Bears a Little Less Ugly than Panthers
The clock was ticking down Thursday and the Bears lined up in victory formation.
Just one more snap for the win. The Bears drew a penalty for a false start while trying to simply kill off the last few seconds.
It was appropriate.
In one of the most plain, ugly prime time games of this season, the Bears found a way to avoid losing 16-13 against the Carolina Panthers and rookie quarterback Bryce Young.
“It wasn’t the prettiest performance but we found a way to win and that’s all that matters in this league, and we’ve got to figure it out this next game,” wide receiver DJ Moore said.
The Bears had 80 yards on 21 rushing attempts and the game’s only offensive touchdown from former Panthers running back D’Onta Foreman.
They won despite allowing a 79-yard touchdown on a punt return by former Bears receiver Ihmir Smith-Marsette.
They needed a third-and-7 pass of 8 yards into tight coverage to Darnell Mooney from Tyson Bagent to get a first down and set up in that victory formation. Otherwise, the Panthers would have had one last shot without a timeout from deep in their own end and less than a minute left.
“At the end of the day, man, all the hard work we put in, even with it not being pretty it still feels amazing,” Foreman said. “You know what I mean?”
They controlled the game on defense through the first three quarters with three sacks of Young and held Carolina to 213 total yards, with the only scores besides the punt return coming on field goals of 33 and 39 yards by former Bears kicker Eddy Piniero.
“I feel like honestly, on defense I feel like we dominated the whole game,” cornerback Jaylon Johnson said. “So there wasn’t too much of a turning point for us.
“We just kept going out there and getting the ball back for our offense.”
Not by taking it away, though, as they just used standard three-and-outs to do it. Carolina had three three-and-outs. The Panthers’ last gasp came with 1:40 left when they drove from their own 9 to the Bears 41. But Jack Sanborn broke up a pass for Adam Thielen on third-and-10 and Piniero’s 59-yard field goal proved well short of the mark, landing just past the “C” on the ground in the north end zone.
“It was just a full team effort,” Bagent said “I think that we had our mishaps on offense but I think that’s just why football is such a special game, because you’ve got to do it in all three phases.
“I thought defense was outstanding. I thought special teams other than the return made some great plays. So a great team victory.”
Bagent went 20 of 33 for 162 yards. He found Moore five times for 58 yards and Cole Kmet five for 45.
The 6-of-15 (40%) effort on third down wasn’t spectacular but better than the 20% the Panthers managed as Young went 21 of 38 for 185 yards and a QB rating of 68.4.
“I really thought that the defense did a really good job of creating some short fields for our offense most of the day, and that was good,” coach Matt Eberflus said.
“We capitalized on some of them. It was that kind of game. Both defenses played well today. We knew it was going to be some field goals there as the game went on, and I thought that overall we handled it well and put ourselves in position to win the game.”
The clock was ticking down Thursday and the Bears lined up in victory formation.
Just one more snap for the win. The Bears drew a penalty for a false start while trying to simply kill off the last few seconds.It was appropriate.
In one of the most plain, ugly prime time games of this season, the Bears found a way to avoid losing 16-13 against the Carolina Panthers and rookie quarterback Bryce Young.
“It wasn’t the prettiest performance but we found a way to win and that’s all that matters in this league, and we’ve got to figure it out this next game,” wide receiver DJ Moore said.
The Bears had 80 yards on 21 rushing attempts and the game’s only offensive touchdown from former Panthers running back D’Onta Foreman.
They won despite allowing a 79-yard touchdown on a punt return by former Bears receiver Ihmir Smith-Marsette.
They needed a third-and-7 pass of 8 yards into tight coverage to Darnell Mooney from Tyson Bagent to get a first down and set up in that victory formation. Otherwise, the Panthers would have had one last shot without a timeout from deep in their own end and less than a minute left.
“At the end of the day, man, all the hard work we put in, even with it not being pretty it still feels amazing,” Foreman said. “You know what I mean?”
They controlled the game on defense through the first three quarters with three sacks of Young and held Carolina to 213 total yards, with the only scores besides the punt return coming on field goals of 33 and 39 yards by former Bears kicker Eddy Piniero.
“I feel like honestly, on defense I feel like we dominated the whole game,” cornerback Jaylon Johnson said. “So there wasn’t too much of a turning point for us.
“We just kept going out there and getting the ball back for our offense.”
Not by taking it away, though, as they just used standard three-and-outs to do it. Carolina had three three-and-outs. The Panthers’ last gasp came with 1:40 left when they drove from their own 9 to the Bears 41. But Jack Sanborn broke up a pass for Adam Thielen on third-and-10 and Piniero’s 59-yard field goal proved well short of the mark, landing just past the “C” on the ground in the north end zone.
“It was just a full team effort,” Bagent said “I think that we had our mishaps on offense but I think that’s just why football is such a special game, because you’ve got to do it in all three phases.
“I thought defense was outstanding. I thought special teams other than the return made some great plays. So a great team victory.”
Bagent went 20 of 33 for 162 yards. He found Moore five times for 58 yards and Cole Kmet five for 45.
The 6-of-15 (40%) effort on third down wasn’t spectacular but better than the 20% the Panthers managed as Young went 21 of 38 for 185 yards and a QB rating of 68.4.
“I really thought that the defense did a really good job of creating some short fields for our offense most of the day, and that was good,” coach Matt Eberflus said.
“We capitalized on some of them. It was that kind of game. Both defenses played well today. We knew it was going to be some field goals there as the game went on, and I thought that overall we handled it well and put ourselves in position to win the game.”
All they had was three field goals by Cairo Santos to show for a first half when they
outgained Carolina 205 yards to 97.
Santos made a 54-yard field goal one play after making a 49-yarder because Cody Whitehair had a false-start penalty. He also had kicks of 36 and 39 yards to offset a 33-yarder by Piniero.
The Bears too advantage of some of that good field position Eberflus mentioned by driving only 38 yards after a punt to the only offensive touchdown, a 4-yard burst by Foreman off two or three defenders.
Then they held on by allowing a 39-yard Piniero field goal with 11 minutes to play.
They won despite committing seven penalties and without a single offensive play that went longer than 16 yards.
The win left them 3-7, the Panthers 1-8 and closer to getting the first spot for the draft—which the Bears get from them because of their trade in March.
Now the Bears can rest before going to Detroit to play a team unlikely to let them slop through for a victory like Thursday night.
“I think today was an effective game in terms of we took care of the football,” Kmet said, pointing to no turnovers. “We ran well when we needed to and we executed in big spots.
“At the end of the day that’s all you can ask for when the defense is playing really well like the way they did. We’re just going to keep doing that and score some more points there in between.”
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