Robert Quinn makes Chicago Bears history in home finale win vs Giants

The Chicago Bears blow out the New York Giants 29-3 and Robert Quinn breaks the franchise’s single-season sacks record.

The 2021 season may have been a disaster for the Chicago Bears but it was nice to see them end their home losing streak in a blowout and watch edge rusher Robert Quinn rewrite the record book.

The Bears dismantled the New York Giants 29-3 in a game that wasn’t as close as the score indicated. New York basically gave up on offense early in the game as the Bears’ defense ate up the Giants’ offense right from the start.

Chicago’s defense recorded four sacks and forced four turnovers. It started right on the first snap of the game. Giants quarterback Mike Glennon dropped back and Trevis Gipson blasted him, knocking the ball loose. Bilal Nichols recovered the ball and took the ball to New York’s two.

From there it took the Bears just one play as David Montgomery ran it in for a touchdown. Eighteen seconds into the game, the Bears had a 7-0 lead.

It got worse for the Giants from there despite seeing some of the same struggles on offense by the Chicago Bears. Chicago only had 249 yards on offense (162 passing and 87 rushing) but they took advantage of two drives starting deep in New York’s territory to score touchdowns. About six minutes into the game the Bears owned a 14-0 lead.

From there it seemed like the Giants decided to just keep the ball on the ground as much as possible. Part of that was likely because of Glennon’s first three dropbacks he got sacked twice and threw an interception. Giants head coach Joe Judge decided that running the ball as much as possible was a better choice than using backup Jake Fromm. Considering what happened with Glennon, what does that say about Fromm?

Out of New York’s 55 plays in the game, 40 of them were running plays. Glennon finished the game 4/11 for just 24 yards. Subtracting the 34 yards lost on sacks, the Giants had -10 yards passing for the game.

Saquon Barkley faced his demons in the game. Soldier Field is where he tore his ACL last season. He hasn’t been the same since but he had a good game in his return. He had 21 carries for 102 yards.

After the fireworks by the Chicago Bears to start the game, both teams settled into playing mediocre football. They combined for four straight punts before the Giants hit a field goal to make the score 14-3 in the second quarter.

The Bears then proceeded to score eight straight points in the final 1:04 to put even more distance between the two teams. Cairo Santos hit a field goal to make the score 17-3. On the ensuing kickoff, the Giants returner thought the ball would bounce into the end zone. Instead, it stopped flat on the two. The returner had to pick the ball up and the Bears stopped him at the five.

A couple of plays later the Bears’ defense got a safety, giving the Bears a 19-3 lead. The Bears got the ball and went 39 yards in 52 seconds and Santos hit another field goal. At halftime, the score was 22-3. It might as well have been 52-3 the way the Giants played.

The Bears’ defense kept putting the pressure on Glennon. It seemed every time he dropped back he had to avoid a Bears defender in his face. Fortunately, one of the sacks by the Bears was recorded by Robert Quinn. He came close on several occasions but wasn’t able to get his sack.

With 8:34 left in the game, Quinn finally got to Glennon. He even forced a fumble but the Giants recovered the ball.

The sack was extended his streak to eight straight games. More importantly, it gave him 18 sacks for the season. That broke the franchise’s single-season record for sacks in a season. It was great to see, especially after his horrendous 2020 when he only had two sacks.

After Quinn broke the record, head coach Matt Nagy called a timeout so the fans could honor him with applause. It touched Quinn.

"I was trying to figure out what was going on: ‘Why did we stop?’. For them to do that, I don’t know, I guess it just shows a little respect. It’s an honor for them to even do that. To break that record, as you can see, I’m at a loss for words. But it’s been a while. I’m just doing my job. I’m out there with my brothers and just doing what I can to make the most of our opportunities."

Additionally, the sack gave Quinn the league lead. He now leads the Pittsburgh Steelers’ T.J. Watt, who has 17.5 sacks. The Steelers play the Cleveland Browns on Monday night.

The Bears struggled this season to score in the third quarter. Entering this game, they had seven games in which they failed to score in the third. They had been outscored 87-47 in those games.

That made no difference on the Bears’ first drive in the third quarter. They marched 75 yards on 14 plays and took 5:30 off the clock. The drive resulted in Montgomery’s second rushing touchdown of the game. That made it 29-3 Bears and ended the scoring in the game.

The two teams then went back to awful football. They each had two punts and two turnovers on their drives during the rest of the third quarter. In the fourth quarter, The Giants had a turnover on downs and the Bears took over and eventually punted the ball. The two teams then traded interceptions. The Bears’ interception came on them trying to be cute. Out of the wildcat, Montgomery had an open Cole Kmet but underthrew the pass and was intercepted.

Next up for the Bears is their season finale against the Minnesota Vikings. With Minnesota’s loss to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday night, if the Chicago Bears win they incredibly finish the season in second place in the NFC North.

It’s not something to write home about since they’ll still own a losing record but to fight their way back to make it to second place is still a good outcome.