Chicago Bears @ Atlanta Falcons
Final Score: Bears 31, Falcons 23
Writer: Jay Felicio (@GMenJay on Twitter)
Three Up
- Caleb Williams – Three weeks off with the bum hammy, sets a Bears record in his first game back.
- Luther Burden III – Plays a season low in snaps, gets a season high in targets. Pick a lane, Chicago.
- Kyle Pitts Sr. – Just when I thought I was out… they pull me back in!
Three Down
- Bijan Robinson – 6.8 a carry and they handed it to him nine times. 🤷
- Rome Odunze – Four targets on a 305-yard passing day with 36 attempts.
- Zachariah Branch – Put two balls on the ground and both became Bears points.
Chicago Bears
Quarterback
Caleb Williams: 30/36, 305 Yards, 1 TD, 0 INT | 4 Carries, 3 Yards, Fumble
Hamstring who? This is the Caleb Williams the Bears have been waiting on. He opened the game 10 of 10 for 122 yards and a touchdown across the first two drives, and stayed perfect through 12 attempts before his first incompletion. His 83% completion percentage set a Bears record for quarterbacks with 30 or more attempts in a game, and Williams did it without a single turnover. This was Williams’ fifth career 300-yard game with no interceptions, tying Brian Hoyer for the franchise record. Lol. If there’s a negative, Williams was sacked four times for -35 yards, and three of them killed drives.
Running Back
D’Andre Swift: 16 Carries, 44 Yards, 2 TD | 5 Targets, 4 Receptions, 26 Yards
Two touchdowns will look just fine in your box score, but don’t kid yourself about how he got there. Sixteen carries for 44 yards is a 2.8-yard-per-carry average. Both of his touchdowns came from inside the five, a four-yard run on third and goal in the first and a two-yarder on third and goal late in the second (three plays after Branch muffed a punt). Swift played right at his roughly 57% season average snap percentage despite Kyle Monangai missing a second straight game.
Roschon Johnson: 13 Carries, 51 Yards, TD, Fumble (LOST) | 2 Targets, 2 Receptions, 34 Yards
Roschon Johnson quietly outgained Swift on three fewer carries and looked like the better back of the two all afternoon. He also gave one away at the worst possible moment, and then got handed the ball to close the game out anyway. If you’re looking for a back to stash, you could do worse with Monangai nursing a turf toe injury.
Wide Receiver/Tight End
Luther Burden III: 8 Targets, 8 Receptions, 95 Yards
Easily the best game of Luther Burden‘s season and the first place Williams looked whenever he needed a big play. Buuuuttt… it came on his fewest snaps of the year. Who cares when he’s catching all of his team-leading eight targets? Burden had a 25-yarder in the first quarter that was key on Chicago’s second touchdown drive. He’s emerged as Chicago’s WR1, and the fantasy arrow is pointing due north.
Colston Loveland: 7 Targets, 6 Receptions, 65 Yards, TD
I hope you didn’t drop Colston Loveland. He was the first read on the opening snap and the guy who got Chicago on the board. Loveland caught all but one of his seven targets and looked like the guy we saw down the stretch of last season. But he did kill two drives with penalties, which is the part that’ll get brought up by the haters.
Caleb Williams' first drive back ends in a TD to Colston Loveland 🐻
CHIvsATL on FOX/FOX One
Stream on @NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/krhXYNpu6F— NFL (@NFL) October 18, 2026
Rome Odunze: 4 Targets, 3 Receptions, 39 Yards
Not great to see Rome Odunze get four targets on a day his quarterback threw 36 times. Odunze made two catches count, both on third downs where the drive was otherwise dead. But a frustrating day to roster him in fantasy. He did have a 24-yard catch out on third and seven came back on an Ozzy Trapilo holding penalty, so it theoretically could have been a better day.
