The Bears' 48-10 win over the Buccaneers on Sunday was the most lopsided home victory since a 54-point margin over the Packers in December 1980.
Here are five observations from re-watching a combination of Fox's telecast and the coaches' video available through the NFL Game Pass subscription service.
1. Whatever Matt Nagy and the coaching staff did to help calm quarterback Mitch Trubisky and make him more comfortable before and after the snap, it worked.
No kidding, right? Six touchdown passes, 354 passing yards and a rating of 154.6. Heck yeah, it worked.
Trubisky excelled in three areas he had been inconsistent with through three games: accuracy, pocket presence and play recognition. He took advantage of quality pass protection and carved up the depleted Buccaneers secondary. Full credit to him.
The problem for our analysis is Nagy and quarterbacks coach Dave Ragone declined, as is their prerogative, to detail how the game plan and/or play-calling was tailored to Trubisky.
"We did some things a little differently, which I'm not going to get into the exact stuff that we did differently," Nagy said. "We didn't lessen it, I can tell you that.
Unfortunately, that vague explanation prevents outsiders from understanding the adjustments that helped produce Trubisky's spectacular passing performance.
Certainly, Sunday's results matter more than whatever changes facilitated them. Trubisky said last Wednesday he cared only about his grade on the test, not how easy the test was. At least Bears coaches and players know what worked for him and will try to build off that in their attempt to replicate the results over the final 12 games. That's what counts.
Guessing about the exact adjustments serves little purpose. But understanding the schematic elements that were subject to adjustment at least helps us understand part of Trubisky's growth process and how his back-and-forth with coaches drove it.
Nagy, Ragone and offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich acknowledge their ongoing efforts to familiarize themselves with Trubisky's likes and dislikes regarding play-calling, game-planning and executing plays. Their conversations with Trubisky throughout each game week cover a variety of topics, including sequencing of runs and passes, play-to-play adjustments based on how the secondary and/or front is aligned, amount of different personnel groupings, etc.
Coaches could have tweaked any of those variables — or several others. Their goal is to balance the inherent schematic advantages with Trubisky's comfort exploiting them. When Trubisky's mind is calm, his footwork and eyes usually are on point, which increases his accuracy and improves his decision-making.
That certainly seemed to be the case against the Buccaneers. He hit Trey Burton, Allen Robinson, Tarik Cohen and Josh Bellamy in stride on touchdown passes of 39, 14, 9 and 20 yards, respectively.
On throws that traveled at least 20 yards beyond the line of scrimmage, Trubisky was 5-for-6 for 184 yards and a touchdown, according to the NFL's Next Gen stats service.
Trubisky capitalized on exceptional pass protection for his big plays. Any quarterback would love to have at least 3.0 seconds from snap to throw, and Trubisky did several times.
He had 3.50 seconds on the 39-yard touchdown to Burton, 3.72 seconds on the 47-yarder to Burton in the second quarter, and 3.16 seconds on the out-and-up to Tarik Cohen that gained 35 yards in the second-quarter.
One other throw worth singling out is the 30-yard completion to a diving Taylor Gabriel on the first play of a series midway through the second quarter. The Bears used five receivers and an empty backfield against Cover-1, which featured man-to-man coverage and a single high safety.
Immediately after the snap, Gabriel ran past his defender and put up his hand. He wasn't first in the progression, but Trubisky recognized Gabriel was open. Not only did he deliver a great pass for Gabriel to run underneath, Trubisky held the safety in the middle of the field to keep him from contesting the catch.
Trubisky did complete some passes on predetermined reads during the game (on bootlegs and sprint-outs), but that completion to Gabriel was a great example of Trubisky thriving from the pocket, reading the defense and progressing past his first option.
Overall, it was a historic performance that none of us who witnessed it will forget.
2. Bears receivers were open for big plays because of route combinations that either confused the Bucs or defeated their coverage principles.
Nagy said his play-calling rhythm improved Sunday, and that was evident in how some play designs created breakdowns in the secondary.
Two plays, in particular, opened for Trubisky when a receiver replaced another as part of the route combination.
On Burton's 47-yard catch-and-run, his route trailed Robinson's. From the right side of the formation, Robinson ran upfield and broke in at about 15 yards. Burton was a couple steps directly behind him and broke out at about 12 yards. No defender ran with Burton.
On Cohen's 9-yard touchdown, he ran an angle route over the middle after Gabriel cleared out the middle with a shallow cross. Cohen easily worked inside the linebacker covering him and had plenty of space over the middle.
Such route combinations challenge the defense to communicate, Nagy explained. And considering the Bucs were without both of their first-string safeties, it was smart of Nagy to test the back-seven in that way.
3. Tarik Cohen's speed, lateral agility and vision are earning him a featured role.
In a game that the Bears led from start to finish, including by 35 points at halftime, you might have expected Jordan Howard to have a big workload late. But that wasn't the case.
