Case Keenum’s Bears Win: What Social Media Reveals About Fan Reactions

PeakMetrics analyzed social media reactions to Keenum’s performance, comparing fan opinions across cities and audience groups.

Case Keenum’s first NFL start in 1,009 days ended with a 27–7 Bears win over the Eagles. Before the game, fans across the league were joking about the 38-year-old backup’s age and questioning how he would perform. By the end, they were celebrating his touchdowns and sharing videos of him with his daughter.

Before kickoff, just 58.2% of posts expressing an opinion of Keenum were favorable. By the postgame window, that figure reached 86.7%. Overnight, the gain from pregame stood at 28.8 percentage points.

PeakMetrics analyzed reactions across seven social platforms, tracking how opinions of Keenum changed during the game and comparing responses by city and audience group.

Fans Went From Skeptical to Supportive

Pregame posts included jokes about Keenum making one last start and Eagles fans dismissing the possibility of losing to him.

By halftime, favorability had climbed to 77%, with fans expressing surprise at how well he was playing.

His third-quarter, 41-yard touchdown pass to Kalif Raymond produced the largest conversation spike of the night: 141 times the pre-kickoff baseline. It drew more posts in a five-minute window than the final whistle.

Memes and posts celebrating Keenum as an instant Chicago folk hero accounted for 24.6% of the classified conversation, making it the largest theme. Discussion of his quarterback play ranked fourth. Fans were already referring to the win as “The Case Keenum Game.”

Chicago and Houston Led Support for Keenum

Using PeakMetrics Location Intelligence, we segmented posts by location to compare favorability and topics across cities. This makes it possible to see where support or criticism is concentrated and what people in each market are discussing.

Chicago was already at 79% favorable before kickoff, compared with 58% across the overall conversation. Chicago’s favorability remained above the overall figure throughout the night.

Across the full analysis window, favorability varied by city:

Favorability reflects posts expressing a view of Keenum in each market.

Chicago and Philadelphia were separated by 53.9 percentage points. Naturally, Philadelphia was the only market in this comparison where criticism outweighed praise.

Houston, where Keenum played college football, was nearly as favorable as Chicago. It also accounted for the second-largest share of posts with an identified city, at 5.2%, behind Chicago’s 23%.

Chicago posts were more technical than the broader conversation. Fans discussed his pre-snap communication, hard counts, coverage recognition and handling of the pass rush, giving specific reasons for their praise.

Faith and Family Brought In New Audiences

Widely shared postgame content included Keenum celebrating with his daughter and embracing Caleb Williams, whose injury had given him the opportunity to start. His family, faith and career also drew attention from accounts outside the football audience.

Using PeakMetrics Author Intelligence, we segmented the sampled accounts into audience groups based on their posting histories, then compared each group’s size and favorability toward Keenum. This identifies who is participating and how reactions differ between audiences.

The analysis found that political, religious and civic voices represented 15.3% of sampled accounts, making them the second-largest audience group behind independent football and multi-sport fans. They represented a larger share than accounts identified specifically as Chicago Bears and Chicago sports fans, at 12.5%.

Favorability in the political, religious and civic group reached 97.5%. The report connects that enthusiasm to the faith and family elements of Keenum’s story.

Sports media, journalists and creators accounted for just 7% of accounts. Nearly nine in ten accounts were private individuals.

The Conversation Continued the Next Morning

The conversation continued into Tuesday, with favorability at 84% in the next-day window. Posts included record-book milestones, coaching film, performance analysis and locker-room audio.

For communications teams, the useful detail is in these differences. Chicago’s posts showed strong support and technical interest in Keenum’s play. Philadelphia remained largely critical. Political, religious and civic accounts responded favorably to his faith and family.

Combining conversation analysis with Location Intelligence and Author Intelligence lets teams examine those differences directly: which markets are supportive, which audiences are joining the discussion and what they are responding to.

Methodology: PeakMetrics analyzed posts published from September 28, 2026, at 6 p.m. through September 29 at 2 p.m. ET across X, Reddit, Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Threads. X was collected at a 50% sample and weighted accordingly.