Quick Facts
| Detail | Information |
| Teams | Chicago Bears (NFC North) vs Los Angeles Rams (NFC West) |
| Most Recent Regular Season Meeting | Week 4, September 29, 2024 — Soldier Field, Chicago |
| Regular Season Result | Bears 24, Rams 18 |
| Most Recent Playoff Meeting | 2024–25 NFL Playoffs — SoFi Stadium, Inglewood |
| Bears Head Coach | Ben Johnson (2025 season) |
| Rams Head Coach | Sean McVay |
| Bears Starting QB | Caleb Williams |
| Rams Starting QB | Matthew Stafford |
| Bears Home Stadium | Soldier Field, Chicago, Illinois |
| Rams Home Stadium | SoFi Stadium, Inglewood, California |
| All-Time Series | Rams lead historical series |
Introduction: Two Storied Franchises, One Fascinating Matchup
Some NFL matchups carry decades of history. Others carry something more electric — a collision of future and present, of rebuilding ambition against established excellence. The Chicago Bears versus Los Angeles Rams falls squarely into that second category right now.
When these two teams met in Week 4 of the 2024 NFL season, something unexpected happened. A young, first-year quarterback named Caleb Williams quietly outdueled one of the most experienced passers in the game. The Bears — picked by many pundits to struggle through another rebuilding year — won a hard-nosed, grinding game 24–18 on their home turf at Soldier Field. It was a statement moment. Not flashy. But real.
Then, months later, the teams met again — this time in the playoffs — and the Rams got their revenge.
This article covers the full picture of this matchup: the key player statistics, the tactical story behind the numbers, what each team’s roster looks like, how this rivalry has evolved, and what both franchises represent heading into the future of the NFC.
The Week 4 Regular Season Game: September 29, 2024
Setting the Scene
It was a Sunday afternoon in late September. Chicago’s weather was cooperative — mid-sixties, partly cloudy — and Soldier Field was buzzing with something it hadn’t felt in a while: genuine optimism. The Bears had just drafted Caleb Williams first overall in the 2024 NFL Draft, and the city’s fan base was cautiously but unmistakably excited about what this young quarterback might become.
The Rams arrived carrying some frustration of their own. They had started the season 1–2, with losses to the Detroit Lions and San Francisco 49ers sandwiching their lone win. Head coach Sean McVay, widely considered one of the most tactically inventive minds in football, needed his team to right the ship.
What followed was the kind of NFL game that rewards attention. Neither team dominated. Neither quarterback lit the scoreboard on fire. What happened instead was a slow-burn tactical contest where field position, turnover margin, and red zone efficiency told the final story.
The Quarterback Duel: Williams vs. Stafford
Caleb Williams — Bears QB
Here’s what made Caleb Williams’s performance in this game genuinely interesting: the numbers don’t fully reflect how well he played.
Williams completed 17 of 23 pass attempts — a completion rate of nearly 74 percent. He threw for 157 yards, added one passing touchdown, and crucially threw zero interceptions. He also ran the ball five times for 12 yards, showing the mobility that made him the consensus top pick of his draft class.
His passer rating for the game came in at 106.6 — a strong figure that reflects how efficiently he managed the contest. In just his fourth career NFL start, he handled the pressure of facing an experienced defense without flinching, without forcing the ball into dangerous situations, and without giving the Rams any free possessions.
For a first-year quarterback stepping into a city that has produced icons at the position — Sid Luckman, Jim McMahon — Williams carried himself like someone who belonged.
Matthew Stafford — Rams QB
Stafford’s day was more complicated. The veteran completed 20 of 29 attempts for 224 yards — more total yardage than Williams — but the single interception he threw proved enormously costly. In a game decided by six points, that turnover swung momentum decisively toward Chicago.
Stafford was also sacked three times, which disrupted the rhythm of LA’s passing game. His passer rating settled at 77.4, a below-average figure that told the story of a day where the pieces never quite came together the way the Rams needed.
None of this diminishes Stafford’s career. He is one of the most resilient and capable quarterbacks of his generation — a player who finally won a Super Bowl ring in February 2022 after years of carrying struggling Detroit Lions teams. But September 29th, 2024 was simply not his afternoon.
The Running Back Battle
D’Andre Swift — Bears RB
If Williams was the composed presence that managed the game, D’Andre Swift was the weapon that broke it open.
Swift touched the ball 16 times as a runner, accumulating 93 yards and the most explosive play of the game — a 36-yard touchdown dash that gave the Bears crucial breathing room in the fourth quarter. He also caught seven passes out of the backfield for 72 additional yards, making him an all-purpose force that the Rams simply could not solve.
