Chicago Bears rookie Dominique Robinson has a big debut

Chicago Bears defensive end Dominique Robinson makes a big impression in his professional debut, giving more hope to the rebuild process. The Chicago Bears shocked the NFL world in Week 1 with an improbable 19-10 upset win against the San Francisco 49ers.

Not many so-called “experts” gave Chicago a chance to pull off the win. In fact, when the talk of the worst teams in the NFL comes up the Bears are often the main subject. Not very many analysts expect more than three wins for Chicago. Some (I’m looking at you Mike Martz) even compared this team to the 2008 Detroit Lions. That team famously went winless the entire season. Ironically, that Lions team went undefeated in the preseason like the Bears did this year.

The Bears went up against a team some people actually think could win the NFC this season. The Bears, however, took it to them. It didn’t look good early on, but they kept working and wore down the Niners. After falling 10-0 halfway through the third quarter, Chicago ran off 19 straight points to get the win.

In the first two-and-a-half quarters, the Chicago Bears offense really struggled to move the ball. Quarterback Justin Fields failed to complete a pass to either the wide receivers or the tight ends. He only completed three passes for 19 yards, all to the running backs.

The defense really stepped up in this game. They harassed San Francisco quarterback Trey Lance all game long. Despite recording just two sacks, they kept pressuring him all game long. They forced him into missing wide-open receivers and making bad decisions, including a costly interception late in the game.

One of the stars of the defense was rookie defensive end Dominique Robinson. Robinson was supposed to be a project when general manager Ryan Poles drafted him in the fifth round. Robinson came to Miami (OH) as a quarterback. He moved over to wide receiver and again to defensive end. He is still a raw player.

Well, he showed that he is a quick learner. He impressed the coaches during training camp as well as the preseason games. That good impression continued when the curtain raised for the real thing in Week 1.

Robinson had 1.5 of the two sacks the Bears recorded. He added seven tackles, a quarterback hurry, and three quarterback pressures. He did that in just 28 defensive snaps (41 percent of the total defensive snaps).

Robinson is positioned as Robert Quinn‘s backup. The plan is to limit some of Quinn’s snaps to keep him healthy throughout the season. If Robinson continues to play a little bit as well as he did in Week 1 that will be a successful plan.

Speaking of Quinn, the fact that he didn’t come in during the minicamps and OTAs throughout the offseason seemed to help Robinson. With Quinn’s absence, Robinson got additional snaps. Poles overhauled the roster so the Bears went from being one of the oldest teams in the league last season to one of the youngest this season.

Robinson will be one of the biggest keys to Chicago’s youth movement. He showed how good he could be right at the start.