The Chicago Bears beat the Houston Texans 36-7 Sunday, finally ending their losing streak. They didn’t just beat the Texans, they kinda kicked their ass. This game was never close. THAT BEING SAID… the Texans also kinda stink. You gotta beat the bad teams though. Oddly enough, this was the first time the Bears have even beaten the Texans. The last remaining team has been checked off the list.
The Bears offense actually looked functional in this one and the game wasn’t a complete disaster. The team really played well on both sides of the ball and this was probably the most complete the team has looked all season.
Good Bears
The offense looked competent. I mentioned it above, but this didn’t look like the same Bears offense. I mean going into the half, Trubisky was 18/21 for 178 yards and 3 TDs and the team had 294 yards of total offense. No matter how bad the Texans are, that’s nothing to scoff at. Gotta give Trubisky some credit there. Now they only had another 116 total yards in the second half and they never scored again, but whatever. At least the offense didn’t completely implode and score 10 points.
David Montgomery can be the Bears’ guy. He started off the Bears’ first possession with a bang… an 80 yard bang to be exact. Interesting fact… that was the longest Bears run since 1988. That is a lonngggg time. Back to Montgomery. Today’s game brings him up to 288 yards on the ground in the past 3 games, while reeling in another 121 throughout the air. The offensive line is playing better, but they didn’t all of the sudden become a top O-line. He’s making it happen and proving he can be the featured back for the Bears.
Cairo Santos is THE kicker. I wrote back a few weeks ago asking who should be the kicker when (if) Eddy Pineiro came back. Well we have our answer. Sorry Eddy. Santos has now been perfect in his last 10 games going 17 for 17. He’s currently over 90% on the year and it sure is nice having a reliable kicker.
The defense balled out. 2 fumble recoveries and 7 sacks, and a safety while only allowing 7 points will do the trick. Some of the sacks were timely, too, coming on 3rd and 4th downs. The Texans were missing a lot of their weapons, but still a good showing. Khalil Mack and Roquan Smith deserve a special shoutout. Roquan is going to be a force in this league. There’s no reason why he can’t be the best MLB in the NFL.
There’s an effort to get Kmet involved. He had 7 targets today and pulled in 4 catches for 41 yards. He’s getting more and more involved and actually looks like a part of this offense while leading the team, outside of QB and O-line, in snap count. Took a while, but it’s better than nothing…
Bad Bears
Hmm it’s weird not having a ton of things to list out here. Really all that was bad about the game was a few points that continue to be a problem. Things like the Bears still can’t score an offensive touchdown in the 3rd quarter and Robert Quinn ending up on the side of a milk carton. I’ll let it breathe for a week though. Just enjoy the win and the fact that it was a pretty good game for the Bears.
The win feels nice but it’s a little too late. If the Bears actually get it together here and go 8-8 or 9-7 to end the season, chances are they still aren’t making the playoffs and just end up with a worse draft position. Even worse… Nagy and Pace may keep their job. Don’t let the one good game fool you, this is still a dysfunctional team and the best route for the Bears is losses.
The Bears travel up to Minnesota next weekend for a showdown with the Vikings. It’s honestly a big game as far as “in the hunt” goes since the Bears and Vikings are neck and neck. After the Vikings loss to the Buccaneers Sunday though, they’re just about as out of it as the Bears are except they hold the tie-breaker (at the moment at least). I don’t see either team making a playoff run.
3 more games left in this miserable season. 3 more…
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