2-0. Bearly.
2-0. Bearly.
Giants and Jitters
September 20, 2020
When the Other Team is Bad, Your Team is Good. At Least For a Day.
Bears 17, Giants 13
Through eight quarters of play this season the Chicago Bears have looked good in three of them. That’s less than half, friends, but that’s still good enough for a 2-0 record because the Bears’ opponent on this sunny afternoon in Chicago, the New York Giants, might even be suckier than last week’s foes, the Detroit Lions.
So the Bears so far are good at eking out narrow victories over crummy teams. To this we say hooray. Make that two hoorays and a huzzah because with an expanded playoff field of 14 teams this season and with two of the Bears’ division rivals—the Lions and Minnesota Vikings—starting the year 0-2 and the Bears’ next opponent, the Atlanta Falcons, also at 0-2, we can’t help but think about January.
But why? September is so pretty.
The Bears looked good in the first half at Soldier Field today, bouncing out to a 17-0 halftime advantage behind solid defense and two touchdown passes from Mitch Trubisky. The first TD strike was an impressive 28-yard hookup with running back David Montgomery. It was a bit of a scramble, a nifty throw, a calm catch, a cutback, and there you have it.
Then, in the second quarter, #10 found #11, receiver Darnell Mooney, on a 15-yard TD strike that also required Trubisky to stay light on his feet before throwing a precise pass to the speedy rookie.
That’s about where the good stuff ended but the luck began. The Bears hung on. The Giants’ best player, running back Saquon Barkley, left with an injury and thus ran the ball just four times for 28 yards so he certainly looked to be in the mood for a day of trouble.
The Bears, as they have done in virtually all 35 games under head coach Matt Nagy, insisted on the game being close and let this short-handed and boring Giants team hang around and the outcome once again, just like last week in Detroit, came down to the Bears decent but hardly dominant (yet?) defense making a stand late in the game to let us all go home happy.
Actually most of us were already home because (did we remind you?) no one was at the game.
The Bears look like they’re having fun, and while they don’t look great they have shown they can string a few plays together, or at least enough to keep the other guys guessing, if not quaking.
This one could have been a blowout, or at least much more decisive, if Bears safety Eddie Jackson’s interception of Giants quarterback Daniel Jones and return for a score in the fourth quarter was not called back because of a pass interference call on Jackson. But the replay shows he was probably guilty. (poo-poo on reality)
But maybe that “maybe” play shows the Bears once dominant and opportunistic defense is showing signs of returning to form. Two years ago Jackson and his defensive friends scored almost at will. Thus far this year they haven’t had to make those explosive plays to help earn two victories, and the defense might not even have to be great to get win number three.
Beyond that? We hope they Bear down. For now, we take what we have, which is a sunny September and a zero at the end of our record. --TK
Sunday, September 20, 2020