Bears Film Study: Bagent's debut nearly too good to be true
With so much good news from Sunday's win over Las Vegas, it's hard to know where to begin.
Might as well start with the obvious, the Bears winning the quarterback matchup. If the Raiders had it to do over, they probably would have started Stevenson High School grad Aidan O'Connell instead of Brian Hoyer, but what's done is done.
Is it wrong to say an undrafted rookie making his first NFL start put on a clinic for how to play the position? OK, Tyson Bagent's longest pass play was 15 yards, which isn't going to work in most games, but recording a home win for the Bears hasn't been easy lately.
Bagent set the tone early by hanging in the pocket and throwing a dart over the middle to Tyler Scott to convert a third-and-five. He helped clinch the win with a perfect out route to D.J. Moore on another third-and-five in the fourth quarter. The poise, accuracy and decision-making were impressive all day.
A valuable play with mild results happened with the Bears on the move in the third quarter. Bagent was rushed and had three Raiders in his face. An incomplete pass would have been a victory at that point, but he managed to hit RB Darrynton Evans in the flat for a 4-yard gain. The play gave the Bears a second-and-six at the 15, where if he took the sack, it would have been second-and-22.
The two Bears quarterbacks have different styles, obviously, but it might help Justin Fields if he adopted some of Bagent's "keep the drive moving," mentality. It seems like Fields stays focused on making big plays, whether it's a deep pass or long run. Those are great if they happen, but Fields also seems to believe he can turn a bad situation into a spectacular highlight, when dumping it off for a 4-yard gain is the best option.
If nothing else, it will be interesting to see what Bagent can do this week against the Chargers, who boast the NFL's second-worst pass defense.
He's just filling in for now, but the Bears might as well keep an open mind about the future. Remember, there was once a Division 3 (Augustana) quarterback from Batavia named Ken Anderson who became a four-time Pro Bowl participant with the Bengals. Why couldn't it happen to a D2 slinger from Shepherd University?
Running to win:
D'Onta Foreman's first four years in the league were a disappointment with Houston and Tennessee after being drafted in the third round out of Texas in 2017. But he ran for nearly 1,000 yards in Carolina last fall and was really good on Sunday.
Foreman showed nice vision and cutback ability. While David Montgomery tended to do well when he had room to sort of slalom through defenders, Foreman appears to specialize in the one-cutback runs.
For the Bears to roll up 173 rushing yards on a day when left tackle Larry Borom struggled and right tackle Darnell Wright seemed to be playing with one arm, that's nice work by the running backs.
Best play:
One that didn't count was a 14-yard run by Evans on something you rarely see from the Bears, a draw play. The pass action caused DE Tyree Wilson to bolt upfield on the rush, the linebackers dropped back and Evans cruised through the open space.
The play was called back due to a holding penalty on Borom. It was the right call, Maxx Crosby likely would have made the tackle in the backfield otherwise.
On the defensive side, the pick is Jack Sanborn dropping Josh Jacobs for a 5-yard loss on a play that started on the Bears 5-yard line. Sanborn played just 16 defensive snaps Sunday, but seems determined to be the NFC's best run-stopper.
Quick hitters:
From this view, the Bears' best blocker by a wide margin was center Lucas Patrick. On a 12-yard run by Foreman in the fourth quarter, as one example, Patrick pushed his man farther downfield than the tackle was made. ...
After giving up a couple early receptions to Davante Adams, rookie CB Tyrique Stevenson settled down and is showing some nice improvement from early in the season. Pro-football-reference.com had Stevenson being targeted 17 times by the Raiders. That number seems hard to believe, but with just 8 completions, that's less than 50% success.
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