Chicago Bears: Games may not look pretty, but the results are

The Chicago Bears certainly don’t look like a powerhouse team. Despite their ups and downs, they keep grinding and have a winning record and momentum on their side.

Heading into the 2021 season, the Chicago Bears had too many holes to be a true contender. While that might still be true, this team’s resilience has them competing. They’ve had games when their offense was horrible. They’ve also had games when their defense was bad. Through it all, however, these players keep grinding. They try to overcome their struggles. As a result, they find themselves in a position that many didn’t expect to see them in — a team with a winning record.

This is one team that just doesn’t quit. Despite being outgunned by the Los Angeles Rams in Week 1, there was no quit. In Week 3, the Cleveland Browns smacked them around. They recorded nine sacks and an incredible 15 quarterback hits. Rookie quarterback Justin Fields could have sulked and complained. He didn’t, however. He just got up and called the next play. Despite the beatdown, the Bears were actually still in the game at the start of the fourth quarter. They were only down 13-6 thanks to the defense.

Speaking of the defense, the unit is once again playing tough. Their leaders, Khalil Mack and Robert Quinn, took some criticism after a subpar 2020 (subpar for them). This season, however, they’ve combined for 29 tackles (8 for loss), 9.5 sacks, and 12 quarterback hits. Additionally, Roquan Smith is on a mission to prove to his doubters that he is one of the top linebackers in the NFL. He already has 50 tackles (2 for loss), 2 sacks, and 2 quarterback hits.

Chicago Bears: Results are pretty even if the process isn’t

The team’s resiliency is starting to pay off. Despite the two embarrassments in the third week, the team turned things around. The Bears are currently on a two-game winning streak, beating the Detroit Lions and the Las Vegas Raiders.

Yes, the Lions are the Lions. They are winless and in the middle of one of the worst stretches of bad luck imaginable. The Raiders, though, had a tremendous offense coming into the game. Quarterback  Derek Carr was second in the league in passing with 1,399 yards.

What we heard before the game was how Carr was going to scorch the Bears’ secondary. What ended up happening, however, was that the Bears’ pass rush got to Carr and the Raiders. The defense broke up the Raiders’ timing and the Las Vegas players looked out of sorts.

The Raiders felt that they could bully the Chicago Bears offense. They took whatever chance they had to hit Fields. Some of the hits were even illegal, drawing more than a few flags. They felt they could rattle the young quarterback.

Chicago Bears head coach Matt Nagy was impressed with Fields’ toughness.

"His toughness was great, it was awesome. So that’s all. That’s the No. 1 thing I’m taking out of this, is his toughness."

Boy, were they mistaken. Fields took the hits and kept coming back. Even though he didn’t have out-of-this-world numbers (he threw for just 111 yards), he completed some big passes to extend drives, especially late in the game.

As the game progressed, it was the Bears’ offense that started bullying the Raiders. The offensive line, a unit that constantly gets accused of getting pushed around, played a physical game. They were moving bodies around, opening holes for the running game. As you can see here, they were throwing Raiders around. It was a sight to behold.

The Chicago Bears offense is starting to form an identity

One of the criticisms of the Bears offense is the lack of identity. Is it a running offense, a passing one, or what? Well, it looks like a running one at the moment. That’s mostly because they have a rookie quarterback. As he progresses, we’ll see a lot more passes.

What we are seeing is the offense takes their young quarterback’s identity. They see how hard he plays and practices. They see the beatings he takes and how he just bounces up and prepares for the next play.

A great quarterback leads his teammates. He gets the players around him to follow him. A great quarterback can motivate his players to play better than they have before.

No, Fields isn’t a great quarterback…yet. He’s showing the traits of one, however. We’re seeing it with how his teammates are performing. He grinds and they grind. He gets knocked down and gets back up so they do the same.

Fields’ teammates feel there might be something special with this kid so they have an extra bounce in their step. They want to play hard for the kid.

We haven’t seen that from a Chicago Bears quarterback in quite some time.

This is a team that is still developing, just like its quarterback. This is why people wanted him to start from the beginning. The games won’t be pretty because Fields and his offense are still developing. For the past two weeks, however, the results sure are.

If Fields can keep getting better and keep leading his teammates, this could be a very fun season as it progresses. Don’t even mention if he can lead his teammates to a victory this week over the Green Bay Packers. If that happens then things will get wild.