The Giants were apparently intent on running the ball against the Bears defense. The plan was likely to force the Bears offense into three and outs and wear the defense down.
The Bears got decent pressure on Giants quarterback Daniel Jones. They did blitz on occasion to do it as is Chuck Pagano’s want.
Given the weak Giant offensive line and the blitzing, I’m surprised Khalil Mack didn’t have a better game. Jones usually did a decent job of getting it out quick. Mack did knock the ball out of Jones’s hand for a crucial fumble in the third quarter.
The Bear generally did a good job of stopping Saquon Barkley. Given the item above about running the ball, that was a key to the game.
Offense
The Giants weren’t getting a body on Tarik Cohen, allowing him to get off of the line. They corrected that in the second quarter.
The Giants were playing a lot of zone defense early which, if you’ve been watching the bears, you know is a mistake. They adjusted early in the second quarter and started playing more man-to-man.
Trubisky looked better in the pocket this week. He also was moving better outside and had some good runs. He was reasonably accurate (for him).
Unfortunately many of the other players on offense didn’t have a good game. The Bears flat out can’t get 11 guys to all do thier jobs at the same time on offense. If its not a edropped pass, its a penalty. If its not a penalty, it a missed block or a bad pass route.
As the broadcast team pointed out and as we have seen on a number of occasions over the course of the year, two or more Bears receivers somehow ended up i the same area of the field an awful lot today.
Trubisky did a good job with the hard count today. He got the Giants to jump a number of times.
Miscellaneous
Thom Brennaman is a professional. Chris Spielman did a good job today. I thought he pointed out a number of little things, particularly in terms of the X’s and O’s that the average viewer would have missed and which the average viewer would find interesting.
The Giants basically played the entire first half on the Bears half of the field.
Eddie Pineiro started the game by kicking the ball out of bounds.
A poor line drive punt by Pat O’Donnell set up the Giants touchdown in the second quarter.
The Bears allowed a big punt return for Jabrill Peppers later in the second quarter. fortunately the Giants missed the field goal. O’Donnell then promptly shanked the next punt after the Bears went three and out. The Giants promptly missed the field goal again. Fun stuff.
Twelve men on the field for an extra point in the third quarter made it a 38 yard field goal.
Cordarrelle Patterson made some good plays on punts to pin the Giants inside their ten yard line to partially make up for this clown show.
Drops were a problem all day for both teams. Saquon Barkley dropped what would have been a big gain early. Ben Brauneker dropped a potential touchdown midway through the first quarter. Trubisky threw an interception in the end zone later in the drive.
Time after time when the Bears produced a decent play, it was called back due to a penalty. It was one of those days and it didn’t help that the Bears had the worst officiating crew in the league to call every little ticky tack infraction. The penalties were atrocious. An illegal hands to the face call on an unidentified player brought back a 60 yard pass play.
Trubisky threw an interception in the end zone in the first quarter on what appeared to be a good play by Alec Ogletree. Daniel Jones fumbled inside the Giants 5 yard line in the third quarter. Mack knocked it out.
This was a bad, bad game between two bad teams trending in the wrong direction. At times it hurt too much to laugh. By far the most troubling thing about this game and this season is that the for long streaks the Bears offense doesn’t appear to be getting better. I think Trubisky is – and that is very good. But the team as a whole is finding new ways to mess up every good thing that happens on the field. The lack of discipline and the lack of coordination is very evident. And it has to be said that it comes back to the coaches. From that, you are forced to conclude that the future of this franchise over the next couple years may not be too rosy. It not that there isn’t hope. But the signs aren’t good.
The Bears came out in base 3-4, presumably expecting the run. That’s exactly what they got and it was the smart play on the Lions part. By running the ball, the Lions protected Jeff Driskel, who was in for Matt Stafford with a broken back. It also set the Bears defense up to be worn down to a nub by the 4th quarter, as has happened many time this year.
I thought maybe the Bears generated just a tad more pressure today than has been their habit. It still wasn’t a great game for it and Khalil Mack is still slumping. But it seemed like Driskel saw more than usual. The games at the line of scrimmage that they started running in the second half helped.
The Bears did a good job of holding the line of scrimmage and stopping the run early.
The Bears are playing more and more zone defense as they try to keep the defensive backs facing the quarterback to see if they can get more turnovers. Its not generating many, though and its making it a bit easier on the other team to scheme completions.
Nick Kwiatkoski had yet another outstanding game in relief of Danny Trevathan. He was all over the place in the second half.
Offense
Cody Whitehair was back at center and having the same problems snapping the ball that he had in his first year at the position. He was obviously rusty.
The Bears offensive line had a rough game through three quarters as they couldn’t run the ball. To head coach Matt Nagy’s credit, the run pass balance at half wasn’t bad. At half the it was 10 passes to 9 rushes on just 19 plays. The time of possession wasn’t terrible at 16:59 Lions to 13:02 Bears. But other than the last drive of the half by the Bears it was total ineptitude. The final count was 24 rushes to just 16 passes and the time of possession was about even at 31:47 – 28:06 Lions.