Combined on the ground and through the air, Swift accounted for 165 yards from scrimmage. That’s the kind of performance that wins games, and it’s exactly the type that showed why Chicago’s front office invested in building their offensive backfield around him.
Kyren Williams — Rams RB
Kyren Williams — no relation to Caleb — was the hardest-working player on the Rams side of the ledger on this particular Sunday. He carried the ball 19 times for 94 yards, adding a rushing touchdown to give him a solid individual output.
He also caught four passes for 10 yards, showing his utility as a check-down receiver. The problem wasn’t Kyren Williams’s effort or ability. The problem was context — the Rams offense as a whole couldn’t convert when it needed to, particularly in the red zone, where LA went just one for four.
The Receivers: Who Made Plays
Chicago Bears Receiving Corps
Keenan Allen — the veteran wide receiver acquired to help ease Williams’s first NFL season — caught three passes for 19 yards. Not a headline number, but Allen’s experience as a safety valve for a young quarterback provides value that doesn’t always show up in the yardage column.
DJ Moore caught three passes for 22 yards and the Bears’ receiving touchdown — a nine-yard score that provided crucial insurance points. Cole Kmet, the tight end who has steadily developed into a legitimate weapon in Chicago’s offense, hauled in three receptions for 34 yards. Rome Odunze — the wide receiver selected 9th overall in that same 2024 draft — added one catch for 10 yards in what was still early in his NFL learning curve.
Los Angeles Rams Receiving Corps
On the Rams side, Tutu Atwell was the most productive pass-catcher with four receptions for 82 yards — his best day as a pro, showcasing the deep speed that makes him a constant threat to defenses that commit too hard to stopping the run.
Jordan Whittington caught six passes for 62 yards, showing the reliable intermediate-route running that has made him a trusted target for Stafford. Demarcus Robinson added 37 yards on two catches, while Colby Parkinson — the tight end — contributed four catches for 33 yards.
Notably absent from significant production: Cooper Kupp, whose injury history had hampered the Rams’ passing game throughout the season.
Team Statistics: What the Numbers Reveal
Yardage and Efficiency
The Rams actually outgained the Bears on this day — 322 total yards for Los Angeles against 264 for Chicago. The Rams also ran 58 plays to the Bears’ 54, and generated 21 first downs to Chicago’s 17.
On paper, those numbers suggest the Rams controlled more of the game than the score indicates. And they did control portions of it. But football is not a yardage contest. It’s a points contest.
Turnover Margin — The Decisive Factor
Here is where the game was truly decided. The Bears committed zero turnovers. The Rams committed two — Stafford’s interception plus a fumble lost. In modern NFL football, where winning teams almost universally protect the ball better than losing ones, a two-turnover differential is an enormous gift to the opposition.
Chicago converted those free possessions into points. The Rams could not do the same when opportunity arose. End of story.
Red Zone and Third Downs
The Bears converted on two of their four red zone trips — 50 percent efficiency. The Rams converted just once in four red zone opportunities — 25 percent. That gap, combined with the turnover margin, fully explains the six-point final difference despite the Rams generating more overall yardage.
On third downs, Chicago went five for eleven. The Rams managed just three conversions in nine attempts. Sustaining drives when it mattered most proved consistently difficult for Los Angeles.
The Playoff Rematch
The 2024–25 NFL Playoffs brought these teams back together under very different circumstances. By then, the Bears had finished the regular season with genuine playoff credentials, while the Rams — led by McVay’s continued tactical evolution — had earned postseason entry as well.
The playoff atmosphere transformed the dynamic considerably. Matthew Stafford — drawing on deep postseason experience including his Super Bowl LVI triumph — performed at a notably higher level. Kyren Williams again carried a heavy load and delivered two rushing touchdowns, proving his value as a workhorse in high-stakes situations.
The Rams won this second meeting, with Stafford completing passes for 258 yards in a performance that showcased exactly why the Los Angeles franchise pays him to be their franchise cornerstone. Chicago’s offense, meanwhile, showed the limitations that still accompany any team in genuine transition — Williams threw for 257 yards but was picked off three times, a stark contrast to his clean performance in the regular season meeting.
The final score gave Los Angeles the decisive playoff victory, advancing them further into the postseason while sending the Bears home to process what the gap between a promising young team and an established contender actually looks like in January.
What This Matchup Tells Us About Each Franchise
The Chicago Bears: A Rebuild With Real Direction
Caleb Williams’s arrival transformed the Bears from a team without a quarterback to a team with a genuine future. The 2024 season’s highlights — including that Week 4 win over the Rams — demonstrated that Williams can win NFL games with his brain as much as his arm. He doesn’t force throws. He doesn’t panic under pressure. He takes what defenses give him.
