Bears vs. Saints 3 takeaways: Fight shown in ugly loss
The Bears deserved to lose to the Saints, but at least showed some fight before falling, 26-23, at Soldier Field.
There was a lot to not like from the Bears on Sunday. Procedural penalties. Dumb penalties. Missed throws. Dropped passes. A botched two-minute defense. Far too much sloppy play.
And yet the Bears managed to play into overtime against a good New Orleans Saints team while missing 60 percent of its O-line starters and making all those mistakes.
This was not a pretty loss. The Bears, ultimately, deserved to lose.
But the Bears also showed some fight, and not just when Javon Wims became a Twitter sensation. This game could’ve gone the way of the Rams game – an embarrassment with little, if any, pushback by the Bears. It didn’t.
There are no moral victories in the NFL, of course. But if we were criticizing the Bears for winning ugly, we can at least give them some credit for making it a game.
Speaking of showing fight – just in the wrong way.
The Bears felt like they were starting to implode, and Javon Wims pushed the plunger.
There is, truly, nothing dumber on a football field than a player punching another player in the helmet. Wims did that, racing over to Saints safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson after Nick Foles completed a five-yard pass to Allen Robinson in the third quarter. He ripped off Gardner-Johnson’s chain, then punched him a few times. Gardner-Johnson didn’t react to the first punch, probably because he was wearing a helmet.
Wims was ejected and flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct, turning a second-and-five into a second-and-20. Nick Foles threw an interception on the next play.
Maybe this will be the thing that finally gets Riley Ridley active on gamedays (he’s been inactive for all eight games this year). The Bears like Wims’ versatility as a backup receiver – he can play all three of their receiver positions – and his rugged willingness to block. But he’s a former seventh-round pick. The team does not have much invested in him.
And actions like he took on Sunday are the kind of thing that get guys like Wims cut around the NFL. We’ll see if the Bears go that far, or just send a message by de-activating him next week.
The Bears weren’t planning on having Cairo Santos be their kicker in 2020. This was Eddy Pineiro’s job when training camp started.
But what a story Santos has been with Pineiro on injured reserve. He’s now made 13 of 15 field goals this year, and drilled a game-tying 51-yarder to send Sunday’s game into overtime. Santos only made four of his nine kicks with the Tennessee Titans last year, and since suffering an injury with the Kansas City Chiefs in 2017, bounced around the NFL without much success.
In Chicago, he’s mostly been known as the subject of a drop on colleague Adam Hoge’s “Hoge and Jahns” podcast – in which former Bears coach John Fox called him “Carlos Santos,” in that gravely voice of his. Good for him for becoming a heck of a kicker here, one who isn’t losing his job any time soon.
