Defense
- The Bears started this game stacking the run on first down but
eventually the Panther’s started spreading them out, then attacking
them up the middle. Presumably they were going after Christian Jones.
To a certain extent, it worked. - Other than that, I thought the Bears did a good job of stopping the
run generally. - Kyle Fuller had another excellent game. Eventually the Panthers
started going to the other side at Prince Amukamara with a bit more
success. They also attacked Bryce Callahan over the middle with some
success. - They’d have had more success but Cam Newton wasn’t having one of
his better days. He wasn’t very accurate and that certainly helped the
Bears cause. - Kudos to the Bears front seven as they got sack after sack on Newton.
Akiem Hicks, Leonard Floyd and Danny Trevathan all had sacks. That
certainly helped as well. They took advantage of some bad Carolina
blocking through the first quarter and a half. It got a little better after
that to my eye. - Trevathan really showed up again and had a very good game. He was
particularly effective on the blitz. - The Bears defense looked tired at the end of the first half. It was their
own fault. Carolina dominated the time of possession (22:21 Vs 7:39)
largely because the Bears kept scoring on defense. - Floyd had a good game getting pressure but I got a little tired of
watching him take an inside path to the quarterback, thus letting
Newton extend plays outside the pocket.
Offense
- The Bears didn’t get the ball on offense until 7:46 was left in the first
quarter because the defense was coring and giving the ball back to the
Panthers. - The Panthers stacked the line of scrimmage when they saw triple tight
end but mostly they played light in the box. you’d think the Pittsburgh
tape would have told them not to do that but… whatever. - The Bears are so bad at wide receiver that they basically made Tarik
Cohen into one today. Whenever he and Jordan Howard were on the
field at the same time, the Panthers were smart enough to treat him
like one as well and put the nickel defense on the field. Cohen still had
a huge 70 yard reception setting up a field goal. - Mitch Trubisky is still holding the ball too long. He had a sack at the
end of the first quarter that put them back to the limit of Connor
Barth field goal range at the 34 yard line. Barth missed it. He can’t
take a sack there. - Not a great day for Trubisky today. He was under pressure on third
and long with a blitz coming where he really needed to get rid of the
ball. He looks like he just doesn’t know where to go with the ball, yet. - I like the way that the Bears will occasionally go into the hurry up to
prevent Carolina from substituting. It works. - Cody Whitehair is really having problems this year. In addition to the
bad snaps before this game, he’s been getting pushed around quite a
bit more than you’d like up front. - Did OK but they allowed too much penetration in some important
spots today.
Miscellaneous
- Ian Eagle and Dan Fouts were fine. Can say that I learned a lot but we’ve certainly had worse.
- Connor Barth had a 42 yard field goal blocked. It looked like it came
out low. - The Bears did a reasonable job limiting penalties until, of course
the offense had to actually come through and try to help put the game
away. Then it was a flag fest. - Cohen had a drop in the first quarter..
- Eddie Jackson had a banner day in the run over department scoringon a long fumble recovery and then on a pick six, both over 70 yards.
Credit Amukamara on the assist on the lick six as he tipped the ball into
the air with some good coverage. Trevathan had a huge interception
midway through the fourth quarter. The Bears once again did a good
job here and it was key to keeping them in the game. - This was a terrible offensive game for the Bears today. They ran just
37 offensive plays and converted exactly two third downs. They had
the ball six times in the second half and all but the last one were three
and outs. They held the ball for only 21:25 and hung the defense out
to dry, leaving them on the field for 38:35 to wear down to a nub. This
just has to get better.On the bright side the defense played great today and really carried
the day. They not only accounted for stopping the Panthers but they
did almost all of the scoring, as well. Those guys were heroes today.
If you want the bottom line, its in the usual stats. The Bears won the
turnover battle (2-0), They had few penalties (only 2 until late in the fourth quarter) and they didn’t drop the ball much if for no other reason than there were so few passes. The Bears don’t have a big margin for error but they played reasonably well on a day that Cam Newton really didn’t. That was enough.