The Bears would take on the Cleveland Browns in their final pre-season game. A lot of starters would sit out of the game, giving way for back-ups to make a case to win a roster spot. The Bears won the game 24-14.
One good sign is that the Bears offensively scored a high of 24 points. The Bears open up the regular season September 11th vs the Atlanta Falcons at Soldier Field. Here are our observations from the game.
- Injured players who would sit out included Lance Briggs, Anthony Adams, Marion Barber, Kellen Davis, Corey Wooton, and Sam Hurd. Not a concern since most starters sat out of the game anyway.
- Jay Cutler wouldn’t play but would sip gatorade on the sidelines for 3 straight hours displaying solid body language. Received minimal criticism from the Twitter-verse.
- Caleb Hanie drops back to pass on 2nd down, evades a sack and runs the ball for a 6 yard gain.
- Offensive line is creating a very solid pocket for Hanie. The protection so far on passing plays has been excellent.
- Bears first red zone trip would result in a 22yd field goal by Robbie Gould. Bears opening drive goes for 16 plays and eats up 7:36. Play of the drive was a 22 yd wheel route to Sanzenbacher on 3rd and 13.
- Browns would start QB Seneca Wallace, (Sidenote: I had no idea he was still alive), Seneca’s first drop back resulted in a big Henry Melton sack. Bears defense forces a 3-and-out.
- Bears 2nd drive results in a 19 yard TD pass to Johnny Knox from Hanie. Nice pass and great catch. This was the Bears 1st pre-season TD pass through 4 games.
- Bears’ Defense forces another 3-and-out. Dom DeCicco almost intercepted the 3rd down pass by Seneca Wallace.
- Nathan Enderle would manage the Bears 3rd drive of the game which would result in a 3-and-out.
- Nick Reed would have back-to-back impressive plays. 1.) Forcing Seneca Wallace out of the pocket for a 1 yard loss. 2.) Deflecting a screen pass for an incompletion.
- Mario Addison would have had a sack on 3rd down but, had his face mask almost completely torn off but, forced Wallace out of the pocket. Bears defense gets another 3-and-out. Next drive Addison would stay home on an end around to Greg Little and he would stop him for a loss. Last week Addison didn’t stay home and allowed Titans’ QB Jake Locker for to run for an easy first down. Addison having an impressive outing.
- UDFA RB Robert Hughes out of Notre Dame would get a rushing TD from 2 yards out.
- The Browns 1st first down of the game would come at the 4:51 point in the 2nd quarter.
- RB Khalil Bell limps to the locker room with an ankle injury. If injury is serious enough, Chester Taylor could see himself still on the team at the start of the regular season.
- Back-up Safety Craig Steltz would need to be helped to the sideline with an injury. Took awhile to get off the field, Steltz seems to be pretty shaken up.
- Andy Fantuz FINALLY caught a pre-season pass on a quick out. Going into half-time the score was 17-7.
- The 2nd half consisted of a score less 3rd quarter, and both teams exchanging scores in the 4th quarter.
- RB Robert Hughes out of Notre Dame wound up getting a lot of carries in the 2nd half. Hughes added 2 touchdowns on the ground.
- Nick Reed, Mario Addison made strong pushes for a roster spot with their performances.
- Cutler looked super smug on the sideline the entire game. I can’t wait to watch the camera pan to Jay on the sidelines during the season when the defense is on the field.
- One thing that irked me was Zach Bowman’s inability to intercept a pass. He had two pretty big opportunities for interceptions and squandered them. During the regular season if he can’t come up with those, he’ll find himself fetching water for Caleb Hanie, whose fetching it for Cutler.
