Windy City Gridiron
At no point during Monday night’s game did I let myself truly believe it was in hand.
The thought momentarily occurred to me as the Chicago Bears were up by 11 points, the defense had Minnesota Vikings quarterback JJ McCarthy rattled in his first career start.
But deep inside, I knew 11 points weren’t enough.
Sure enough. Procedure penalty. Holding. Missed field goal.
Quickly followed by a Vikings touchdown. Momentum.
Suddenly, the posts filled my timeline: I’ve seen this game before. I know how this ends. I’ve seen this movie and I don’t like the ending. Here we go again.
I hate it when your gut is right.
Following another brutal, gut-punch of a loss, the Bears have to gather themselves and answer the eternal questions they’ve been answering for 20-some years. Another night that felt like it was going our way until it wasn’t. Another new beginning spoiled by streaky play, blown leads, bad penalties, mental mistakes and questionable play calls.
Let’s find some good from the game before we get to the bad.
Dayo Odeyingbo, DE – Following what appeared to be a pretty mixed summer from a big (money-wise) free agent signing, Dayo had quite the debut. He quieted a lot of critics by notching a sack, 2 QB hits, a pass defensed and a TFL. If he keeps playing like this, Montez Sweat will get a chance for more one-on-ones.
Noah Sewell, LB – Filling in for the injured T.J. Edwards, Sewell more than showed up. He led the Bears in tackles with nine, including seven solo. Sewell rarely saw the field on defense in his first two seasons, but on Monday, he demonstrated he can be a strong depth piece.
Gervon Dexter, DT – Rounding out a better defensive performance with three defensive players, I think Dexter deserves a shoutout, too. He logged a sack, a TFL and a QB hit. He was disruptive up front and a nice part of a better defensive line, even if it did fade late in the game. But so did the rest of the team.
Caleb Williams, QB – Opening with 10 straight completions and a touchdown drive had everyone feeling great but literally everything that followed sucked. He missed guys that were open, his accuracy remains iffy over the middle and deep and he still held the ball too long at times. It’s one game, we knew there were going to be growing pains, but the steep drop-off from the first drive to the rest of the drives carried over from the preseason. We have to hope that everything improves as he gets more games and reps in this system, but I think it’s okay to feel bad about it today.
Cairo Santos, K – This is tough because this is just kind of who he’s been his whole career. He’s a career 85.2 percent field goal kicker without elite power. And he’s 34 years old now. Kicker has to be...
