Bears Grades: A breakout day for the receivers, and less so for the running backs

QUARTERBACK: C+ 

It was a weird game for Mitch Trubisky, who had his second-best game of the season in passing yards (334) and second-worst in QBR (64.5). A low completion percentage, an interception and only one touchdown pass will do that. They certainly weren’t empty calories, though. You’d like to see him hit Anthony Miller on that deep ball in the first half, or connect with Jesper Horsted or Allen Robinson on those fairly-straightforward fourth-down passes. Still, Trubisky was not the reason the Bears lost, and he hasn’t been the reason for the better part of six weeks now. It’s hard to beat Aaron Rodgers at Lambeau when you play an okay game, and that’s exactly what happened on Sunday. 

RUNNING BACKS: D 

David Montgomery: 14 carries for 39 yards. Tarik Cohen: eight carries for 28 yards. What happened?

“There was a couple times where there was execution,” Matt Nagy said on Monday. “There was a couple calls in there as well. It’s all for our guys when they see that. They’ll see that. They understand. Again, it just goes back to 11 people—12 if you include coaches—just everybody being on the same page.” Yikes! 

WIDE RECEIVERS: A 

Sunday was the first time all season that the Bears had two guys go over 100 yards through the air. Allen Robinson – who has topped 1,000 yards for only the second time in his six-year career – had 125 yards. Anthony Miller – who has 33 receptions, 431 yards, and two touchdowns over the last five games – had 118. Those numbers look even more impressive when you look up what their first-half totals were. Allen Robinson is going to the Pro Bowl, and Miller has put together a second half that has to be reassuring to Nagy, offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich, and wide receivers coach Mike Furrey. And to think if Robinson had gotten that pitch from Jesper Horsted in time … 

OFFENSIVE LINE: C 

Given how often Green Bay’s front seven was in the backfield, it’s sort of surprising that they sacked Trubisky only three times. With that said, the Packers’ defense also had three QB hits and seven tackles for loss. Run-blocking was an issue all game. As Trubisky hinted after the game, Nagy didn’t put the line in particularly good positions to succeed, but it was an underwhelming performance nonetheless.

TIGHT ENDS: F

JP Hotlz finished the game with one catch and negative yardage. Jesper Horsted had one catch as well, but at least he got up to nine yards. Then there was, you know, that final play. 

“I had my eyes on the inside where the ball was coming from,” Horsted explained. “I was focused on would I be running with it or blocking, and then I got the ball, and the first thing I looked downfield and I saw a little bit of daylight, but I knew that I had a guy on the outside.

“In hindsight I should have gotten there a little bit earlier, but it was moving quickly and it was a little bit hard to see exactly what was going on to the right when I was focusing on straight and left.” 

DEFENSIVE LINE: B

The Bears struggled to get any sort of rhythm going in the pass rush, and weren’t much better stopping the run. Both of those start up front, though Akiem Hicks’ return was a huge boost to the unit. He got to Aaron Rodgers on the first play of the game, and despite having to go into the medical tent twice, Hicks finished the game with four tackles and two QB hits. It remains to be seen whether he'll play again this season; Nagy mentioned on Monday that the plan is to keep all the starters playing, but he admitted that those decisions weren’t final. 

“I will say this in regards to how he played yesterday, he was unbelievable” Nagy said of Hicks. “I thought he played lights out. Even all the stuff, fighting through the aggravations of the injury throughout the game, the way he played and the plays he made yesterday, that was fun. We missed that. That was fun to watch.”

For what it’s worth, Hicks artfully dodged the question of whether he'll play in the final two games when asked after Sunday’s loss. 

LINEBACKERS: B-

Kevin Pierre-Louis and Nick Kwiatkoski once again played well, and both are earning more money by the week. Kwiatkoski's sack was nice, and came in a huge moment, but you can bet he wants that second-half interception back. On the edge, it was a different story. Khalil Mack and Leonard Floyd each had only one tackle, and were largely missing throughout the game. When asked about Mack’s up-and-down season, Nagy was quick to defend his star rusher. 

“Sometimes we go by these stats and we talk about you have to have all these stats all the time to talk about what kind of player you are,” he said. “I don’t know if I necessarily believe that all the time. I think that you can affect the game in a lot of ways by doing things that some of us in here really don’t know based off the scheme. Even myself, going in to find out what was the call here and what was your role. You’re doing your job.”

SECONDARY: D

Another hit-or-miss performance from a unit that’s quietly gotten better throughout the season (at least by DVOA’s standard). Prince Amukamara looked to be struggling early, and it was interesting to see the Bears move to Kevin Toliver quickly. Amukmara, always a professional, said after the game that he understood and accepted the coaching decision, but Matt Nagy said on Monday that the decision was based on keeping Prince fresh. Toliver actually played well in spots. Buster Skrine sort of got his lunch eaten by Davante Adams in the slot. Davante Adams is good. Eddie Jackson led the team with six tackles, which would have been wild to even consider last year. Ha Ha Clinton-Dix’s return to Green Bay (one tackle) wasn’t quite as exciting as his return to Washington, D.C. (nine tackles, two picks).