Chicago Bears: 3 Observations from Week 12 win vs. Giants

2. Offense again had its ups and downs

This season, the Chicago Bears offense hasn’t been able to consistently play well. There are always a handful of plays that keeps the offense from getting into a rhythm and piling up some points. The same happened against the Giants.

On the Bears’ second drive in the first quarter, they marched down the field. Starting at their own 9-yard line, Trubisky had the offense get to the Giants’ 13 in 12 plays, using 6:50 in the process. It was a great drive, one that has been missing for much of the season.

Then, as sure as the sun rises in the east in the morning, the Bears made a fatal mistake. Trubisky underthrew Anthony Miller in the end zone and Alec Ogletree intercepted the pass. It was Trubisky’s third end-zone interception this season.

To be fair, there also was a big dropped pass by Ben Braunecker deep in Giants territory. It likely wouldn’t be a touchdown but the ball would’ve been inside the 10-yard line and instead of a pass perhaps Nagy calls a running play and the Bears could score at least a field goal, if not a touchdown. That then makes it a different game.

These things shouldn’t continue to happen. The Fox game analyst mentioned that there were two receivers close to each other on the play and that probably helped Ogletree get the interception but it was a bad throw by Trubisky. Additionally, Massie committed an illegal use of hands penalty so even if the pass went for a touchdown it would’ve been wiped away because of the penalty.

Trubisky also had another awful throw that resulted in an interception. Early in the fourth quarter, he made a deep throw to Montgomery. He underthrew the ball by six yards and hometown kid Julian Love excited his family and friends at the game by grabbing the interception and going 30 yards.

The Bears offense again couldn’t find the end zone when they were deep in the red zone. Eddy Pineiro made two field goals, but one was from 24 yards out and the other was from 26 yards out. That means the ball was on the six and eight-yard line.

Speaking of Pineiro, he did make his field goals but they were chip shots. When he had to make a long extra point attempt (because of penalties) from 48 yards, he missed. He is still not over whatever problem he has concerning his kicking woes.

Trubisky did have a season-high 278 passing yards. Also, he used his legs to gain 18 yards, most of them in key points. He had the Bears’ second touchdown of the game, a two-yard scamper. However, he continued to make bad throws, underthrowing (some to the point of bouncing them to the receivers) or overthrowing receivers.

After the game, Trubisky was happy with the win but not the offense’s performance, per the team’s official website:

"We scored more points than them, but it’s not good enough. We’ve got to be better in the red zone, we’ve got to be better on third down, we’ve got to be better on offense. Today we found a way to score more points than them. [But] we’ve got to watch it, get better and quit making mistakes."

As far as coaching, Nagy also had his ups and downs. He still has trouble playcalling for the running game. The Bears again had trouble on third and shorts. For the season, the Bears are now 6-for-15 on third and short situations. This is dismal. They should be converting more of these. If they do, they keep drives alive, some of them resulting in scores. Instead, those drives falter and the defense has to spend more time on the field.

Nagy says he won’t relinquish playcalling duties. Well, he then needs to consult the offensive coordinator a lot more because he still has trouble calling run plays. I will give him credit for his call at the end, though.

On the Bears’ second to last drive, after they again had a three-and-out that lasted just 33 seconds, Nagy looked like he was going to go for it. The Giants had to put their defense on the field. Then Nagy pulled the offense and put in the punt team.

The Giants didn’t have a timeout left so they couldn’t substitute and had someone without punt returning experience go back. He let the ball go and it landed inside the 10. If the Giants were to win, they’d need to go 90 yards in three and a half minutes. They couldn’t and the Bears got the victory.