Once again, the Bears could not get Trey Burton or Anthony Miller going in the passing game, relying almost totally on Allen Robinson or Tarik Cohen when they needed a catch.
It was nice to see Cohen, however, have a nice game as he occasionally looked like his old self after a rough month where he definitely didn’t.
David Montgomery was breaking some tackles today and made some tough runs. This is the guy they drafted.
They needed to be tough because the offensive line generally struggled. They struggled to block the run with 3.2 yards per rush and Trubisky was sacked 5 times.
The Bears were a miserable 2 for 12 on third down. That just has to change and is in drastic contrast to last year when Trubisky had a habit of pulling big plays out to get first downs.
Miscellaneous
Ian Eagle and Dan Fouts were fine. Fouts tried to provide unique insight and, like the rest of us, explain the ineptitude of the Bears offense in the first half. Also like the rest of us, he failed but I can’t blame him for that and at least he gets an “A” for effort.
Eddie Pineiro missed an extra point. He actually almost missed two as he suck the fist one inside the left upright. That point was critical as the Lions had the ball with 3 minutes left down 7 points instead of 8.
Taylor Gabriel had a bad drop that was preceded by a bobble. Both were on third down and both would have been badly needed first downs. The Lions had a couple of critical drops down the stretch with only a few minutes left.
Both teams had too many penalties and the Bears should have had a couple more with a couple missed face masks that they were lucky to get away with.
Nick Kwiatkoski got an important interception early in the second half that the Bears turned into a Taylor Gabriel touchdown catch.
I loved it at the end of the first half when running out of time but with the clock stopped, the Bears wast4ed a time out. Trubisky threw a touchdown to Ben Braunecker anyway so no harm. But it was typical.
This was a tough game for the Lions. You wonder if they would have won with Matt Stafford at quarterback. The Bears showed some life in the second half and all credit to them for winning this game. But once again they wasted almost an entire first half with inept play on offense. I think its time to wonder about this team’s failure to improve over the first half of the season and I think we have to start pointing to the coaching, especially on the offensive line. Right now this team is stuck in the mud in more ways than just the failure to win.
The Bears came out running the ball but that was about it. They had just 3 rushing attempts in the first half. Not that there were many plays overall. The play calling was more even in the second half as the final count was 18 runs compared to 22 passes.
Instead they chose to rely once again on their struggling quarterback. Trubisky was inconsistent to be kind. Some times his confidence just looks completely shot. The Bears eventually calls swing passes and even a wide receiver screen just to get him some easy completions.
The Eagles started coming with heavy blitzes on third down because they knew that Trubisky would never find the open receiver under pressure.
It was nice to see Trubisky finally hit a deep pass to Taylor Gabriel in the third quarter. It set up a David Montgomery touchdown. I’d say Trubisky needed that in the worst way. It seemed to be part of a half time adjustment where the Bears decided to throw more long passes. It was reasonably successful as the Bears eventually mounted a comeback.
Defense
The Eagles had a smart game plan against the Bears defense. They used heavy misdirection against an aggressive Bears front seven.
On a related note Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz was very effective with the hard count today, getting the Bears to jump offsides a number of times.
The Bears once again lost at the line of scrimmage too often this game. The linebackers were getting caught up in the wash and couldn’t run to the play.
Jordan Howard certainly ran well today and looked like the Bears version two years ago. No one should be surprised. He’s now fully recovered from his knee injury.
The Bears didn’t always do a good job of stopping it but they were very aware of the screen pass today. That was obviously a big part of the plan.
It was nice to see Leonard Floyd show some life today by bringing some pressure.
Carson Wentz didn’t look as effective in the second half as he did in the first. His accuracy wasn’ quite on point. It looked like the Bears adjusted at half and started to take Zack Ertz away in the middle of the field.
Miscellaneous
Dick Stockton and Mark Schlereth were on the call. I eventually just turned the sound off. It wasn’t that it was terrible. There was just nothing added.
Special teams
Tarik Cohen had a couple bad drops that did not help Trubisky much today. Cohen hasn’t been himself this year. He’s not running with vision and his head doesn’t seem to always be in the game.
Penalties were horrendous for the Bears, especially presnap penalties. Nine penalties for 70 yards is too many. Many of them like Nick Williams roughing the passer penalty in the first half after the Bears had stopped the Eagles on 4th down were just plain dumb.
The Eagles won the time of possession battle and wore the Bears defense down, holding the ball for 39:53 (including most of the final 9 minutes of the game) compared to the Bears 20:07. It was Eagles 20:45 Bears 9:15 after a miserable first half.
Zack Ertz went wild today. Anyone heard from Trey Burton? Anyone?
Turnovers weren’t a factor today as neither team had any.
This turned out to be a winnable game for the Bears after some half time adjustments that enabled them to get back into the game. But once again, dumb mistakes and missed opportunities were too much to over come and the Eagles offense wore the Bear defense down in the end (again).