Three thoughts on the Bears' 19-14 win over the New York Giants Sunday at Soldier Field.
Defining mistakes
A 60-yard deep ball to Allen Robinson was negated in the first half by a hands to the face penalty on Cody Whitehair. Ben Braunecker, who was wide open, dropped a pass from Trubisky near the goal line a few plays before Trubisky threw an interception in the end zone. The first half was full of drops, penalties, and generally sloppy and bad play from the Bears.
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And in the third quarter, while the Bears looked to have some momentum, a wild sequence played out: Nagy tried to call timeout but didn’t before Whitehair snapped the ball to Trubisky, who ran for a three-yard touchdown. The Bears then went for two, but had to call timeout. After the timeout, Trubisky threw compete to Taylor Gabriel in the end zone, but the play was negated for a dodgy offensive pass interference flag assessed to Robinson.
So the Bears went for a PAT, but personnel confusion ensued, leading to defensive end Brent Urban dashing on to the field — despite him being the 12th Bears player on the field, leading to a five-yard penalty. Eddy Pineiro then missed the PAT, which was from 48 yards.
The Bears overcame these gaffes to beat an atrocious 2-9 New York Giants side, if only by five points. It turns out the Bears’ bad offense is better than the Giants’ bad defense. But all the sloppiness and self-inflicted mistakes do not lend themselves to an especially encouraged feeling after Sunday’s game.
Four-minute failures
NFL
After the Bears’ defense gave up a miraculous touchdown from Daniel Jones to Golden Tate on fourth-and-16, the Bears’ offense had one job to do: Chew up some clock and get some first downs.
David Montgomery, though, was stopped short of the line to gain on third and 1, giving the ball back to the Giants with a chance to win the game with about three and a half minutes left. A well-executed fire drill punt — on which all 11 players were substituted off the field — allowed the Bears to down the ball at the Giants’ six-yard line (thanks to a great effort by Cordarrelle Patterson). The Bears' defense steeled itself and forced a turnover on downs to seal the win.
But another reason to not feel all that good about Sunday’s game is the inability of this Bears offense to even get one first down in a four-minute situation. Make no mistake: This offense is still very much broken, and can’t manage to gain one yard for an important situational first down against one of the NFL’s worst defenses.
Season highs
Trubisky set a season high in passing yards (278) but also interceptions, with his second coming on an underthrown and ill-advised deep ball picked off by Westchester native Julian Love.
Those two interceptions left a stain on Trubisky’s day, even if it was otherwise his most productive game of the season. You’ll probably hear the Bears focus more in the coming days on the positives from Trubisky than the negatives, though, given their (correct) devotion to sticking with him as their starting quarterback through at least the end of 2019.
Robinson has been the lone bright spot on the Bears’ offense all season, and now has more yards (764) in 2019 than he had in 2018 (754). He did exactly what you’d expect a good player to do against a truly awful Giants defense, catching a 32-yard touchdown and hauling in a 49-yard deep ball by using his athleticism and savviness to dominate rookie corner Corey Ballentine.
It’s tough to feel good about many members of the Bears’ offense with an eye on 2020, but Robinson absolutely has been better than he was in 2018. The Bears should consider signing him to an extension — his contract expires after the 2020 season — to keep him in Chicago for the long haul.
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