Bear Down, Nerd Up: Bears set new rushing high for Matt Nagy era

Don't look now, but the Bears have figured out how to score points again.

At the very least, they've figured out how to do so against bad defenses. They've scored 30 points in three consecutive games for the first time since 2013. Marc Trestman's team scored 30 points in Weeks 2, 3 and 4 of the 2013 season.

The first such streak under coach Matt Nagy comes after Nagy gave up play calling to offensive coordinator Bill Lazor. It wouldn't be a surprise to see that streak continue this week with a woeful Jacksonville Jaguars team up next.

But first, let's look back at the numbers that made this week unique for the Bears.

Eww, David: David Montgomery was nasty on Sunday. He ran for a career-high 146 yards on 32 carries with 2 touchdowns. It was the fifth 100-yard game of his career and his third multi-touchdown game.

He became the first Bears rusher since Jordan Howard in 2016 to run for 100 yards or more in back-to-back games. Montgomery has run for 100 yards in three of the past four games.

According to Pro Football Focus, Montgomery forced 11 missed tackles in Sunday's game - most of any player in an NFL game all season.

Per NFL Next Gen Stats, Montgomery is finding success running both to his right and his left. He ran for 74 yards on runs to the right of the right tackle and for 54 yards on carries to the left of the left tackle. He's finding more success on the outside (just 18 yards on runs between the tackles), and the Bears are finding ways to get him the ball in space.

In his last four games, Montgomery had 434 rushing yards on 71 carries with five rushing touchdowns and one receiving touchdown.

Montgomery is now one of four running backs this season with at least 700 rushing yards and at least 300 receiving yards. The others? Minnesota's Dalvin Cook, New Orleans' Alvin Kamara and Jacksonville's James Robinson. That is a lofty list for Montgomery to be on.

For the Bears as a team, Sunday's 199 total rushing yards marked a new high for the Nagy era. The previous high had been 194 rushing yards against the Los Angeles Rams in 2018. Sunday's 199 yards was the highest rushing total for the Bears since Dec. 10, 2017, when they ran for 232 yards in a win over the Cincinnati Bengals.

Mr. 10,000: With a 16-yard completion to Montgomery, Bears quarterback Mitch Trubisky became the quickest Bears QB to 10,000 career passing yards for his career. Trubisky did it in 49 games.

He is just the sixth Bears quarterback to pass for 10,000 yards, joining Jay Cutler (whose 23,443 yards are a team record), Sid Luckman, Jim Harbaugh, Jim McMahon and Erik Kramer.

Trubisky also surpassed 1,000 career rushing yards on Sunday, becoming the sixth Bears quarterback to do so. Additionally, Trubisky became the fastest player to throw for 10,000 yards and run for 1,000 yards in a Bears uniform. McMahon needed 58 games to do it and Harbaugh needed 77.

Rookie record: I mentioned this last week that Bears rookie receiver Darnell Mooney was closing in on the team's rookie record for receptions. With four receptions against Minnesota - giving him 46 for the season - Mooney surpassed the record set by Harlon Hill with 45 catches in 1954.

Mooney caught his fourth touchdown of the season on an 8-yard throw from Trubisky in the fourth quarter. For the season, Mooney has 46 catches for 499 yards and 4 touchdowns.

A-Rob's streak: Receiver Allen Robinson has caught a pass of 20 yards or more in 12 straight games. That is the longest streak by a Bears player since Jeff Graham went 10 consecutive games with such a catch in 1995.

Robinson has also caught a pass in all 86 NFL game he has ever played in, dating back to his rookie season in 2014. That is the second-most among active players.

Secondary snaps: With Bears defensive backs Jaylon Johnson, Deon Bush and Buster Skrine all out due to injuries Sunday, Duke Shelley stepped in and played 66 snaps (97% of the defensive snaps) for the Bears secondary. Rookie Kindle Vildor also filled in with 30 snaps (44% of defensive snaps).

There were miscommunications here or there, but that's to be expected with two new players out there.

"What you do see out of those two young guys is they battle every play and they're not scared to stick their nose in the brier patch and make some plays," Nagy said Monday.

Shelley, a sixth-round draft pick in 2019, was making the first start of his career. Vildor, a fifth-round draft pick this year, had never played more than 14 snaps in a game.

Sherrick McManis, who played just two snaps Sunday, made the most of his limited opportunity when he pulled down an interception on Kirk Cousins' Hail Mary in the final seconds.