It was the farthest thing from pretty.
Nonetheless, the Chicago Bears were able to go out in Week 3 and narrowly defeat a young and scrappy Houston Texans team 23-20 Sunday afternoon at Soldier Field.
Talk leading up to the game revolved around whether the Bears were going to throw the ball more against a vulnerable Houston team, that question was an answered early with a resounding “NO.”
It took one of the better team rushing performances in franchise history — going for a total of 281 yards, the 14th highest single-game total in Bears history and the most since running for 283 versus the Dallas Cowboys on September 30th, 1984 — to make this a winning effort.
Picking Each Other Up
When teammates aren’t doing well or others go down to injury, all football teams expect other players to pick up the slack, and winning football teams make it happen more than those who don’t win.
That is exactly what happened for the Bears on Sunday. Justin Fields had arguably his poorest showing as a professional and you can tell he felt it during the game. Afterwards, he expressed himself openly to the media.
“Just got to get better. Plain and simple. I think that's it. I played straight up, I just played, I don't want to say the A word, but I played like trash,” said Fields. “Really just got to be better.”
Fields threw for only 106 yards on 8-of-17 passing, he was intercepted twice by Texans rookie safety Jalen Pitre, whose interceptions matched the number of completions to each of the top three Bears receivers (Darnell Mooney, Cole Kmet and Khalil Herbert).
Herbert also did the bulk of the rushing on the game as on the injury front, starting running back David Montgomery had to leave the game in the first quarter when his right leg was twisted under a Texans defender. Head coach Matt Eberflus said after the game that Montgomery is considered day-to-day with a lower leg injury.
The H Factor
Fields’ growing pains and Montgomery's injury looked like a set-up for a completely disappointing day by Lake Michigan, but at this point second year running back Herbert decided it was time to step up.
And step up, he did.
Herbert rushed for a career-high 157 yards and two touchdowns on 20 carries. If Montgomery is to be out for a week or two as is very much possible, the Bears running game will be in good hands.
Fields was not able to get in a groove with the passing game but he was able to add 47 rushing yards on the day, includeding a 29-yard run on the opening drive of the game.
Equanimous St. Brown also got in on the rush party, when the Bears ran a Deebo Samuel-like play that saw the wide receiver run for a 41-yard gain in the first quarter.
Robert Quinn put things into perspective on Monday afternoon when he was asked what he sees from the sidelines when the run game is going well.
“I’ll flip it, if that was happening to us it's kind of demoralizing. If they can constantly pick up three, four, five yards, it can get frustrating,” Quinn said.
Stopped in their Tracks
One guy the Bears had to keep an eye on going into this one was rookie running back Dameon Pierce.
The University of Florida product had a quiet first week but has followed that with a pair of solid outings.
Sunday, Pierce ran for 80 yards against the Bears, including his first career touchdown. Of those 80 yards, 64 came in the first half. Just like the rest of the Texans' offense, Pierce had most of his success in the first half.
Heading into the halftime break, the Texans’ held a 14-13 lead but the Bears were able to put a stop to their momentum with clutch defensive plays in the second half. None were bigger than the one made by Roquan Smith in the fourth quarter.
With less than two minutes in the game, Texans’ quarterback looked to complete a pass to Rex Burkhead but the ball was deflected and it ended up finding the hands of Roquan Smith.
To go along with that takeaway, Smith added a game-high 16 total tackles.
The Bears look ahead to a Week 4 match up this Sunday at the 2-1 New York Giants.
Saul Rodriguez is WARR Media’s associate producer and lead Bears reporter