The Chicago Bears beat up on the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday, winning the game 41 – 17 and I can’t believe I’m saying this but…the Bears are a win away from making the playoffs. The San Francisco 49ers gave the Bears a belated Christmas gift on Saturday when they beat the Arizona Cardinals as they now have the same record as the Bears and the Bears own the tie breaker.
The Bears gave the Jags a (expected) beat down on Sunday and there was a lot of good that came out of the game. It was only the Jags, but you ALWAYS have to beat up on the teams you know are worse than you. It was nice getting a Nick Foles appearance that wasn’t due to Trubisky sucking and being pulled or injured.
Good Bears
Roquan Smith had an unreal game. It’s a travesty that Roquan didn’t make the Pro-Bowl, but here we are. Dude was all over the field once again, finishing with 8 tackles, 2 broken up passes, 2 INTs, and a fumble recovery. Just a massive game. There was a brief scare at the end of the first half where he appeared to get injured after a pick, but he played in the second half and continued to dominate.
The offense put up 41 points. The competition hasn’t been great, but the Bears have put up 30, 36, 33, and 41 points in their last 4 games. If you’re thinking that this might be the most explosive the offense has ever been, you’re close. Its’ the first time since 1965 that the offense has scored 30+ in 4 straight games…
David Montgomery was great again. I won’t harp on the individual game stats from recent games, we all see how great he’s been recently. In the game though he eclipsed 1,000 yards for the season. It’s the first time since 2014 that the Bears have had both a 1,000 yard rusher and receiver. The last pair to do that was Alshon and Forte. He also became the first Bear since 1977 with 100+ scrimmage yards and 1+ TD in 5 consecutive games.
Cairo Santos tied Robbie Gould’s record. With his two made field goals on Sunday, he tied Robbie Gould for most consecutive kicks made in franchise history. He currently sits at 24 in a row and will look to extend that next weekend against the Packers.
The Bears’ offense scored 3 TDs in the 3rd quarter. This is more than they’ve scored in the 3rd quarter in the previous 15 games combined.
Bad Bears
Trubisky is still making poor decisions. Listen… he’s been pretty damn good, but his INT at the end of the 2nd quarter was about as bad as you can get. That pass had no chance. Rich Gannon, who was announcing the game, said that pass was “a mistake you make in high school”. Just awful. He also has a fumbling problem. He didn’t lose his fumble today, but he’s good for about a fumble per game.
The Bears are still getting too cute with plays. In the second quarter the Bears had 1st and goal from the 1 and ran a jet sweep with Kmet resulting in -3 yards. This screwed up the end of the drive after the setback on first down and the Bears had to settle for a FG. Everyone has seen it. Montgomery has been amazing the past few weeks. Run… The… Ball… It was a very Nagy-esque call and you have to wonder how much influence he’s still having on the play-calling.
There isn’t a ton to nit-pick here in this game. The Bears took care of business. It’s still unbelievable to me that the Bears are a win away from making the playoffs after I was calling the season over weeks ago. Talk about a turnaround. Now a date with the Packers on the lakefront next weekend should make that win a tough one to come by, unless the Packers are in a position to rest a bunch of players. I’m not so sure they’ll rest players though. If it wasn’t the Bears, they might, but they aren’t going to just roll over and Rodgers loves making Bears fans miserable.
If the both the Cardinals and Bears lose, Bears are in. If the Bears win, they’re in. Things are now more interesting though as it sounds like Jared Goff has a broken thumb. That means the Cardinals will be facing the Rams with a backup QB and the Bears will be facing their bitter rival with a chance for them to knock the Bears out of the playoffs… This is obviously a far from ideal scenario for the Bears…
Either way, one win away folks… somehow… one… win… away…