Bears: Home Opener Live Notebook (Week 2 vs. Bengals)
Hello, your friendly neighborhood editorial director here, covering my first NFL regular season game.
Starting this later than I’d like, about 45 minutes late. Now that I got a hold of how to enter the press box wi-fi on my chromebook I should be good now.
Just using this space to relay thoughts, stats, developments and whatever else I catch from my birds-eye view. Again, cause of my lateness I can’t give much of the run-up stuff I’d have liked to have gave, so I’ll just show y’all a couple links helping to preview this week’s action from friends. The ‘GN segment above was produced and hosted by our guy Larry Hawley. Below you can link up with the All Day Football Show, part of the lineup from our folks at SportsZone Chicago.
Of course, you’d want to still check with our main guy Ryan Bukowiecki and his 4 goals for the Bears to gain success this week. Check what happens against his predictions and you’ll normally see he’s on point.
4th and Goal(s): Bears Trying Not To Get Housed In Home Opener
Opening drives: at halftime I think I’ll shout out some of my favorite #Bearstwitter follows. Funny thing about #Bearstwitter is its kind of quiet right now after the first two drives.
As is the case for the most strident sub-groups on that app, especially sports groups, they are mostly at their loudest and most entertaining when they are riding on their team’s mistakes.
As it is right now there aint much to complain about with the Bears score over Cincy (7-0).
That first drive with Dalton was just a shade under spectacular, especially given the fact that the team finally showed a willingness to throw the ball upfield. We can maybe expect more of this from Dalton - the Bengals are short some key men in their secondary and their front 7 looks willing to fill holes against David Montgomery that the Rams weren’t. Coming off a successful containing of the Vikings’ Dalvin Cook in Week 1, Chicago may not be able to see a second straight 100-yard game from Montgomery.
Will that mean Red Rifle to the rescue? Or will “Soldier” Fields have to be called on? No cameo appearances from him yet…
End of 1st: 7-0 Bears
Fields wound up getting his first downs from scrimmage towards the end of the quarter. Neither of the drives he appeared in worked as well as the drive where Dalton was allowed to do his thing…
Penalties have effected the game already, 3 for each team right now. Taunting has been marked a lot. Ties between these two team’s rosters aren’t obvious beyond Dalton’s history as a Bengal. Maybe more should be looked into that - really, what’s all the extra emotion about? And if its making you get stupid penalties you got to question is it all worth it?
Dueling duhs: both these teams have talent and coaches with some spark but it seems like both sides like to stay in their own way as much as they like to oppose others. To that degree the twin fourth downs attempted by both offenses, each in the middle of the field, haven’t done anyone any favors as scoring has stalled and neither team has seen the opponent’s red zone since the Bears’ opening scoring drive.
That said, both defenses are exhibiting some good energy when it isn’t causing them to draw flags. Bears secondary has been much improved from Week 1.
Halftime: 7-0 Bears
The score not changing in the 2nd quarter took a lot of work on both sides, as you can read in my previous thoughts above. Biggest development towards the end of the 1st half is Dalton and his health. Not likely to return as it stands now.
After going 9-11 for his 56 yards and a TD, the Bears called on Fields again. It seems most of Fields’ play was actually given to him in relief of Dalton and not as part of a schedule of plays given to him. Will be interesting to see that cleared up post-game.
Twitter reaction to Robert Quinn’s dumb penalty that helped get Cincy 3 points in their first 2nd half drive:
A 53-yard FG got the Bengals within 4 of the Bears (7-3), a 12-play drive to start the 2nd half. The drive shouldn’t have been that long and ate up as much time as it did, it certainly shouldn’t have led to any scoring.
On the bright side for Quinn:
End of 3rd: 7-3 Bears
Bears maintain control as Dalton’s status deteriorates from “questionable” to “doubtful.” Yes, this is Fields’ game now and he looks to extend the lead, likely to a finishing point, with his latest drive bridging into the 4th.
Connecting with Allen Robinson and Mooney each on the drive, Fields gets the Bears back into Cincy’s red zone after an extended sabbatical. The drive ends with an incompletion in the end zone intended for AR. Santos nails the FG to extend the Bears’ lead to 10-3. Not out of the woods yet but the Bengals look like they may have only one or two plays left in them.
Its enough to tie the game sure, but how many mistakes do they still have in them, the likes of the fumble Tee Higgins provided that set up the last Chicago scoring drive.
Just under 15 minutes left - who wants it more? Or who simply is gonna mess up the least?
And our play of the game…:
A 53-yard interception return for TD by Roquan Smith makes it a 17-3 game in favor of the Bears.
Old school defensive assertion by Chicago here. Smith made an expert cut into Joe Burrow’s throwing lane. The kid may have tipped himself a little too much cause Ro’s timing was perfect and he had clear space heading toward his own sideline. Almost got ran down but he had enough air in him to finish the play…and likely finish the Bengals off.
10:55 left in the game but Burrow and his offense aren’t clicking like they did against Minnesota and the Bears’ defense looks like it wants its respect back with energy like they could run another game back after this one.
How things have opened up in this fourth quarter. The Bears still are letting points slip out their hands, but what they aren’t letting slip are passes from Joe Burrow, who’s been intercepted 3 times in the fourth so far. Let’s see how many more he can get in in the final 6:40 of the game.
What a finish: a lot happened since the last update, enough to make its own post (yeah, yeah, I know).
From a 17-3 Bears lead the game wrapped up 20-17 in favor of the Bears cause of multiple turnovers and another horrible play in the Bears’ secondary that earlier had seemed to leave all that mess back in LA.
Either way, the Bears escaped with a win on their home field much like Cincinnatti did in the depths of overtime to beat Minnesota last week. Should the Bears be honored for this win, the likely first to be mostly attributed to Fields in a possible record-setting career? IDK.
One thing -- like I just said you can compare this win for the Bears to Cincy’s win last week and the Bengals short road trip to Chicago has done them no favors in regards to their near future outlook. Next week, the Bears will make their own day trip to Cleveland, a team much better than both them and the Bengals.
What the Bears showed today is that they are comparable to the Bengals, for better and for worst: spurred on by talented young quarterbacks who still could use some refinement, sprinkled with talent throughout their defense but lacking depth in some key areas and open to bad things should injury come, talented running backs but with offensive lines who can’t be expected to do much of anything positive at a consistent level.
For the Bears to be at or near the Cincinnati Bengals level, enough to almost surrender a two-touchdown lead to them in the forth quarter this afternoon, is not a great sign of things to come. The Bears revealed more of themselves and their future today, they’re coming closer to self-actualization and no one has ever gotten through that process in a snap nor without putting in a lot of work.
Next week the Browns could show how much more work is needed of Chicago. In the meantime, the Bears can at least feel good that they aren’t a win-less team anymore. The stress that would have come with that for a team currently fragile could have sunk the season right away.
Final: 20-17 Bears
*check out our Sunday Night Special live stream this evening at 9 pm on WARR Media’s twitter page (@WARRMedia) or on our YouTube account (search: WARR Media) featuring my 3 and out segment with Ryan Bukowiecki. Also, watch out for the premier of Monday Night Means with yours truly and Drew Stevens at 6:30 pm tomorrow night, including our first video version of the Chicago Sports Exchange. Peace from Soldier Field.