Give Bears proper credit for performance vs. Jets
One of the biggest problems we're having in deciding who these Bears are is that too many of us would prefer to give them more credit than they deserve for competing with a team like the Patriots, even though New England played poorly, than the credit they deserve for playing very well against teams like the Jets.
Not every Bear was great Sunday, but many played their best football in weeks, and that is how they should be graded, rather than poo-pooing their performances because they came against a lesser team.
Need I remind you these Bears were 8-24 over the past two seasons and probably a notch below the Jets as recently as 10 months ago?
The point of grading the Jets tape isn't to figure out how well the Bears might play against the Vikings or Rams down the road, it's to see how much and how quickly they are improving - if at all - and how far away they are from being as good as the big boys.
Mitch Trubisky must throw the ball better than he did in the final 20 minutes of the first half, when he was 2-for-9 for 17 yards.
Yes, he needs to start stringing some complete games, but Trubisky was excellent again running the football all day long, he made some great decisions on RPOs and his 14-of-20 for 203 yards, 2 TDs in the game's first ten minutes and the second half was a big part of the Bears' win.
Call it a B performance for Trubisky.
Jordan Howard and Tarik Cohen combined for one of the Bears' better running back games of the season, marred only by a brain fart from Cohen on a punt return when he unexplainably touched a rolling punt and almost failed to fall on it, and the number of times Howard was again hit in the backfield before he had a chance to get to the line of scrimmage.
Cohen's 6 offensive touches were his second-fewest of the season (five vs. Seattle), but his 18.3-yard average per touch, including a 70 yard touchdown on his only reception, made him far more dangerous than he is running the ball 12-to-15 times between the tackles.
Howard also had his best game of the year, even though a number of his 22 carries weren't particularly well blocked.
The Bears' running backs were a B+.
Receivers did a nice job of being available for Trubisky with their best balance of the season - 4 catches each for Taylor Gabriel and Josh Bellamy, three for Anthony Miller, including an outstanding TD catch, three for Trey Burton, one for Kevin White and an outstanding block from Gabriel down field that turned Cohen's TD from a nice play into a huge one.
As a group, they were a B.
Only the offensive line was very average, although Cody Whitehair is quietly playing very well again at center after an off 2017 campaign.
The front seven on defense was excellent with Akiem Hicks dominating early and Eddie Goldman and Roy Robertson-Harris solid all day long, and both Roquan Smith and Danny Trevathan playing solid 60-minute games.
Leonard Floyd failed to get to the quarterback again but pressured Sam Darnold all afternoon and had a really solid game.
Holding the Jets to 207 yards of total offense and just 24-57 (2.4 YPC) on the ground is a great day's work, an A- for the job the front seven did.
Bryce Callahan has morphed into one of the best slot corners in the league, and Sunday he showed up all over the field.
Kyle Fuller also once again played at an extremely high level, but a huge mental mistake by Eddie Jackson resulted in a roughing call that helped set up the Jets only touchdown, dropping the secondary from an A- to a B.
Only special teams was below average on the day with Patrick O'Donnell mediocre at punting the football and Cody Parkey missing a 40-yard field goal he really has to make.
Yes, the Jets are a team the Bears have to beat if we are to take them seriously, but that shouldn't diminish the fact they mostly played really well doing it.
• Hub Arkush, the executive editor of Pro Football Weekly, can be reached at harkush@profootballweekly.com or on Twitter @Hub_Arkush.