Surrounding him with Keenan Allen, DJ Moore, Rome Odunze, and D’Andre Swift gave Chicago one of the more interesting offensive collections in the NFC. Whether they can develop the sustained playoff consistency to compete with the Rams, Eagles, and Lions remains the central question.
The Los Angeles Rams: Championship DNA
The Rams under Sean McVay have never fully stopped being championship contenders. They won Super Bowl LVI. They reload rather than rebuild. McVay finds ways to win at 12 or 13 games per season even when injuries strike key players.
Stafford remains the engine. Kyren Williams has emerged as a legitimate featured back. The coaching staff’s ability to scheme around whatever talent is available makes Los Angeles dangerous regardless of personnel changes.
Final Words
Right now, the Bears versus Rams is an intriguing cross-conference matchup between two franchises at different stages of their trajectories. The Rams are a proven championship organization. The Bears are a rising team with a transcendent young quarterback at the center of everything they’re building.
The regular season meeting in 2024 showed that Chicago can compete with — and beat — the Rams when they protect the ball, run efficiently, and let Williams operate within a disciplined structure. The playoff rematch showed the Rams’ superior experience and depth when the stakes are highest and mistakes are punished severely.
As Caleb Williams develops and the Bears add pieces around him, this matchup is likely to become increasingly meaningful. Two NFC franchises. Two quarterbacks who will define their eras. The number on the scoreboard flipped once in 2024. It may keep flipping as these teams’ stories unfold.
FAQs
1. Who won the most recent Bears vs Rams regular season game?
The Chicago Bears won 24–18 in Week 4 of the 2024 NFL season, played September 29th at Soldier Field in Chicago. D’Andre Swift’s 36-yard rushing touchdown in the fourth quarter was the decisive score.
2. What were Caleb Williams’s stats against the Rams in 2024?
Williams completed 17 of 23 passes for 157 yards, one touchdown, and zero interceptions in the regular season meeting. His passer rating was 106.6. He added five carries for 12 rushing yards.
3. How did Matthew Stafford perform in the regular season game?
Stafford completed 20 of 29 attempts for 224 yards but threw one critical interception and was sacked three times. His passer rating of 77.4 reflected a below-average performance by his standards.
4. Who was the Bears’ top rusher against the Rams?
D’Andre Swift dominated the ground game with 93 rushing yards on 16 carries and a 36-yard touchdown. He also caught 7 passes for 72 yards, giving him 165 total yards from scrimmage.
5. Who led the Rams in receiving yards in the 2024 regular season meeting?
Tutu Atwell led all Rams receivers with 82 yards on four receptions. Jordan Whittington added 62 yards on six catches, and Demarcus Robinson contributed 37 yards.
6. Did the teams play in the 2024–25 playoffs?
Yes. The Rams and Bears met again in the 2024–25 NFL Playoffs, with Los Angeles winning the rematch. Kyren Williams scored two rushing touchdowns and Stafford threw for 258 yards in the victory.
7. What was the turnover margin in the regular season game?
Chicago committed zero turnovers. Los Angeles committed two — one interception by Stafford and one fumble lost. This two-turnover margin was the primary reason the Bears won despite being outgained in total yards.
8. How does the Bears’ red zone performance compare to the Rams’?
In the regular season meeting, the Bears converted two of four red zone opportunities (50%). The Rams converted just one of four (25%). This gap in red zone efficiency was a major factor in the final score.
9. Who coaches each team in this rivalry?
Sean McVay has been the Rams’ head coach since 2017 and won Super Bowl LVI. The Bears hired Ben Johnson as their head coach ahead of the 2025 season, bringing his reputation as one of the NFL’s most innovative offensive coordinators.
10. What is the historical series record between these two franchises?
The Rams hold the advantage in the all-time series between these franchises, which dates back many decades. Both clubs are among the NFL’s most storied original franchises.
11. Do the Bears and Rams play each other in the 2026 NFL season?
No. The 2026 NFL schedule does not include a Chicago Bears vs Los Angeles Rams matchup. Inter-conference games rotate on a multi-year schedule, so next meetings will be determined by the league’s scheduling formula.
12. What makes this matchup particularly interesting going forward?
The contrast between two quarterbacks at opposite points of their careers — Caleb Williams just beginning his journey and Matthew Stafford deep into a Hall of Fame-caliber career — gives this matchup a compelling generational narrative. As Williams develops and the Bears add talent, this game carries increasing weight in the NFC landscape.