Cohen had 13 carries for 53 yards (4.1 average), while Howard had 11 for 25. Cohen also caught seven passes for 121 yards.
Nagy said the carries will be distributed on a game-by-game basis. We'll see if that means Howard will reclaim a majority of carries in the future. But given how Nagy appears to favor Cohen's versatility and explosiveness, don't be surprised if Cohen continues to out-touch Howard.
At least for the matchup against the Bucs, Cohen's decisiveness, agility and quickness in bouncing runs outside were valuable because six-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Gerald McCoy was difficult to block, as usual. McCoy got into gaps, disrupted pulling blockers and made tackles inside.
Cohen's traits helped overcome that on his 19-yard run in the first quarter.
McCoy lined up over center Cody Whitehair and penetrated the backfield off the snap. Whitehair blocked the right defensive end, which created a gap for McCoy to get up the field. In doing so, he made contact with tight end Dion Sims, who was pulling to block for Cohen. That disrupted the timing of the play and created a jumbled mess at the point of attack. Cohen, however, bounced the run outside and captured the edge. He turned a potential loss of yardage into a 19-yard gain.
Cohen was at his best on a 31-yard catch-and-run on a screen pass on first-and-10 from the Bears 34 in the second quarter. He jumped to catch Trubisky's pass one-handed, then set up Kevin White's pancake block of safety Justin Evans by bending his run toward the sideline. That patience essentially created White's blocking angle for him.
4. Rookie guard James Daniels contributed to several big plays in his debut on offense.
The guess here is that Daniels' ascent toward the starting lineup will continue when the Bears return from their week off. He played 27 snaps against the Bucs (24 at left guard rotating in with Eric Kush and three replacing right guard Kyle Long at the end of the game).
Offensive line coach Harry Hiestand said Daniels has improved over the last month, identifying fronts and adjusting to them during practices.
On Cohen's 19-yard run to the right, Daniels secured the edge by finishing his block against linebacker Lavonte David. Finishing blocks is a big point of emphasis for Hiestand, and that's exactly what Daniels did. He initially made contact with David on the inside, but he kept his feet moving and got his hips around to actually seal David in.
One reason Trubisky had so much time to find Burton for 47 yards in the second quarter was Daniels' balance against defensive tackle Vita Vea. Vea, a 347-pound first-round rookie, almost clubbed Daniels off his block, but Daniels stuck to Vea with a strong left arm, stayed on his feet and maintained the block.
Daniels also blocked David in space on Cohen's 31-yard screen. Overall, he appeared athletic and fluid as a runner and timed his combination blocks well with Charles Leno.
Daniels blocked McCoy only once, and that was part of a triple team in his only snap at right guard that wasn't a kneel down. Still, Daniels held his own against a first-round rookie.
5. The Bears contained the Bucs' passing attack in the first half by contesting throws and pressuring the quarterback. And they got some help from the Bucs themselves.
While the offense kept its foot on the gas, the Bears defense did enough to create separation on the scoreboard. The Bears mixed coverages, as coordinator Vic Fangio indicated they would. More importantly, they kept the Bucs in third-and-long.
The Bucs converted only 1 of 7 third downs in the first half. They were successful on third-and-2 and failed on third-and-10, -22, -5, -11, -7, and -19.
Some of the highlights included Khalil Mack's strip-sack on third-and-11. He powered through right tackle Demar Dotson's outside shoulder when most pass rushers wouldn't have. Dotson wasn't in terrible position, but his hands were a bit low and Mack made him pay.
Safety Eddie Jackson jumped quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick's short throw on third-and-19 for his second interception in as many games. Jackson is playing with confidence and trusting what he sees. Earlier, Danny Trevathan and Leonard Floyd dropped into the passing lane on separate plays and batted the ball down.
Give the Bears their due, but the Bucs also hurt themselves. They had two drops in the first half.
Fitzpatrick also missed some chances. He opted not to throw to slot receiver Chris Godwin on a post route that probably would've been a touchdown. Roquan Smith was unsuccessful in re-routing Godwin, so no one ran with the second-year receiver into the end zone on third-and-5 from the 12. If Fitzpatrick had anticipated the throw, the score would have been 14-7 and maybe the game would've played out differently.
Fitzpatrick also threw wide of Mike Evans 35 yards downfield after Evans ran past rookie cornerback Kevin Toliver. The second time a receiver ran past Tlliver deep, it resulted in one of DeSean Jackson's two big gains.
Toliver appeared to look into the backfield without respecting Jackson's deep speed on a 42-yard completion in the second quarter. On Jackson's 48-yarder in the first quarter, he ran an in-cutting route behind Trevathan and Smith, and Fitzpatrick threw it into the window in the zone coverage. Great throw there and run after the catch.
The Bears defense won enough on first and second down to get themselves into favorable third downs. And the offense increased the defense's margin for error. Week 4 was the type of complete game that won't result in many losses, no matter the opponent.