Bears make it two in a row with 29-3 walloping of Giants
CHICAGO — You see, Bears fans, it could be worse.
You could be a New York Giants fan.
In a game that may have set NFL offense back a decade or two, the Bears thrashed a Giants team that appeared to wish it were anywhere but on a football field. The game was over before it was 3½ minutes old with the Bears notching their sixth win of the season, 29-3.
On the very first play of the game following the opening kickoff, Trevis Gipson burst through the line to sack and strip Mike Glennon, then Bilal Nichols recovered at the 14 and took the ball back to the Giants 2-yard line.
David Montgomery took the ball in for a touchdown behind a rumbling 330 pound Khyiris Tonga at fullback on the next play, and the Bears lead 7-0 with eight seconds gone.
Glennon was the gift that kept on giving all day long, and just five plays later he threw a ball that bounced off Kenny Golloday's hands, setting up a beautiful juggling interception by Tashaun Gipson that he took back to the Giants 24, and for all practical purposes it was over just 3:13 into the game.
While it was easily the Bears most dominant performance of the season there was little esthetically pleasing about it, but let's hit the highlights first.
The Bears' 4 takeaways were easily a season high with Deon Bush adding a second pick in the fourth quarter and Tonga recovering one on Gipson's second strip sack of the day.
Thanks to the 39 yards lost on the Bears' sacks, including Robert Quinn's record-setting 18th of the season with Angelo Blackson adding one too, the Bears held the Giants to minus-10 passing yards for the game and just 151 yards of total offense, and a meager 1-11 on third down and 0-1 on fourth.
Trevis Gipson played his best game as a pro and left us to dream all coming offseason about a three-man rush next year featuring Mack, Quinn and him.
Before you get too deep into the what ifs though, the Giants were just a shadow of the mediocre team that started the season with their own milelong list of injuries, and the presence of Glennon at quarterback made them that much worse.
Clearly this isn't his year either!
He finished 4-11 with 24 yards, no touchdowns and 2 interceptions for a passer rating of 5.3, which leads us to the hard part of all this.
Andy Dalton and the Bears offense weren't much better.
With just 2:36 left in the third period, the Bears had compiled their 29-3 lead on just 213 yards of total offense, 145 of that through the air, and they finished with only 249 net yards.
Dalton was off all day, holding the ball far too long and turning easy pitch and catches into defensed, contested and just flat out missed passes, and he threw one pick but easily could have/should have had two or three more.
The running game struggled again too with David Montgomery fighting all day long but finishing with 64 yards on 22 carries, scoring 2 touchdowns.
The Bears 3.8 yards per offensive play certainly belied the dominant score and was almost as sad as the 2.7 the Bears defense stuffed the Giants with.
There was some controversy again at tackle where Jason Peters started over Teven Jenkins and played well for three quarters before Jenkins got some late action, but Larry Borom did start ahead of Germain Ifedi this week at right tackle and played most of the game.
Nonetheless at the end of the day it was a feel-good story for all, much like last Sunday in Seattle with most of the focus on Quinn's eclipse of Richard Dent's Bears all-time single-season record of 17½.
Asked afterward in the locker room if his teammates were aware of what was going on and were on him about it, Quinn told us, “Well the D-line, OLBs, just where we sit on the bench, you know who the heck, Bilal, it was just to make that mark I think it was just those guys wanting to see quote, unquote history made.
“Well I guess we got it done.”
With another entire offseason to worry about the offense, how about if we just go with that for now?
@Hub_Arkush