Windy City Gridiron
The Chicago Bears let a winnable game slip away from them at M&T Bank Stadium on Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens.
Much like the loss to the Minnesota Vikings in week one, this was a game that the Bears will almost surely look back upon at the end of the season with regret. Could have, should have.
The team was bad in all three phases. Way too many penalties, yet again. A quarterback still trying to find his way in the new offense. A special teams unit that can’t seem to cover anyone in the return game. And a defense that wasn’t good enough against a backup quarterback.
Let’s get to it.
This was tough.
The skill position players had a rough outing. Rome Odunze surpassed 100 yards receiving, but he once again had a play where he needed to come up with the ball and failed to do so. This is becoming a weekly trend. Sure, it was a tough catch, but Odunze is a guy who was drafted in the top ten and needs to play liked it.
That was a hell of a throw by Caleb.
Meanwhile, DJ Moore had what was the best catch of the game. But even so, he needed to get out of bounds at the end of this play and failed to do so, keeping the clock running.
D’Andre Swift started out hot again, but the team failed to sustain the run game throughout the game. And you’ve probably seen that brutal interception that Caleb threw in the shadow of his own end zone, in addition to missing DJ at the end of regulation on what should have been an easy TD.
So we’re looking at the big guys up front and going with right tackle Darnell Wright.
Wright continues to solidify the right side of the line for the Bears, rarely giving up pressures and often dominating when it comes to blocking in the run game. With the team having all kinds of pre-snap penalty issues, Wright has typically not been part of that. Hell, even future Hall of Famer Joe Thuney had a false start on Sunday!
Wright was the Bears’ top graded player on offense via PFF with a grade of 78.8. He committed zero penalties on Sunday, and hasn’t committed a penalty since the week three game versus the Cowboys. He’s been flagged for two false starts all year, with the last being week two against the Lions.
This might be an unusual choice when just looking at the stat sheet, but Jarrett was disruptive when he was out there against the Ravens. He wasn’t credited with a sack initially, but should have been as he collapsed the pocket and forced Huntley into Gervon Dexter for a sack that held the Ravens to a field goal just before halftime.
Jarrett also had the highest pass rush win-rate among the Bears defense on Sunday, coming...
