Bears' win over Eagles was dream come true for Case Keenum

The 38-year-old veteran QB who hadn't started a game since 2023 stole the spotlight in the Bears' 27-7 win over the Eagles. He threw for 247 yards and two touchdowns, and added a game-sealing rushing touchdown late in the fourth quarter.

“You dream about this,” Keenum said after the game. “That’s why I’m still here and still doing this.”

Being able to do it in front of his wife and two young children was icing on the cake.

"Hopefully, they saw their dad do a hard thing tonight and will be able to use that in the future.”

(Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune)

Bears coach Ben Johnson never flinched in his confidence in Keenum during the week of preparation.

“You could tell this meant a lot to him,” Johnson said. “But at the same time he kept his composure. It’s a lot. I think it’d be easy for a younger player to get overexcited or stimulated. And yet you could tell he was ready and he couldn’t wait to get out there but at the same time under control. The rest of the unit feeds off that.”

Keenum certainly didn't look like a guy who hadn't started an NFL game in three years. Perhaps that's a credit to his preparation ahead of Monday night's magical win.

“Barely saw the wife and kids,” he said. “Studied film. Grinding. I had my phone on ‘Do Not Disturb’ for all my friends. The only two people who were in my group were my wife Kimberly and Ben. And I’ll let you guess who called more.”

“He ran the show,” Johnson said of Keenum during the team's final QB meeting of the weekend. “The coaching staff kind of took a back seat. There were no reminders from us. He was just going through the list of every single play that was on the plan and what he was going to do. He gave us his favorites.

“That right there is a good indicator of what it’s going to look like on game day. And we needed him to play that well.”

Play well, he did.