There is joy again as the Chicago Bears finally ended their losing streak by trouncing the Houston Texans 36-7.
It’s over! The Chicago Bears beat the snot out of the Houston Texans 36-7 to stop their losing streak at six. It was a pleasure to watch them succeed and finish the game well. After starting out the season 5-1, the losing streak gave them a losing record. After the win, Chicago is now 6-7 for the season.
The Bears didn’t waste any time to get the scoring started. After the Texans punted, David Montogomery took a handoff on the first play from scrimmage and went 80 yards for a touchdown.
The defense, a unit that took a beating the last two weeks, made up for that by harassing Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson. The Bears sacked him six times (and backup A.J. McCarron once) and forced a safety. They also forced running back Duke Johnson to cough up the ball. Watson spent most of the game trying to avoid a Chicago Bears pass rush that was missing for most of this season. The Bears held him to just 219 passing yards. He added 38 rushing yards but almost all of them came in the first quarter and a half.
Even special teams got in on the action. The Bears forced punt returner Keke Coutee to fumble a punt.
The offense shined
What most people loved watching was the offense clicking. After scoring 30 points in Week 13 against the Detroit Lions, they put up 30 points in the first half against the Texans. Quarterback Mitchell Trubisky was 24/33 for 267 yards and 3 touchdowns. He added 23 rushing yards on 4 carries. More importantly, after committing four turnovers in the last two games, he had none against the Texans.
Yes, the Bears played the Texans, owners of one of the worst defenses in the NFL, but they’ve played other bad defenses yet didn’t have this success. It’s nice to see the offense click, no matter who it was against.
Montgomery finished the game with 113 yards on 11 carries and a touchdown. The entire rushing game did well again with the new-look offensive line. The running game averaged a league-worst 82 yards per game, but in the past three games with this new line, they averaged 119 before registering 169 against the Texans.
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The tight ends also contributed. Jimmy Graham and Cole Kmet combined for 8 catches for 64 yards. Graham caught his sixth touchdown of the season.
Another player who had a big game was wide receiver Allen Robinson. He had 9 catches for 123 yards and a touchdown. He now has 1,027 receiving yards for the season. He became the fifth Chicago Bears wide receiver to have back-to-back 1,000+ receiving yards seasons. He joined Curtis Conway, Marty Booker, Alshon Jeffery, and Brandon Marshall to accomplish that feat.
It’s great and frustrating to see how this offense looks when the running game and the tight ends play well. The defense cannot key in on the passing game, thus opening up space for the running backs. Also, the tight ends make those catches underneath to keep the chains moving. Furthermore, they give Trubisky big targets in the red zone. That’s exactly what happened when Trubisky just threw the ball up to Graham and he was so much taller than the defender that he made an easy catch.
The frustrating part is why it took until Week 14 to see how head coach Matt Nagy’s offense should look. We’re left wondering what could’ve happened if this happened earlier.
The defense came back
As mentioned before, the defense played well again. Khalil Mack led the way. He put a lot of pressure on Watson. He scored the safety when the Bears had back-to-back sacks after the Texans cut the Bears’ lead to 14-7 and got the ball back. The Texans hoped to tie the game. Instead, the Bears scored two points and on their ensuing drive, they scored a touchdown and suddenly the lead ballooned to 23-7. After another score, the game was pretty much over.
Mack and the other Bears defensive players heard all the talk about how the defense was letting the team down. The seven sacks were a season-high. This was how everyone expected the pass rushers to do from the start of the season.
Roquan Smith was another hot player on the defense. He recorded 12 tackles (two for loss), 2 sacks, and 3 quarterback hits. He now has 122 tackles this season, tying for his career-high. Barring an injury, his career-high will be much higher. He continues his march to make his first Pro Bowl and even go for All-Pro honors.
With the win and the Minnesota Vikings losing, the Bears’ faint playoff hopes are alive. Even if they win out (meaning they beat Minnesota next week), they still need help. The Arizona Cardinals need to start losing as well.
No matter what happens to the end of the season, the Bears’ owners need to change things. The team cannot just play hot/cold during the season and win just three playoff games like they have in the past 21 years.
Let’s hope that we see that the Chicago Bears do have some talent on the roster that they didn’t know they had. That way the rebuild won’t be as long as first thought.
