The Chicago Bears (2-2) suffered a 20-12 defeat by the New York Giants (3-1) on Sunday.
Buy Bears TicketsChicago’s offense was held without a touchdown after stalling in the red zone on three separate occasions. Placeholder kicker Michael Badgley accounted for all 12 of the Bears’ points, connecting on all four of his field goals. Despite allowing just 20 points, the defense remained porous against the run as Saquon Barkley ripped off 146 yards on the ground.
Here’s a quick breakdown of what we saw during the game and how we graded the Bears in this loss.
Offense: D
It certainly appears that this is what we’re going to get from the offense this year, which means it’s going to a long season. Justin Fields looked better than last week (which isn’t saying much), and he even eclipsed 100 passing yards by halftime (which was a pleasant surprise). Fields finished 11-of-22 for 174 yards with no touchdowns but, most importantly, no interceptions. But his offensive line, receivers (not named Darnell Mooney) and play caller weren’t much help.
Heck, even the league’s second-ranked run game lacked the oomph that made this offense tolerable last week. Still, Khalil Herbert had 19 carries for 77 yards (4.1 average) and Trestan Ebner had six carries for 20 yards (3.3 average). The offensive line was a mess in pass protection, allowing six sacks on Fields, including five in the first half alone. Fields had no choice but to take off and run at first sign of trouble. Fields had seven carries for 52 yards. And the fact that their top offensive lineman Cody Whitehair left with a knee injury means Fields can probably expect to be running for his life all season.
One positive? The Justin Fields-Darnell Mooney connection finally emerged as a three-week hibernation. The highlight on offense was a 56-yard deep shot to Mooney, and Mooney finished with four catches for 94 yards. But, despite that first-half success, he wasn’t as involved on offense in the second half.
Defense: C
The Bears defense was downright horrendous in the first half. With Chicago intent on stopping running back Saquon Barkley, they were especially vulnerable to play-action bootlegs. Quarterback Daniel Jones repeatedly fooled the Bears defense, where he turned two of those boots into touchdowns.
While Chicago was intent on stopping Barkley, they failed to do just that. Barkley gained 146 yards on 31 carries (4.7 average), as he was the entirety of the Giants offense. New York had just 71 passing yards on the day. The Bears run defense has been brutal in three out of four games, and it’s showed no signs of improvement.
It was a disappointing outing by the defense. But, when all is said and done, this Chicago defense only gave up 20 points. They kept the offense in this game, including Eddie Jackson’s impressive interception in the fourth quarter. But the offense went three-and-out right after. Jackson has been a shining light on defense this season, as he has three interceptions in the last four games. Unfortunately, rookie Kyler Gordon continues to struggle. He had a brutal outing against the Giants, where he was repeatedly beat and committed back-breaking penalties.
Special Teams: C+
Considering the Bears were without Cairo Santos, this wasn’t the game where you wanted the kicker to account for every point. But give it up for Michael Badgley, who joined the team on Saturday, as he was a perfect 4-for-4 on field goal attempts. Josh Blackwell forced and recovered a fumble on a Richie James kickoff return, which led to a Chicago field goal. Unfortunately, a solid special teams outing was ruined by a Velus Jones Jr. muffed punt in the fourth quarter, which pretty much sealed the win for the Giants.
Coaching: D
We’re just four games into the Matt Eberflus era, but it’s been a rough one for him and his coordinators. Eberflus made sure to use of all of his timeouts before halftime this week, so as to avoid any criticism. But he couldn’t escape it given his decision to punt on 4th-and-2 near midfield with 3:15 left in the game. It would wind up being the final drive where the Bears had a chance to score, not they would’ve considering how the offense hadn’t scored a touchdown on three red zone possessions.
Defensive coordinator Alan Williams had a rough go of it in the first half, where he didn’t seem to have an answer for the play-action bootlegs that were burning his defense. But at least Williams made adjustments at halftime. Offensive coordinator Luke Getsy was a disaster from start to finish. Getsy’s conservative play calling continues to be a detriment to this offense, especially in the red zone. Getsy appeared ill-prepared for Wink Martindale’s penchant for blitzing, which left Justin Fields out to dry on several occasions. Getsy has already worn out his welcome in Chicago, and he needs to do some self-evaluation after this one.
