Chicago Bears vs. Atlanta Falcons Week 3 Quick Hits
Well, another week of this Chicago Bears team driving fans crazy, but they did it again. On Sunday, the Bears came back to stun the Atlanta Falcons 30-26 moving to 3-0 on the year. It was the second collapse in as many weeks for the Falcons and is quickly becoming what they’re known for. Dan Quinn has gotta get fired soon right?
The Bears entered the 4th quarter down 26 – 10 before rattling off 20 unanswered points to secure the win. Now, the comeback was aided by some ridiculous play calling by the Falcons. Before their final drive that ended in an interception, they had 3 straight drives going 3 and out. Of those 9 plays, they only ran the ball 3 times. They seemed to have no interest in running out any clock. They didn’t complete a single pass on those other 6 plays. Thank you Dan Quinn for some clueless play calling.
Anyway, on to the Bears:
Good Bears
Trubisky is (probably) no longer the starting QB for the Bears. Nick Foles is now the leader of this offense. The moment (almost) all Bears fans have been looking forward to. The Falcons defense came into this game ranked last or second to last in several categories including points allowed, yards, passing yards, and first downs. Trubisky couldn’t get anything going against a horrific Falcons defense that was even missing more starters. Trubisky not being able to get it done against this defense is all the proof you need that he just sucks. It can’t be sugar-coated anymore. Trubisky by all accounts is a great teammate and person, but that doesn’t win you games in the NFL. He simply cannot be a starting NFL quarterback.
Nick Foles delivered. Nick Foles came in and delivered 3 TDs in the second half and lived up to the BDN nickname. He should have had 5, but an overturned TD catch by Allen Robinson and another dropped TD in the end zone by Miller took those away. Foles wasn’t perfect and a few of his throws got away from him, but maybe that can be attributed to being thrown into the game and not having played in a game in months. He got especially lucky on a poor decision to throw into triple coverage to Jimmy Graham off his back foot, but it worked out. On the other side of that though, he stood in and delivered an absolute dime to Miller while getting hit to put the Bears up for good. It was a better throw than Trubisky had made all day.
The Bears don’t quit. I mentioned this last week… it’s not a good thing that the Bears continuously put themselves in this position to have to be these “comeback kings”, but the team doesn’t give up. Hopefully with Trubisky outta there, the Bears can start playing with a lead and put some teams away.
The defense came up with a stop when needed once again. Similar to being these “comeback kings”, it’s not great that the Bears continuously find themselves in positions at the end of games where they’re needing a defensive stop on the final drive of the game to get the win. In weeks 1 and 2, they got the pass breakups to end the games, and now in Week 3, they got the interception to seal it.
The Bears made it to Week 3 before getting their first holding penalty. Just an interesting note. Team has been disciplined so far this season on offense.
Bad Bears
Tarik Cohen might have torn his ACL. Cohen will get an MRI Monday, but the initial diagnosis is a torn ACL. It happened on a punt return when a Falcons player was blocked into him on a fair catch. It’s not the end of the world if Cohen is lost for the season, but he’s a solid player that is good for the occasional spark play.
Riley Ridley was inactive again. Earlier in the week Nagy said it was a “numbers thing”, whatever that means. Dude probably won’t play another down for the Bears.
Anthony Miller dropped another TD pass. I really hope these are flukes, but it’s becoming a trend. It hurt even more because it was on 4th down, too. If it continues, Mooney might quickly turn into the number 2 WR option on this team. For the second week in a row, the rookie has out-snapped Miller (51 – 47), so he’s already headed in that direction. Miller did redeem himself at the end of the game and caught what ultimately ended up being the game winning TD.
The defense still seems off. They held the high powered Falcons offense to 26 points, but they were missing Julio Jones, their number 3 WR Russell Gage, and starting RT. The secondary got burned a few times. It was nice to see Mack and Hicks get to the QB for the second week in a row though.
Kicking, kicking, kicking. Cairo Santos missed a 46 yarder on the first drive of the game that would have got the Bears off to a good start. 46 yards is no chip shot, but it sure as hell would be nice for the Bears to just consistently make kicks.
Trubisky is (probably) no longer the starting QB for the Bears. I know I listed this as a good thing, but there is a bad side to this. It officially means Ryan Pace royally screwed up the 2017 draft. If Trubisky were to put it all together this year, it might have made that draft sting a little less, but that’s not gonna be the case. It’s now most likely the single worst draft pick of the franchise.
The Bears now look to take on the Colts next Sunday out on the Lakefront. The Colts are solid, but it should be a pretty winnable game for the Bears. They’re coming off a defensive clinic (2 INTs, 2TDs, and a Safety) against the Jets…but it was the Jets. They’re awful. Amazing that arguably the two worst teams in the NFL are in New York and play at the same stadium…
If Foles is indeed the starter moving forward, we’re going to see a very different Bears offense. A more productive one. It appears the Trubisky era is over.