especially on the defense. This is a unit that's built to withstand the rigors of the NFL season.

Reports of the Bears demise were extremely premature

An unsettlingly large portion of NFL fans are far too willing to believe whatever narrative is being pushed at any given moment. For the Bears, the stories were relentless after the first few weeks. "Caleb is a bust," they said. "Ryan Poles should have invested in the offensive line," they decreed. "Matt Eberflus has to go," they demanded.

Fast forward a few weeks later, and it's clear that everybody just needed to slow down and take a deep breath. Caleb has improved by leaps and bounds. The same goes for the offensive line, which looks like a completely different unit than the one that gave up seven sacks to the Texans and couldn't open any holes in the running game for three weeks.

As for Eberflus, it's time to recognize what a steady hand he's had in turning this franchise around. We all saw it in the second half of last year when he transformed the defense into a top-10 unit after Montez Sweat was acquired. With each passing week, it becomes more irrefutable that he's built something special on that side of the ball.

Eberflus' detractors love to point out that all of this merely makes him a good defensive coordinator, not a good head coach, but just look at what else is happening on this team. Eberflus took an active role in shaping Caleb's experience from day one, which has played a foundational role in why the young QB looks to be so ahead of the curve. He's emboldened Waldron to open up the offense and leave behind the stale, predictable concepts that Bears OCs have been using for years. Just as importantly, this is a team that's having fun and isn't just beating teams it should, it's blowing them out by a score of 71-26 in the last two weeks. That's all a credit to the culture Eberfus is helping to create.

We don't want to get too ahead of ourselves. The Rams, Panthers and Jaguars are a mess right now, but the Bears have done what good teams are supposed to do and taken care of business three weeks in a row. There's a lot of season left, but going into the bye at 4-2 after playing such ugly football through three games shows that not only are the Bears not done, they're just getting started.