LANDOVER, Md. — For most of running back D’Andre Swift’s time with the Bears, he’s been cast as a bad fit.
He was exactly what they needed Monday against the Commanders.
The Bears got big plays from quarterback Caleb Williams and others, but Swift was the difference maker in their 25-24 victory at Northwest Stadium. It was by far the biggest win of the Ben Johnson era, a stunning upset on national television and a step toward moving on from the infamous Fail Mary that derailed the team last season.
Power running might not come naturally for Swift, but he’s been intent on delivering it this season and hit the Commanders hard from the start. He rushed for a season-high 108 yards, averaging 7.7 per carry, and caught two passes for 67 yards and a touchdown. It was his second 100-yard game as a Bear, having burned the Commanders for 129 almost a year ago.
“This is the most efficient we’ve run the ball all year,” Johnson said. “Really felt an attitude with him. He did a great job finding a crease and stepping on the gas, played a physical style.”
.@DAndreSwift 55 YARD TO THE HOUSE
📺: ABC pic.twitter.com/6HnTzs8rs8
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) October 14, 2025
Swift kept the Bears in the game with a tremendous play early in the fourth quarter and was the engine of their final drive for the win.
From his own 45-yard line, Williams was under pressure as soon as he dropped back and dumped it to Swift just four yards past the line of scrimmage.
Swift slipped a would-be tackle by Commanders safety Quan Martin on the left sideline, then outran cornerback Marshon Lattimore the rest of the way for a 55-yard touchdown to pull the Bears within 24-22 with 10:26 remaining.
“That was a game changer for us,” Johnson said. “We needed a spark.”
The Bears might have caught a break on that one. The play clock appeared to hit zero before center Drew Dalman snapped the ball, but there was no flag.
The Commanders still led 24-22 when the Bears got the ball back at their own 44-yard line after a fumble by Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels on a handoff. They had 3:07 left, typically a time to rely on the passing game, but gave the ball to Swift five times and he drove them into the red zone.
“Going into that last drive I was thinking this was going to be it for us, so I wanted to make sure they didn’t have a rebuttal drive,” Johnson said. “So I told Caleb on the headset we were going to ride the run game to victory.”
Swift’s final run was a 15-yarder to the 18-yard line, allowing the Bears to run the clock down and set up the winning field goal by Jake Moody from 38 yards as time expired. Moody was called up from the practice squad hours before the game to fill in for Cairo Santos, who was out with a quad injury.
Swift got just two yards on his run to start the final drive and three on the next carry, but Johnson kept going to him. After Williams hit tight end Colston Loveland to convert a third-and-five just past midfield, Swift ran for four yards and followed with a 10-yard run that put victory in sight at the Commanders’ 31-yard line.
It looked iffy when Williams slipped and took a sack on the next play, but Swift showed up again with the 15-yarder to bail him out.
“Just putting it away,” Swift said of the final drive. “That was my mindset. If I found a crease, I was going to try to end it.”
He pretty much did.
Swift’s performance was the glue to everything the Bears did offensively. Williams, going back home to Maryland, got the win that eluded him last season and finished with a solid stat line of 17-for-29 passing, 252 yards and a touchdown for a 98.6 passer rating.
His rating spiked nearly 20 points just on the touchdown pass to Swift.
The Bears had been one of the bottom-10 rushing teams in the NFL going into the game, though Johnson was adamant that Swift wasn’t the problem.
Their history has been an intriguing side story to the beginning of Johnson’s tenure. They were together with the Lions when Johnson was their offensive coordinator, and he was on staff when they offloaded Swift to the Eagles for a fourth-round pick in favor of drafting Jahmyr Gibbs to form the famed “Sonic and Knuckles” backfield with ex-Bear David Montgomery.
Montgomery has had a monster season for the Lions and been exactly what the Bears seemed to be missing. Swift, however, looked like the type of running back who could do a little bit of everything Monday.
“It’s who I really thought he was going to be,” Johnson said.
Johnson and running backs coach Eric Bieniemy have talked repeatedly about steering Swift to be more of a north-south runner, and while Swift has shrugged off the idea that he’s doing anything differently, the change is obvious. And suddenly, some seemingly mismatched puzzle pieces looked like a perfect fit.
