Defense
- Cowboys came out in 11 personnel and that seemed to be their base most of the time. They often stacked almost everyone inside at the line of scrimmage. The Bears played 8 in the box to defend it but got hurt for big chunks of yardage in the passing game, especially on play action.
- Adrian Amos had a heck of a (clean) shot on Cole Beasley in the first quarter. Harold Jones-Quartey also hit some people pretty hard. Bears fans had to like the look of that. The defense needs more of it.
- I’d like to say that the Bears once again had trouble getting off the field on 3rd and 4th down. But the truth of the matter is that there were a lot of drives where they simply never got to third down. That’s how badly they were getting beaten.
- I don’t think the Bears are going to get far putting guys like Leonard Floyd in single coverage on Jason Witten. I’m like most people in that I don’t know what the answer to Witten is but that ain’t it.
- Ezekiel Elliot looks like the rookie of the year to me. He’s eventually going to rack up a lot of yardage behind that offensive line.
- The Bears front seven really got dominated in the running game. There was no penetration by anyone to stop Elliott and the linebackers were really getting sucked up in the play action passing game. The Cowboys ran for 5.6 yards per carry in the first half when the game still mattered.
- I think the Bears missed nose tackle Eddie Goldman a great deal. Will Sutton got pushed about quite a bit in his place.
- Anyone else getting tired of cornerbacks like Jacoby Glenn trailing wide receivers by two yards after getting beaten off the line of scrimmage? Me, too.
- The Cowboys really picked on those younger cornerbacks. They hardly threw at Tracy Porter, though he did give up a touchdown to Dez Bryant in the fourth quarter.
- Leonard Floyd continues to look active out there but he’s not having much of an impact.
- First Cowboy punt of the game? It came with 5:00 left in the third quarter.
Offense
- The Bears also came out in 11 personnel. The Cowboys played 6 in the box. So they obviously didn’t respect the Bears running game much. For the most part they were right not to.
- Brian Hoyer certainly does have a quick release. But if he was throwing with anticipation, I didn’t see it. His accuracy was OK. He overthrew Cameron Meredith on a potential big play late in the game.
- I don’t know if Jordan Howard is just that much better or what but things seem to happen when he comes into the game.
- Also note that the Bears are rotating running backs within a series now instead of giving the running backs all of the downs in one possession, as they did last year. Interesting that Dowell Loggains chose to change this.
- I swear it’s like the Cowboys knew the Bears plays at times. Defensive players literally ran to where offensive players were going and beat them to the spot. Is Loggains’ offense that predictable? It appears to be so.
- Hoyer appeared to finally find Zach Miller late in the first half after the Cowboys defense loosened up the coverage with a big lead. The needs to happen more.
- Cody Whitehair looked fine. Kevin White looks like he might be getting better to my eye. I liked that Hoyer kept going to him late in the game.
- The Cowboys did a pretty good job of limiting Eddie Royal after two good games to start the season.
- I thought the offensive line did a decent job of giving Hoyer time against a reputedly weak Cowboys defensive line.
- The time of possession at halftime: Cowboys – 21:47, Bears – 8:13. First downs: Cowboys 19, Bears 4. And I’m honestly surprised the Bears had that many.
Miscellaneous
- Al Michaels, Cris Collinsworth, and Michele Tafoya were your announcers. Collinsworth is usually the best color man in the game but this game was so bad it even made him ordinary.
- Had to like the fact that John Fox apparently learned his lesson last game. After not challenging a crucial spot then, he challenged one in the first quarter of this game and won it. He did the same thing late in the game and won again. Generally speaking I didn’t think that penalties hurt the Bears that badly as such things go. A hands to the face penalty by Charles Leno spoiled a great catch and run by Kevin White in the first quarter. It also stopped the first Bears possession cold. Willie Young got called for a roughing the passer in the fourth quarter but there was no call on Jason Witten who literally pulled his helmet off and had it left in his hand as Young got by him.
- Special teams were fine. Dan Bailey missed a kick for the Cowboys in the third quarter that kept the Bears within two touchdowns of the lead. The Bears went with a surprise onside kick in the second quarter. It didn’t work. The Bears were offside and had to re-kick. It was typical of the night in general.
- The Bears didn’t drop the ball that much and the Cowboys didn’t drop it at all. Jeremy Langford had a big drop on the first quarter on third down. That killed a possession. It hard to say if the events were connected but we started seeing a lot of Jordan Howard shortly after that. White had a drop of a nearly perfect deep pass in the fourth quarter.
- There weren’t many turnovers in this game either way. Glenn had a nice strip at the beginning of the second half that resulted in a turnover. Cameron Meredith gave up a fumble in Bears territory late in the third quarter. Brian Hoyer turned the ball over trying to make a play late. That effectively ended the game.
- For those of you who were forced to watch this travesty, the Bears are also on in prime time for two consecutive weeks next month. Enjoy.