Total team effort allows Bears to snap six-game skid

Where did that come from?

After weeks and weeks of mental mistakes, turnovers, penalties and questionable coaching decisions, a Bears team we have not seen all season showed up at Soldier Field on Sunday and completely waxed the Houston Texans 36-7.

The massacre began with David Montgomery's 80-yard touchdown run on the first play from scrimmage, picked up steam on a 12-play, 79-yard drive that made it 14-0, and was all but complete after the Bears followed up a Khalil Mack sack of DeShaun Watson for a safety with yet another touchdown drive.

"Number one, I'm proud of our players and coaches for being able to be resilient and focus in," said coach Matt Nagy, who saw his team improve to 6-7 by snapping a six-game skid. "In pregame I had a sense of the vibe and the energy of where we were."

Mitch Trubisky outplayed Watson from the get-go, throwing 3 touchdown passes in the first half while completing 18 of 21 passes for 178 yards. He finished 24-for-33 for 267 yards.

Montgomery racked up 155 yards from scrimmage, and Allen Robinson hauled in 9 passes for 123 yards and a touchdown.

It was a downright impressive - and many would say - stunning performance.

Yet, it was hardly the most impressive one of the afternoon.

That was reserved for the defense, which completely bottled up and confused Watson.

Mack led the way, forcing and recovering a fumble on Houston's second possession, batting a pass and sacking Watson for the aforementioned safety that made it 16-0 with 6:04 remaining in the second quarter.

Roquan Smith finished with 12 tackles and 2 sacks, Mario Edwards Jr. had 2 sacks, Danny Trevathan had 10 tackles and the secondary provided blanket coverage of Houston's wideouts and tight ends.

Watson, who was sacked 7 times, finished with just 219 yards on 21 completions. He added 38 rushing yards, but 36 of them came in the first half.

"It was awesome, especially against a very mobile quarterback," Smith said. "Not many people get to sack him often. I just felt like it was relentless pursuit. ... Good things happen when we hustle to the ball."

That wasn't happening in the previous two games when Detroit and Green Bay amassed a whopping 853 yards of offense and put 75 points up on the board.

"(Those losses) definitely provided a lot of motivation," Smith said. "We all knew that deep down inside and it was a reality check. We had to look ourselves in the mirror.

"We came out and played to our standards. We just have to continue that for the rest of the year."

As for Trubisky, the fourth-year QB was locked in all game. After Montgomery's gallop into the end zone, the Bears executed perhaps their most impressive drive of the season when they took over at their own 21 with 4:33 left in the first quarter.

Houston was completely flummoxed as the Bears ran a series of play-action passes that netted 66 yards. The nearly 7-minute drive ended when Trubisky hit Jimmy Graham on a 5-yard TD pass.

"He's in a good place right now," Nagy said of Trubisky. "He's executing what we're asking him to do. He's practicing really, really well. He's leading. All that stuff right now."

Said Trubisky: "I thought I was efficient again. I just went out there today and tried to take what the defense gave us. They tried to show us some different looks and ... I just wanted find the underneath completion and let these skill players go to work the with ball in their hands."

Houston threatened to make a game of it with an 86-yard drive that trimmed the Bears' led to 14-7, but Mack swallowed up Watson in the end zone on Houston's next possession, and Trubisky gave the Bears a 23-7 lead when he hit Darnell Mooney for a 12-yard score.

Trubisky all but put the game away by marching his team 77 yards just before halftime to make it 30-7.

Up next for the Bears are the Vikings, who fell to 6-7 after losing 26-14 to Tampa Bay on Sunday. After that, the Bears get the hapless Jaguars.

So guess what? Maybe - just maybe - the playoffs aren't a complete pipe dream.

"It's just a start. It's been a while," Nagy said. "But when you go through moments like this, you stay resilient, you stay persistent and you trust in one another. That's what we've done.

"We're gonna move that going forward and I just appreciate that from everybody."