Zavion Thomas: 3 Targets, 3 Receptions, 25 Yards
Three for three as a receiver and genuinely useful on returns, where he brought out four kickoffs for 85 yards. Nothing useful in your fantasy lineup, though.
Kalif Raymond: 2 Targets, 2 Receptions, 18 Yards
Flipped the field a few times with three punt returns for 54 yards with a 23-yarder that set up the second touchdown drive. That’s about it.
Cole Kmet: 2 Targets, 2 Receptions, 3 Yards
If you were still holding on, you can let go.
Atlanta Falcons
Quarterback
Michael Penix Jr.: 19/33, 225 Yards, 3 TD, 0 INT | 1 Carry, 1 Yard, 2 Fumbles (1 LOST)
Three touchdowns don’t completely hide how bad the first three quarters were, but pretty close. Atlanta had four first downs and 97 total yards at halftime, over half the yardage on Bijan Robinson rushes. Penix took five sacks and couldn’t get anything downfield until Chicago eased off in the fourth. The fantasy day was good. The quarterbacking was not. Sweet, sweet garbage time. Penix hit Drake London for 39 yards in the second for Atlanta’s first trip inside the red zone all day, then threaded one to Jahan Dotson for a 13-yard touchdown on third and eight. The 91-yard drive in the fourth had back-to-back shots of 33 to Dotson and 29 to Pitts before the 10-yard score.
Running Back
Bijan Robinson: 9 Carries, 61 Yards | 2 Targets, 2 Receptions, -8 Yards
If you started Bijan, you got robbed, and not really by him. Robinson had a season low in rushing yards, but not because he played poorly. He ran for 6.8 a pop, yet only got nine carries and 11 total touches. He was the only thing working early, as he had 51 of Atlanta’s 97 first-half yards on just four carries. He couldn’t get much going in the second half because the Falcons never had the ball. Chicago more than doubled Atlanta’s time of possession. It was just one of those games.
Brian Robinson Jr.: 2 Carries, 1 Yard | 2 Targets, 2 Receptions, 9 Yards
Brian Robinson had four total touches, two carries for one yard. Nothing to see here, and nothing coming as long as Bijan is playing 78% of the snaps.
Wide Receiver/Tight End
Jahan Dotson: 5 Targets, 3 Receptions, 87 Yards, TD
By far Jahan Dotson‘s best game since he got to Atlanta, and it came with a season-high 85% snap rate. He dropped one near the goal line and then came right back the next snap and pulled down a perfect ball from Penix for the score. Five targets, three catches, including a 33-yarder and a 41-yarder in the fourth. Not great that he only saw five targets when Penix threw 33 times, though.
Drake London: 10 Targets, 4 Receptions, 62 Yards
Drake London did have the play that finally woke Atlanta up, but just four catches on 10 targets shows how poorly this offense played most of the game. London caught it around the 35 and spun off a tackle for another ten to get the Falcons into the red zone for the first time all day. Hard to be mad at the volume, impossible to be happy with the result.
Kyle Pitts Sr: 7 Targets, 5 Receptions, 60 Yards, 2 TD
Both of Atlanta’s fourth-quarter touchdowns went to Kyle Pitts, plus a 29-yarder that came off a Bears helmet and right to him. As a Pitts truther, I wish I could buy into this more, but 54 of his 60 yards came in the fourth with the game out of hand.
Zachariah Branch: 2 Targets, 2 Receptions, 9 Yards, 2 Fumbles (LOST)
Rough day for the rookie. Branch caught a two-point conversion and had a perfectly fine return day but none of that matters because he put two balls on the ground. Both turned directly into Bears points. A muffed punt gave Chicago the ball at the Atlanta 10 with under two minutes left in the half, and they scored three plays later. A kickoff fumble in the third set up a 50-yard field goal.
Austin Hooper: 1 Target, 1 Reception, 6 Yards
Olamide Zaccheaus: 4 Targets, 0 Receptions, 0 Yards
Five targets, one catch, six yards. That was their entire afternoon.