3 and Out: Bears Fall to Giants in Wild Affair
Defense is exposed in loss as Giants' Jones and Barkley each run wild
To get a feel of how this one went, all you needed to do was watch the final three minutes.
After those three minutes, the Chicago Bears came out on the losing end by a score of 20-12, moving them to 2-2 on the season.
Rookie Mistake
The Bears were able to get a stop and forced the New York Giants to punt with 2:13 to go in the fourth.
What followed is something that made you sigh. You know that sigh you usually let out every time the Bears let you down.
Velus Jones Jr., who for the record was playing in his first NFL game, waited on Jamie Gillian’s punt inside of the Bears’ 35-yard line.
When the ball came down, Jones Jr. was unable to make a clean catch and the Giants came up with the football.
You can never blame a loss on one mistake. Especially in the case of this loss, one where the Bears had plenty of opportunities to take control before it was settled.
After the muffed punt, the Giants ended up missing a field goal and the Bears had one more possession that ended with a play that included a pass, nine laterals, and four fumbles.
Jones, Barkley & Associates
One of the keys to the game for the Giants was the boot play.
Quarterback Daniel Jones scored the only two touchdowns for the Giants and both of them came via the rush.
After the game, Bears’ head coach Matt Eberflus was asked about how the team can get better at defending the boot scheme.
“It’s just execution. It is. It’s just execution. When you’re dealing with the out-of-the-pocket movement passes, it’s just execution by the defense and us coaching it up better,” Eberflus said.
Star running back Saquon Barkley did not find the end zone Sunday, but he was able to rack up 146 rushing yards on 31 carries.
On the flip side, the Bears who ran for a hefty 281 yards in their Week 3 win, ran for a total of 149 yards this time around.
Khalil Herbert started in place of the injured David Montgomery and managed to get 77 yards on 19 carries while Justin Fields once again used his legs to run for a season-high 52 yards.
Gamblers, Bears and Interceptions
Heading into this week's match-up there was more than a fair share of talk about the lack of passes Fields is seeing in this new offense. That over-arching narrative led to gambling sites putting Field’s over/under for yards against the Giants an extremely low line of 148.5-yards.
Fortunately for the Bears, Fields was able to garner 174 passing yards at the Meadowlands, he was also also able to complete four of his five targets to wide receiver Darnell Mooney, who recorded a season-high of 94 receiving yards.
The day’s highlight was a 56-yard bomb from Fields to his No. 1 reciever in the opening quarter.
A piece of information worth noting about Fields’ performance was tweeted by Lorin Cox:
On defense, the Bears were not able to stop Jones and Barkley, but they were able to come up with some big plays in the second half that they hope can carry over to next week, much like the wins against Houston and San Francisco
Safety Eddie Jackson made the biggest play when he intercepted Tyrod Taylor’s pass in the fourth quarter.
That is Jackson’s third interception in four games this season. The Bears suffered their first loss in a contest where Jackson collects an interception, moving their record in those instances to 12-1.
Jackson summed things up well on Sunday when asked about the Bears’ failure to take advantage of plays like the interception.
“That’s the part of the game. We have to go score on offense and we have to stop them on defense,” said Jackson. “It’s a team game on both sides. Nobody is to blame for it.”
The Bears return to action in Minneapolis this Sunday for their second NFC North match-up of the season, this time against the 3-1 Vikings.
Bear Tracks
Kicker Michael Badgley replaced Cairo Santos (personal reasons) this week. The late signing accounted for all the points on Sunday, going 4-for-4 on field goals.
Santos returned to the Bears on Monday (personal reasons)
Matt Eberflus announced on Monday that center Cody Whitehair will miss “some time” with a knee injury.
Saul Rodriguez is WARR Media’s associate producer and lead Bears reporter