Windy City Gridiron
It was ugly at times, but a win is a win.
“Just win baby.” That’s what they say, right?
Despite a porous run defense, and no real run game of their own, the Chicago Bears fought their way to a 25-24 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday at Allegiant Stadium.
No matter how you slice it, this Bears team is in an infinitely better position heading into their bye week at 2-2 than they would have been at 1-3. The Bears have some time now to get healthy and keep hope alive that they can pick up enough wins after the bye week to keep things interesting late into the season. We haven’t seen that around these parts in quite some time.
Let’s get into this week’s game balls.
We’ll go with two from the special teams unit this week. First of all, how can you not go with Blackwell?
After being on the receiving end of some heartbreaking losses in recent years, including our own blocked would-be game winning field goal last year against Green Bay, it felt so good to see the Bears finally walk out as the benefactor of one of these situations on Sunday.
Blackwell had the perfect jump on the Raiders’ field goal snap, darting across the line of scrimmage at the exact moment the ball started moving. That was no accident, as Blackwell later revealed that Bears long snapper Scott Daly told him that that Raiders long snapper, Jacob Bobenmoyer, had a “tell” on his snaps.
It worked out perfectly and all of Bears nation exhaled with relief. Blackwell made a hell of an impressive play, diving with outstretched arms to knock the kick away.
And we should also give Bears kicker Cairo Santos his due this week. Many of us have been frustrated with him in recent weeks, myself included, because of the limitations of his range on both kickoffs and field goals.
But Santos came through in a big way this week in Vegas. Even though the Bears opted to not kick a 57 yard field goal in the first half, they still let their kicker have his opportunities as he connected from 46, 43, 52, and 51. The team doesn’t win without those kicks, period.
If the Bears offense would have been more consistent, the team would have put the game away early due to the turnovers that the defense was able to force. But even so, the turnovers kept the Raiders from potentially putting up points and was a key to the eventual victory.
Leading the way was Byard, who had two interceptions, seven tackles (five solo), two passes defended, and one tackle for loss.
But it wasn’t just the big interceptions. It was also Byard’s tackle of Ashton Jeanty on the Raiders’ final drive of the game that was huge. On 3rd and 2, with 43 seconds left in...
