Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson and some players met with reporters at Halas Hall in Lake Forest on Monday, a day after the team’s 31-14 win over the Dallas Cowboys.

The Bears responded to an 0-2 start and a challenge from Johnson with a complete game Sunday. Quarterback Caleb Williams looked the best he has all season and threw four touchdown passes while the defense created four turnovers in a bounce-back game for the unit.

Chicago will now turn its attention to getting to .500 when the Bears travel to Las Vegas to play the Raiders on Sunday. Here are three of the most interesting things the Bears said Monday.

On Caleb Williams’ steady progress

Williams had his best game of the season Sunday. He threw for 298 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions, leading the offense to a season-high 31 points.

But the Bears had to be impressed in the way Williams took control of Sunday’s game. After shaky decision-making and errant throws during the first two games of the season, Williams looked confident as he stood in the pocket and let his wide receivers get to their spots.

A lot of that comfort came from a sturdy pocket. Sunday was the first time in his career that Williams wasn’t sacked in a game. Williams responded by mostly staying in the pocket, going through his progressions, and hitting open receivers for the most part.

“I think he saw when he plays on time, he’s trusting the hitches within his drops, and we can be an explosive offense that way,” Johnson said. “There’s a lot of ways that Caleb Williams can hurt you, and like I said, when we have pass protection like we had yesterday, that certainly helps.”

Sunday’s play was something the Bears and fans had been waiting to see from the former No. 1 overall draft pick since the team hired Johnson over the offseason. Williams had a chance to take advantage of an injured Cowboys secondary and did so by hitting four different targets for touchdowns.

It’s been a steady growth center Drew Dalman has seen from Williams since the start of training camp.

“I think it has been following our trajectory of the whole offense slowly getting better,” Dalman said. “Wednesday will hopefully be better than Sunday, and then Thursday will hopefully be better than Wednesday. I think it’s been steadily climbing in that way, so nothing like drastic. Yeah, he’s doing a good job.”

On situational complementary football

The Bears made the most of an opportunity late in the first half Sunday to turn a three-point halftime lead into a 10-point lead.

Chicago started an offensive drive at its own 29-yard line with 2:25 left in the second quarter. Wide receiver DJ Moore and rookie running back Kyle Monangai picked up 19 yards on four rushes before the Bears decided to pass with just over a minute left in the quarter.

Williams hit wide receiver Rome Odzune for a 13-yard pass on third down and rookie wide receiver Luther Burden III for 29 yards. He ultimately found wide-open tight end Cole Kmet for a 10-yard touchdown with 25 seconds left in the half.

“Obviously, really critical situation,” Dalman said. “That middle eight of the game. Being able to come away with points there, extend that lead, and then give yourselves some momentum going into half was really good, and then just, as a whole, we talked about this today, defense did a great job getting us the ball back, and then offense holds up their end of it, putting up some points. Good to see us playing cohesive football in that way.”

It’s something the Bears struggled to do last season under former head coach Matt Eberflus and have shown an ability to execute under Johnson so far this year. There were plenty of moments last season when Chicago failed to execute plays in those situational drills. A lack of execution down the stretch against the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving last season ultimately led to Eberflus’ firing.

Johnson told reporters that he had the whole team watch that situation together. The defense took over with 4:15 left in the second quarter and forced a three-and-out before the offense took advantage and scored.

“I just give our guys a lot of credit,” Johnson said. “They handled the situation well. Caleb controlled the procedure really well, and being able to score with under 30 seconds like that, and our defense come back out on the field and hold them. If you remember that first game, we were in a very similar scenario where Minnesota had about 18 seconds and no timeouts, and they were able to get a field goal out of it. And so it was almost deja vu, being in that same deal and our defense, being able to get the stop and go into halftime.”

On Jaylon Johnson’s injury timeline

Johnson officially announced Monday that he believes cornerback Jaylon Johnson will have surgery to repair a groin injury he suffered in Week 2 against the Lions. Ben also said that it’s possible that Jaylon has a chance to return this season.

“My last understanding was that there was going to be the surgery,” Ben said.

The Bears placed Jaylon on injured reserve Saturday, which means he’ll miss at least four games, starting with Chicago’s win over the Cowboys on Sunday. Jaylon had missed all of training camp with a separate groin and calf injury that forced him to miss all of training camp and the team’s season-opener against the Minnesota Vikings.

“I think he saw when he plays on time he’s trusting the hitches within his drops and we can be an explosive offense that way. There’s a lot of ways that Caleb Williams can hurt you and like I said when we have pass protection like we had yesterday, that certainly helps.”

—  Ben Johnson, Bears head coach

The injury is a tough blow for an already injury-depleted secondary. Starting nickel cornerback Kyler Gordon has missed the first three games of the season with a hamstring injury, cornerback Jaylon Jones missed Sunday’s game with a hamstring injury, and backup cornerback Terell Smith is out for the season because of a preseason knee injury. Nahshon Wright has stepped in for Jaylon.

“It’s pretty much next man up,” cornerback Tyrique Stevenson said. “You’ve got to step up. You know, Jaylon was a big part of this defense and right now we’re missing that and for me and all the other guys in the room all we can do is pick up the slack and go out there and play our best game to make sure there ain’t no falloff without Jaylon being out there.”