The Bears went into Week 12 without their young franchise QB Justin Fields who is suffering from a shoulder injury. They also were without S Jaquan Brisker and CB Kyler Gordon so you knew this wouldn’t be a good week for the Bears. With the expectations set so low fans weren’t expecting much and yet the Bears fell below those expectations losing 31-10 to the Jets.
Starting in just his 5th game in his career, Jets QB Mike White shredded the Bears 315 yards and 3 TDs while completing 22 of 28 passes. The Jets racked up 466 yards of offense against the Bears’ porous defense. After the Bears grabbed a 10-7 lead in the 2nd quarter, the Jets reeled off 24 straight points and put the Bears out of their misery. To make matters worse for the Bears, they suffered two big injuries during the game as S Eddie Jackson left the game with an apparent foot injury and WR Darnell Mooney went out in the 3rd quarter with an ankle injury. Neither man returned to the game. RT Riley Reiff also left the game in the 2nd quarter with a shoulder injury.
Starting in place of the injured Justin Fields was Trevor Simien who looked every bit the game manager while going 14 for 25 for 179 yards and 1 TD & 1 INT. The Bears could not get anything going offensively after their 1st two drives netted them 142 yards & 10 points. The Bears would muster up just 150 yards of offense after those two drives. The Jets stiffened as the game went along forcing the Bears defense to be on the field a lot more than they should have.
The Good: Not much was there. At all. RB David Montgomery seemed to be the only bright spot as he garnered 113 total yards on 17 touches. Outside of that – not much at all.
The Bad: The lack of depth and playmaking ability on defense was on full display today as Mike White looked like Peyton Manning today. The Jets were also able to rush for 158 yards and a 4.9 yards per carry average.
The Ugly: The Bears were expected to lose but the manner in which they lost today was embarrassing and to top it off it looks as though they’ve lost two more key players. S Eddie Jackson has a foot injury that could be pretty serious. WR Darnell Mooney has a high ankle sprain which also can be a lengthy injury.
The Grades:
Offense: The Bears tried getting Chase Claypool involved earlier in the game. He was targeted 5 times and ended up with 2 catches for 51 yards. Simien did a decent job earlier in the game at taking what the defense gave him. Simien was able to find his backs in the flat to pick up good yardage. Once the Jets started applying pressure to Simien everything went downhill. Grade: C-
Defense: Again let me say it – Mike White passed for 315 yards and 3 TDs. The Jets kept the ball for over 32 minutes and gained 466 yards. That’s just horrendous. Grade: F
Special Teams: The special teams unit didn’t make any mistakes this week… so that’s a good thing. Grade: C
Coaching: When you’re this thin on both sides of the ball and you suffer injuries there’s really not much you can do as a coaching staff. I still need to see Claypool and Kmet featured more in the offensive scheme. This will become more of a reality with Mooney seemingly out for a while. Grade: INC
The gang over at NBC Sports Chicago offered their thoughts on today’s game:
Up Next: The Bears get the Packers at Soldier Field next Sunday. Both teams are beaten up so it will be interesting to see what happens.
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