Roquan Smith's season was best by a Bears' ILB in a decade

A 19-point loss to Green Bay and a pair of key injuries, Bears coach Matt Nagy said, made him feel like crap.

But the Bears are alive for at least one more week and a wild card playoff Sunday at New Orleans awaits. First, let's take a look at the stats that made last Sunday unique.

Tackling machine: While his elbow injury overshadowed everything else that might've come out of the loss to the Packers, Roquan Smith cemented one of the Bears' best seasons from an inside linebacker in a decade.

Smith finished the 2020 regular season with 139 combined tackles (sixth in the NFL), 98 solo tackles (second in the NFL), a team-best 18 tackles for loss, six QB hits, four sacks, two interceptions and seven passes defended.

Smith became the first Bears player to finish in the Top 10 in the league in combined tackles since Brian Urlacher finished tied for 10th in 2010 with 126 combined tackles. Twice in his career Urlacher finished with more than 139 combined tackles (he had 142 in 2006 and a career-high 153 in 2002).

Smith's sixth-place finish on the NFL's tackles leaderboard in 2020 is the highest finish for a Bears player since Urlacher was sixth in 2006.

While Smith won't represent the NFC in the Pro Bowl, he could still earn All-Pro honors. Linebackers coach Mark DeLeone believes Smith is deserving, and called the Pro Bowl selection process "an imperfect science."

"With Roquan he is a very rare player that it doesn't matter what the scheme is," DeLeone said. "He's going to be an elite linebacker in any defense, and I don't think there's a lot of other guys like that in our league."

Which makes it all the more difficult to know what to expect when the Bears take on the Saints. If Smith is out, the Bears could be in trouble.

An infamous list: The Bears became the third team since the 1970 merger to earn a playoff berth despite a six-game losing streak in the regular season. They joined the 1970 Cincinnati Bengals (who won their opener, lost six straight games, then won seven straight) and the 2014 Carolina Panthers (who finished 7-8-1 and actually won a wild card round playoff game).

This will be the Bears' first postseason appearance as a wild card team since 1994. At 8-8 this also marks the Bears' worst record as a playoff team in the organization's history. The 1994 team was 9-7. That team won a wild card game against Minnesota before losing to eventual Super Bowl champion San Francisco.

Touchdown David: With a touchdown last Sunday running back David Montgomery scored a rushing touchdown in his fifth consecutive game and (including a receiving touchdown the game before that streak began) at least one touchdown in six straight.

He became the first Bears player to rush for a touchdown in five straight games since Neal Anderson in 1990.

Montgomery finished with 1,070 rushing yards and eight rushing TDs. He added 54 receptions for 438 yards and two touchdowns. His rushing yards put him into a tie for fifth in the NFL.

Montgomery is in elite company. The only running backs ahead of him in 2020 were Tennessee's Derrick Henry (2,027 yards), Minnesota's Dalvin Cook (1,557 yards), Indianapolis' Jonathan Taylor (1,169 yards) and Green Bay's Aaron Jones (1,104 yards). Montgomery tied Jacksonville's James Robinson.

Of the eight NFL running backs with 1,000 or more rushing yards in 2020, Montgomery was the only one with more than 400 receiving yards too. His counterpart this week, New Orleans running back Alvin Kamara, wasn't far off with 932 rushing yards and 756 receiving yards.

Record setter: With his three field goals last Sunday, Bears kicker Cairo Santos surpassed Robbie Gould's team-record 26 consecutive field goals. Santos is at 27 and counting.

Santos was 30-for-32 on field goals, finishing with the best field goal percentage in team history (93.8%) of any kicker with more than four field goal attempts.

Here are the top 10 seasons in Bears history in terms of field goal percentage:

Santos, 2020, 93.8%

Gould, 2013, 89.7%

Gould, 2008, 89.7%

Gould, 2006, 88.9%

Gould, 2011, 87.5%

Gould, 2007, 86.1%

Gould, 2009, 85.7%

Gould, 2015, 84.6%

Gould, 2012, 84%

Paul Edinger, 2001, 83.9%

Rookie record: Receiver Darnell Mooney wound up beating the Bears' rookie reception record by a wide margin. He caught a career-high 11 passes Sunday for 93 yards, and finished the season with 61 receptions for 631 yards and four touchdowns.

Harlon Hill's previous rookie record of 45 receptions in 1954 stood for 66 years.

Mooney's ankle injury against the Packers put a damper on a stellar game. His status for Sunday is uncertain. He did not practice Wednesday.