Offense
- The Bears came out with one TE. The Giants snuck an extra guy sup in the box at the last minute. The Giants were obviously focused on stopping the run and making Mitch Trubisky beat them. That’s the way I would have played it, too. They looked like they were particularly ready for Cordarrelle Patterson. They keyed on him whenever he appeared in the back field.
- Color man Charles Davis rightly pointed out in the fourth quarter that Patterson still doesn’t have the kind of vision that you’d like as a running back. But I think he’s getting better.
- To Matt Nagy’s credit he stopped with the run despite the Giants’ determination to stop it. They did a decent job of running it to my eye as well.
- Loved the pass to David Montgomery for a touchdown in the first quarter. We’ve heard for more than a year now about how he can catch a pass. He got it and ran with good vision to dodge defenders and get across the goal line. I’d love to see more of that and see what happens. Hicks looked healthy.
- Khalil Mack also looked healthy today. Perhaps he was energized by the presence of a competent pass rusher on the other side in Robert Quinn.
- There’s a good part of me that thinks the Bears are more likely to call designed runs for Trubisky because they have Nick Foles backing him up in case of injury.
- Trubisky looked more accurate to me today in the first half. I’m no expert but to my eye his footwork looked better as well. That’s probably not a coincidence and I think its a bit encouraging. His second half was rougher as the Giants cleaned up the coverage underneath.
- Speaking of that, I thought the Bears should have gone down field more with the ball. They were set up to take advantage of the play action and it seemed to me like there should have been more there.
- I know Trubisky spread it around today but he still looked to me like he was occasionally forcing it to Allen Robinson. He needs to prove that the other receivers can really burn the opponent first. Until then, Robinson will get all of the attention.
- Three sacks for the Giants in the first half. The offensive line looked to me like they did a good job in the run game but the protection looked like it left something to be desired.
- Trubisky almost gave me a start on the second touchdown. He held the ball and kept the play alive but if he’d taken a sack to take them out of field goal range, I’d have been apoplectic. As it was, OK. It worked.
- Anthony Miller had a rough day with a couple big drops. Both passes hit him in the hands. That’s disappointing.
- I expected more production from the tight ends. Without it the offense is going to struggle.
Defense
- The Giants really looked determined to run today. Daniel Jones didn’t look great and perhaps that had something to do with it. The loss of Saquon Barkley to injury in the second quarter didn’t help that but they still kept at it and had some success.
- What a move by Akiem Hicks to get around the offensive tackle to penetrate and stop the run.
- Perhaps is a huge compliment to Jaylon Johnson, the Giants started the game off passing to Kyle Fuller’s side. Fuller was on top of it and they eventually got smart and went more at Johnson.
- Danny Trevathan was caught trailing in coverage again in the second quarter on a pass for a big gain midway through the second quarter. I’m surprised it took them that long to test him and they really should have done it more.
- The Bears were playing off coverage late in the third quarter and allowed the Giants to drive from their own 5 yard line to a touchdown. That’s mighty early to be concentrating on protecting a lead.
- Jones showed some mobility to avoid what looked like a much improved Bears pass rush. I also thought he was smart with the ball, throwing it away when he had to.
- There was some sloppy tackling late in the game on the last drive. That should be cleaned up. They looked tired.
Miscellaneous
- Ian Eagle, Charles Davis, and Evan Washburn were your announcers. I’m not Davis’s biggest fan but I think he was fine today. Nothing special but certainly more than solid. Ian Eagle is a pro. These guys were better than most of what we’ll see this year at noon.
- The more CBS tries to mimic realistic crowd noise, the more irritating it gets. I don’t’ know why.
- The Bears looked like they were very aware of returner Jabrill Pepper’s ability in the return game. The Giants were equally aware of Patterson as they popped up a kick in the fourth quarter rather than kick it to him. Cairo Santos missed a 50 yard field goal wide left that the bear really needed with 2 minutes left in the game. The Bears were leading by four points.
- Eddie Jackson got called for a critical pass interference call in the fourth quarter that called back a pick six. Personally I thought he was just going for the ball. Tough break. It was a ten point turn as the drive eventually resulted in a field goal. Germain Ifedi got called for a chop block in the fourth quarter that called back a big Montgomery run making it first and 25.
- Anthony Miller dropped a pass that landed in his hands in the first quarter that would have resulted in a big gain. He dropped another first down in the third quarter in Giants territory that killed a drive. Darius Slay dropped a badly needed first down for the Giants in the third quarter to kill a drive in Bears territory. The Giants settled for a field goal.
- Robert Quinn signing paid immediate dividends in his first start as he caused a Daniel Jones fumble on the very first Giants possession. The Bears recovered and got a field goal out of it. It was a tough day for Jones. He didn’t see Deon Bush and threw him an interception in Bears territory in the second quarter. The offense did nothing with it. Trubisky threw a damaging interception early in the second half after trying to force it to a bracketed Robinson one too many times. He threw another critical interception in the fourth quarter with the Bears up by only 7 points while trying to get it again in to Robinson. The following Giants drive resulted in a field goal.
- This was a tale of two halves as the offense had a good first half but not a good second half. I think the Giants made some good adjustments and played some good defense but the Bears also failed to make plays when they had to and made some boneheaded mistakes with untimely penalties, drops and turnovers. This is what bad teams do. The defense held up and played well but that Giants offense isn’t exactly the Chiefs, especially without Saquon Barkley, who left with what turned out to be a torn ACL. The Bears won and they’ll take it. But they aren’t a good team right now.