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As has often been said in this space, the NFL is not meant to be an artistic success, but a success. Namely: the Bears in Sunday in a 24-10 win over the New York Jets in front of a crowd of 61,397 spectators.
In the end, all that matters is the "W", and one of the positive things to remember is that the Bears (4-3) have won a football game in which they do not have very much played well, which is in itself an essential skill set of the NFL. Playing without their best defensive player and a centerpiece of their pass attack, the Bears simply did what they had to do, namely to come back to victory after disappointing defeats against the Miami Dolphins and the Patriots. New England.
The result put the Bears in position to complete the first half of Matt Nagy's first team training season with a win at Buffalo next Sunday, which would give them as many wins as they would have achieved in 2017.
It was not a dominant success, spoiled by what appeared to be a painful right foot injury for goaltender Kyle Long at the end of the fourth quarter. With the exception of a 70-yard screen pass, the Bears barely exceeded expectations and had exactly eight first-half tries against a Jets team (3-5), giving them over 25 points and 370 yards per game. Quarterback Mitch Trubisky was once again out of receivers and was not responding well to the pressure of the underrated and creative Jets. The halves were under four yards per race.
None of this finally counted after the Bears broke free of a 7-3 lead at half-time and scored 17 points in the second half. Trubisky recovered and the defense limited the Jets to seven yards in the third quarter and one point in the fourth quarter.
"In the first half, we did not really click; we were just a little behind, "said Nagy. "But we arrived at half-time and made some adjustments."
Which is also important to Nagy, after the Bears' response to that score in New York with 11 minutes to go, with a touchdown too, with a 79-yard run that has regained control of the momentum. and the match while New York was close to 17- ten.
"What has impressed me the most with the offensive, is to be able to react after the touchdown that they have had," he said. "The game was seven points, we came back and we had eight games for 79 yards, five first tries.
"These are the kinds of things I like to see from our offense, react and grow. There will be growth problems with the other stuff.
The difficulties of growth had inexplicably involved the defense, which had failed to keep the lead in the second half in the defeats of the three Bears (Green Bay, Miami, New England). This time, the defense, which had forced four assists by three draws before the Jets scored on a 16-yard pass from rookie quarterback Sam Darnold at breakaway rookie Chris Herndon, forced another punt off and stopped New York to end the match.
The win makes the Bears one of eight NFC teams with at least four wins, excluding the Packers (3-2-1), who climbed early on the Rams 7-0. Sunday's Bears victory ended a two-game series with a victory that earned them a record of wins at this point of the season for the first time since 2013. The result allowed the Bears to beat Detroit after the Lions (3-4) were defeated 28 -14 at home by the Seattle Seahawks.
With a 32-yard Cody Parkey goal and Jordan Howard's two-yard touchdown with four minutes to go, the Bears have scored one in four goals this season. The trend line foreshadows an increasingly tight mentality in the offensive supported by a defense that equaled his lowest total allowed for 2018 despite linebacker Khalil Mack inactive, injured his ankle.
After giving 269 yards on the ground in Miami and New England, the Bears held the Jets and third-placed Isaiah Crowell, fifth in yards and fifth on average (5.7 yards per run). 57 yards total (25 for Crowell averaging 1.9 yards per race). This is the fifth time, including four wins, in seven games that the defense has limited its opponent to less than 75 rushing yards.
"We were disappointed with ourselves for running [269 combined yards the last two weeks]Said linebacker Aaron Lynch. "Our whole atmosphere this week was that we would just become aggressive, hit people, and if you fail, you fail.
"But we were going to hit you."
The offense, which was a little more than Trubisky's 70-yard scramble pass to Tarik Cohen in the first half, was 221 yards in the second half.
Trubisky, only 5-for-13 for 116 yards in the first half, completed 11 throws out of 16 in the second run to finish with his sixth consecutive game with 200 yards or fewer passing and his fourth with fewer touchdowns. The match was Trubisky's third in the last four with a number of smugglers north of 100 (102.7).
The 395-yard offense total marked the fourth consecutive game with more than 390 yards, the first four-game series since the end of 2013, when Marc Trestman's offense had exceeded 400 yards in four games. after.
Loss of lethal discipline
The Bears started Sunday in the top five for the least penalties per game, but the breakdown by discipline has cost the Bears a lot. In the third, 13th and 13th, Eddie Jackson's safety gave a defenseless receiver a final hit after the ball was incomplete, allowing the Jets to keep possession of the ball in the middle of the court instead of shooting from their side. Four games later, Darnold brought the Jets to a touchdown touchdown for rookie Chris Herndon.
Previously, Long was spotted for useless roughness in a game that gave Kevin White 20 yards and the Jets were guilty of roughing the passer. Instead of the Bears having the ball in New York 20 with a first try, the game was canceled and two games later, the Bears were forced to beat.
But to change previous games, the Bears overcame their own missteps, without having Mack in defense or wide receiver Allen Robinson (groin) in attack.
"It feels good," said left tackle Charles Leno. "We wanted to see what we could do after two games less and we got a" W. "We're just trying to build from that.
"We are a strong and resilient team and we will just try to keep fighting."
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