Kyle Monangai didn’t start Sunday’s game at running back for the Bears, but he finished it.
Monangai rang up 30 carries for 146 yards and two touchdowns to pace the Bears’ offense in a 23-12 home win over the Jets. Monangai had 12 carries for 54 yards in the first half, but took over the lead role after D’Andre Swift lost a fumble in the third quarter and the Bears were happy to keep riding him because the Jets couldn’t stop him.
The big day for Monangai was part of a dominant offensive effort for the Bears. They had the ball for more than 42 minutes and ran up 492 yards over the course of the afternoon. The Bears ran for 232 yards overall and quarterback Tyson Bagent was 24-of-33 for 261 yards. Bagent threw an interception and the Bears were stopped on a fourth down on the Jets’ 1-yard-line, but they never punted en route to the win.
Jets safety Minkah Fitzpatrick’s interception was the Jets’ first since Week 18 of the 2024 season and defenders got their mitts on three other Bagent passes, but penalties led to all of those turnovers getting wiped out. They needed them as the offense only managed 157 yards and 58 of them came on a Geno Smith touchdown pass to Isaiah Williams once the Jets were already down 17 points.
The loss was the Jets’ third in a row after a Week 1 win in Tennessee and they’ll return home to host the surging Browns in Week 5.
Bagent didn’t technically start at quarterback as Bears head coach Ben Johnson had him line up at receiver while Case Keenum took a snap and handed the ball to Swift. That was the only snap that Keenum played and the back-to-back wins without Caleb Williams are a good sign that the Bears will be able to keep weathering storms while Williams recovers from his hamstring injury.
The Bears will be in Green Bay next weekend and signs point to Williams missing at least one more game before he’ll be ready to return to the lineup, so it could be the Bagent and Monangai show again for Chicago.