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If you didn’t watch Thursday’s night contest between the Bears and Panthers over on Amazon Prime consider yourselves blessed. You didn’t have to witness an affront to your senses as these two teams played in one of the ugliest games in recent memory.
The Bears would need a 4th quarter TD run by D’Onta Foreman and then hold their breath as former Bear Eddie Pinero missed on what would’ve been a game-tying 59 yard FG to escape with a 16-13 win. The win pushed the Bears to 3-7 while Carolina fell to 1-8. The win was also significant because the Bears own the Panthers’ 2024 1st round pick because of the DJ Moore trade.
Both quarterbacks looked terrible throughout much of the game. Tyson Bagent looked like a QB who was stifled(sound familiar?) and unsure of himself as some of his throws were wildly inaccurate and the game plan reduced him to being Captain Checkdown. Bagent finished 20 of 33 for 162 yards, 0 TDs, 0 INTs. A number of his throws could’ve turned into interceptions. He also had 6 carries for just 12 yards. D’Onta Foreman was the lone offensive star with 80 yards rushing and 1 TD. DJ Moore, excited to play his old team, finished with 9 targets, 5 catches and 58 yards.
The reason the Bears were able to win the game was because of their defense. DE Montez Sweat’s presence was felt as he had 8 QB hurries and 3 QB hits. With Sweat on the line this is the best the front four has looked all season. Heading into last night’s game the Bears as a team only had 10 sacks. They got 3 last night along with 9 QB hits. They made life miserable for QB Bryce Young as he finished 21 of 38 for 185 yards. Young, the #1 overall pick from the 2023 Draft, looked terrible and has people questioning in Charlotte if he is going to be the guy and if they should’ve drafted CJ Stroud instead. I thought Kyler Gordon and TJ Edwards had solid games as well. The one thing the Bears didn’t do again was force any turnovers as Tyrique Stevenson had an interception slip right through his hands.
The game started in treacherous territory as former Bear Ihmir Smith-Marsette returned a punt 79 yards to give the Panthers an early 7-0 lead. It would be the game’s only TD as both teams traded FGs until Foreman’s TD put the Bears up for good at 16-10.
Grading The Bears
Offense: QB Tyson Bagent had the handcuffs put on him by Luke Getsy and even then he struggled mightily. If not for the Bears racking up 133 yards on 37 carries this game could have been an even bigger disaster. Head Coach Matt Eberflus saying “they got something up their sleeve” for the 2nd half and then doing absolutely nothing on offense was the epitome of a comical clown show. Grade: D+
Defense: The defensive line got 3 sacks and the defense as a whole held a bad Panthers team to 213 yards. Montez Sweat was a terror on the field while the secondary was at full strength for the 1st time all year. Not being able to get any turnovers against such a bad team is still concerning though but when you can hold any NFL team to just field goals then you’ve done your job. Grade: B+
Special Teams: Every week I say the special teams has one job and most weeks they do that job… and then there was tonight. In a game when both offenses looked like a JV high school team you could afford no errors but that’s exactly what happened as Smith-Marcette sliced his way through bad tackling for a 79-yard punt return TD. Yes… this is the same Ihmir Smith-Marcette who couldn’t hang on to the football when he was in Chicago last year. That guy had the game’s only TD until midway through the 4th quarter. That TD totally negates Cairo Santos making 3 FGs. Grade: D-
Head Coach Matt Eberflus spoke with the media after the game:
Final Thoughts: Look… a win is a win so you’ll take it but boy was this an ugly display of professional football by both teams. Even after this performance there are still those in the media who believe that Tyson Bagent is better than Justin Fields. Those people are morons. Anyone with half a brain and a decent pair of eyes can see this coaching staff is the problem. Even in a win Luke Getsy’s scheme looked conservative and horrendous. I will say the addition of Montez Sweat and the starting secondary being healthy at the same time is a plus for the defense. The front four looked the best it has all season(albeit against a piss poor Carolina team) and there are pieces that are coming together to make this thing on defense work. That said… it would be nice if the Bears could have an offense that even remotely resembled a 21st century offense. I also fear that because the defense is getting better Matt Eberflus may survive and be your Bears coach heading into 2024. If that’s the case then you know QB Justin Fields is gone. ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith offered his hot take this morning:
Stephen A.’s nonsense aside, I do believe the Bears will play Fields if only to boost his trade value. I am convinced this coaching staff either can’t or won’t coach to Fields’ talents so they will throw Justin under the bus to Ryan Poles and Kevin Warren.
Up Next: The Bears get 10 days to get ready for the NFC North leading Detroit Lions. The last time the Bears had 10 days to prepare for a team they couldn’t move the ball against the Vikings and Justin got hurt. We’ll see what happens on November 19.
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