Chicago Bears: Defense greatly improves but Dalton injured in win over Bengals

The Chicago Bears defense had a great outing but quarterback Andy Dalton suffered an injury in a Week 2 victory over the Bengals.

Fans of the Chicago Bears spent all week depressed over their performance in a Week 1 loss to the Los Angeles Rams. The defense gave up multiple big plays and missed tackles while the offense, despite moving the ball pretty well, wasn’t able to make the plays when needed.

Of course, the overriding talk throughout the week was the quarterback situation. While many fans and analysts outside of Chicago felt there was a quarterback controversy between Andy Dalton and Justin Fields, there really wasn’t one. The man who makes the decision on who starts, head coach Matt Nagy, was firm in his belief that Fields still isn’t ready and that Dalton is secure as the starter.

Dalton came out of the gates smoking. He led the Bears on a nine-play, 75-yard drive, aided by a 32-yard defensive pass interference call. Dalton went 6-of-7 for 39 yards and a touchdown on the drive.

On the Bengals’ first drive, the Chicago Bears defense could have stopped the drive after six plays but safety Tashaun Gipson was called for a taunting penalty that extended the drive. Six plays later, the defense came up with a big sack from Robert Quinn that knocked Cincinnati out of field goal range. In a game that ultimately finished 20-17, that was a huge play.

On the Bears’ second drive, an injury occurred that could affect the quarterback situation. Dalton scrambled for 11 yards. On his way out of bounds, he stepped awkwardly and hurt his knee. Fields had to take over. Dalton came back but it was clear that he wasn’t healthy. He went to the locker room and didn’t return to the game.

That made it Justin Fields’ time to take over.

While this is what the fans begged for, it wasn’t exactly the way he wanted to take over. He didn’t take reps with the starters during the week and had to run a game plan that was tailored for Dalton, not him. Those factors showed.

The receivers don’t have that rapport with Fields that they might have with Dalton. Nagy claimed that FIelds deserved to get some reps with the starters during training camp and the preseason games, it didn’t happen.

Fields and the receivers have to get used to each other. There were a couple of dropped passes deep, including a sure touchdown that Allen Robinson could not handle.

Of course, there were some rookie mistakes made. Fields was called for a false start deep in the red zone. Also, he was duped by linebacker Logan Wilson into an interception. Wilson acted like he was rushing but then dropped back in coverage. Fields never saw him and threw the pass right to him. Wilson took the ball to the Bears’ 7-yard line. One play later, the Bengals scored and made the game 20-17.

Fields also fumbled the ball on a sack. He had the presence of mind to be able to prevent the Bengals defender from making an easy scoop and score by knocking the ball away and recovering the fumble.

With things breaking down, would the Bears blow the lead?

The Chicago Bears defense makes up for a poor performance

The defense felt embarrassed by its performance last week. All the players admitted to it and they looked forward to the game. They needed to make up for their bad play.

Boy, did they improve. The defense shut the Bengals out in the first half. The Bears held a 7-0 lead. The Bengals came up with a field goal on their first drive of the second half. After that, however, the Bears’ defense completely dominated.

The defense forced four consecutive turnovers. It started with Eddie Jackson forcing a fumble recovered by Tashaun Gipson with 5:01 left in the third quarter. That led to a Cairo Santos field goal that made the score 10-7.

When the Bengals came back for their next drive in the fourth quarter, Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow dropped back and threw a pass that linebacker Roquan Smith intercepted. He made some nifty moves and took the ball 53 yards for a touchdown. That made the score 17-7.

The defense wasn’t finished yet, though. On Burrow’s next pass, cornerback Jaylon Johnson recorded his first career interception. That led to another Santos field goal, making it 20-7.

The defense wanted more, however. On Burrow’s next throw, linebacker Alec Ogletree batted the pass, and defensive lineman Angelo Blackson caught it for the interception.

After going 199 straight passes without an interception, the Chicago Bears defense intercepted him on three consecutive throws. It was shades of the Bears’ 2018 defense.

The defense did stumble a bit after that, however. He led Cincinnati on a six-play, 75-yard drive, culminating with a 42-yard bomb for a touchdown. Yes, the defense gave up another big play touchdown deep downfield. That made the score 20-10.

Then came the ugly Fields interception. Burrow’s next throw resulted in a touchdown. After throwing three interceptions on three consecutive throws, he threw two interceptions on two consecutive throws. Suddenly the Bears were in a dogfight again.

Fields came up big on the final drive, though. With 2:55 remaining in the game, Fields scrambled on a third-and-nine from the Bears’ 26 and got the first down. After that, Fields and the offense could just bleed the clock and make the victory official.

Justin Fields has room to grow

Yes, Fields showed he has some growing to do. He made some typical rookie mistakes. He didn’t seem overwhelmed, however. He was calm in the pocket and did make the plays he needed to make to seal the win. A week of reps with the starters and a game plan suited for him should make things easier for him.

Will he get that this week? After the game, Nagy said he wouldn’t know more about Dalton’s knee for 24-48 hours after the game. Once he sees how serious the injury is, he’ll make a decision. The Bears play Myles Garrett and the Cleveland Browns in Week 3 so if Fields does start it’ll be a tough game.

However, there was one interesting thing in the postgame press conference was Nagy’s answer to whether Dalton comes in if he’s healthy. He wouldn’t answer the question.

We’d have to imagine that the pressure on Nagy to start Fields is tremendous. He keeps insisting on continuing with the plan while outside forces keep calling for Fields. There were reports before the game that Fields keeps impressing the team with his performances in practice and that his promotion is just weeks away.

Perhaps Dalton’s injury speeds up the process and gets Fields in. The fans and people around the league get what they want and Nagy could just say that the injury was what caused Fields to come in. After all, he did say that barring injury, he didn’t see how Fields would start early in the season, right?