Defense
- The Giants obviously watched the last couple games closely becuase they definitely noticed the Bears weakness against the run. Running the ball with Saquon Barkley is what they do anyway so it’s a good combination for them. Barkley ran 31 times for 146 yards.
- One of the things that the Bears tried to do to stop Barkley was to bring Eddie Jackson on a run blitz. It was a risky play. When it worked it worked very wellwas disruptive. But when it didn’t work, perhaps because the Giants ran the ball to the other side, it basically took Jackson completely out of the play with no chance to involve himself. Was it surprising in that it didn’t seem to be the kind of risk that Matt Eberflus would ordinarily take.
- The Bears were also flat out stacking the box against the Giants tight formations i an effort to stop the run.
- And the Giants also obviously noticed that the Bears weren’t very doing a very good job of containing the run outside on film. They took full advantage of it. Daniel Jones was constantly rolling out on bootlegs and, in fact scored the first and second Giants touchdowns were run to the left on such a play. Jones burned the Bears badly with his mobility today.
- The Bears have real problems on their defensive line. They are having a great deal of trouble penetrating against the run. It’s going to cost them this year if they don’t get better there soon.
- Nice to see Jackson get another pick today. This defense definitely seem to suit him.
- I also thought Roquan Smith had a good game. He had 10 tackles.
- I saw a lot of missed tackles out there.
<>Offense
- Not surprising. The Bears came out running the ball. Also not surprising, the Giants were ready for it and played a heavy box. It was uphill sledding for Khalil Herert who averaged 4 yards per carry with his better runs coming in the second half.
- The Bears offensive line as a whole just got whipped at the line scrimmage today. They had a very difficult time protecting Justin Fields, especially Braxton Jones, and the run game really struggled. They averaged 4.7 yards per carry on the ground but much of that was from Justin Fields scrambles.
- The Bears also came out targeting Darnell Mooney. He seems to have finally gotten going. He was the Bears most productive receiver with 4 catches for 94 yards.
- I don’t think that Trestan Ebner runs with the same authority that Herbert and David Montgomery do. He’s sometimes just a little tentative when hitting the hole. Perhaps he just needs more experience in the league to gain more confidence.
- Rookie wide receiver Velus Jones Jr. made his NFL debut after a lingering hamstring issue. He went without a catch but his fumbled punt return with 2 minutes left in the game was probably not what he envisioned for his first game.
- The Giants were missing defensive lineman Leonard Williams (sprained right MCL) again and they had been struggling to stop the run without him. Really managed to stifle the Bears run game without him today.
- Nice to see the Bears finally start to execute those screen plays. They caught the Giants a couple times and got some nice yardage. It was an interesting way to get Cole Kmet involved in the game.
- Fields sees pressure coming up the middle and his eyes dilate and his brain freezes. Instead of quickly getting rid of the ball he looks like a deer in the headlights. It looks like he’s going to be susceptible to this.
- Fields did a good job of running today. In fact, he was the run game for most of the contest. But he and the Bears should take a lesson from the Giants where both Jones and Tyrod Taylor got hurt doing the same thing.
Miscellaneous
- Joe Davis, Daryl “Moose” Johnston and Pam Oliver. I’ve always liked Johnston more than most people but I thought he really did a superior job of dissecting plays today.
- Michael Badgley was 4 for 4 on his field goals in his first game as a Bear. Long way from the days when the Bears tried out like 50 kickers and couldn’t find a decent one.
- Velus Jones was your kick and punt returner. I’m not surprised. Trestan Ebner wasn’t exactly showing himself to be dynamic and Dante Pettis looked like he flat out didn’t want to be out there. Then Jones fumbled the punt away down by 8 points with 2:00 to play… not better.
- The Bears are only going to win this year through superior discipline and by winning the turnover battle. They committed only 5 penalties to the Giants’ 7 but did not do that latter as it was 2 turnovers all.
- Sometimes football is a simple game. Bears got beat on both sides of the line of scrimmage today. When it’s all said and shifted, that was an awfully big reason why they lost. We can hope that this will get better over the course of the year. But I’m reasonably sure that, like most of the areas of the team, this is a place where they’re going to need an influx of talent in the off-season. I guess we’ll just have to add it to the list.
- To the New Orleans Saints: Welcome to our world.
-
I’ve been as big a supporter of Matt Eberflus and his staff as anybody. But I can’t help but wonder if the Bears weren’t out-coached and outplayed today. The Giants coaching staff seem to have a very good idea what Bears were going to do and had just the right plan in place to stop it.
With Ryan Poles as a first time general manager, Eberflus as a first time head coach, Luke Getsy as a first time offensive coordinator and Alan Williams having not been a coordinator in 9 years, it seemed to me like there was going to be a learning curve for everybody going into the season. I think the Bears may have paid the price for that today.
I think that might be OK in a developmental year where the players are young and learning and you really don’t expect to win. Eventually we can hope that the Bears coaches grow into their positions in the same way that we can hope that the Bears players grow into theirs.