The Chicago Bears play another close, thrilling game, building a big lead then holding on for the win.
Being a Chicago Bears fan requires a fan to take heart medication. Two weeks into the season and the Bears played two thrilling, frustrating victories. They won in different ways, but both wins were heart racing.
In Week 1, Chicago sleepwalked through three quarters against the Detroit Lions before suddenly playing like world-beaters. In Week 2, they built a big lead and held on for dear life as the New York Giants tried to do to them what they did to the Lions. The Bears held on, however, and came away with the 17-13 win.
The game started out so well for Chicago. They went on a 12-play, 82-yard drive. The drive ended with a 28-yard touchdown reception by running back David Montgomery. Quarterback Mitchell Trubisky started out as hot as he finished the Lions game. He went 4-of-4 for 62 yards on that first drive. The Chicago Bears showed some swagger and all was well.
Trubisky’s hot streak continued throughout the first half. He finished 13-of-18 for 158 yards and 2 touchdowns. He looked confident in the pocket and made some great throws. After those horrible first three quarters of the season, Trubisky suddenly went 21-of-38 for 247 yards and 5 touchdowns, without throwing any interceptions.
Then the second half started and the wheels fell off.
Bad Trubisky showed up again. He reverted to the quarterback who made bad decisions, bad throws and didn’t find open receivers. He went just 5-of-10 for only 32 yards, throwing no touchdown passes but threw two interceptions.
There were some good things that happened
There were a few positives that came out of this game, aside from an actual victory. The offensive line again did a good job. After struggling through most of the season in 2019, they played well in both games in 2020. Trubisky had a clean pocket for most of the time. The Giants did record four sacks, but two of them were on the quarterback. On one, he had Darnell Mooney (more on him later) wide open right in front of him but tried to go for the big play and held onto the ball for too long.
The other one came on the last Bears drive of the game. After dropping back, he couldn’t find an open receiver. He then took off towards the sideline. Of course, he didn’t want to go out of bounds, but he could have cut back and gained a few yards. Instead, he slid behind the line of scrimmage. Kicker Cairo Santos ended up missing a 50-yard field goal attempt. Perhaps a couple of yards in and he makes a better kick.
That decision is something head coach Matt Nagy wanted Trubisky to avoid. Last season, he ran and stepped out of bounds behind the line of scrimmage eight times. He stayed in-bounds, but panicked and slid instead of picking up much-needed yards.
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The line also did a good job of opening holes for David Montgomery. Montgomery finished the game with 127 total yards from scrimmage (82 rushing and 45 receiving) and that touchdown.
The line and Montgomery worked together to run a lot of clock on the Bears’ last drive. Montgomery ran for 45 of the Bears’ 59 yards thanks to the aggressive blocking by the line.
The linemen even got more involved in the passing game. On a fourth-and-one, the Bears decided to go for it. Trubisky dropped back and threw a pass that was deflected into the hands of tackle Bobby Massie. He made the catch and converted the first down.
Bank shot by Mitch! pic.twitter.com/Gb6N410IDJ
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) September 20, 2020
Mooney could be a steal
Mooney is making a name for himself. After last week’s game, Nagy said he’d try to involve the youngster more in the offense. Against the Giants, he was in on 39 snaps, second-most of any Bears receiver in the game (Allen Robinson was in on 53 snaps). Trubisky did look Mooney’s way and the kid got his first career touchdown catch.
Mooney was the Bears’ fifth-round draft pick. He had a good training camp and his success continued into the season. He and Ted Ginn basically play the same speedy receiver. However, the Bears deactivated Ginn in favor of Mooney. He responded well, so we’ll likely see even more passes go his way.
Despite the Bears owning a 2-0 record, there’s still a lot for them to fix before they’re considered a serious team. Trubisky still hasn’t had a complete game yet. If he wants to avoid having Nick Foles‘ name come up, he needs to play some complete games.
