Bears beat Jets. Don't get Excited.

October 29, 2018

The schedule dictates who you focus on from week to week. The Bears can thank their lucky stars that the New York Jets were on their schedule last Sunday. Although the Bears won 24-10 their lackluster performance does not bode well looking at second half of the season opponents that are in their division.

Holding Khalil Mack was probably the smartest move in the Ryan Pace era. His participation against a lousy Jets offense was not needed. If he’s not 100% by next week the Bears can afford to sit him against an equally bad Buffalo Bills offense. The Jets like to establish their running attack.The Bears defense shut them down to 2.4 yards per carry. The Jets helped the Bears with multiple false starts and dropped balls. However, Bears regressed to the dumbness of last year when Eddie Jackson got penalized for unnecessary roughness after the play was over. This extended a drive that resulted in a Jets touchdown cutting the Bears lead to seven. I was wondering, could the Bears lose to the lowly Jets? There was virtually no defensive pressure and they only had one sack. For the first time this year they had no turnovers playing against an interception prone quarterback.

For the second week in a row Mitch Trubisky’s legs were better than his arm.  The inaccuracy problems returned as he completed only 16 of 29 attempts. Only two went for gains of twenty yards. His total yards were inflated by a perfectly executed screen pass for a 70 yard touchdown. Trubisky did make nice throw on a pass to Anthony Miller in the end zone for a touchdown. The Bears once again attempted a long sideline pass that didn’t come close to being completed. They haven’t completed that type of pass since the game against Tampa Bay. Coach Matt Nagy finally figured out the Bears have a good running attack and called plays for Jordan Howard who scored the game’s last touchdown. Cody Parkey missed a 43 yard field goal. He is no better than last year’s kicker Connor Barf.

There was a point this year when I thought playing the Buffalo Bills would be an easy victory. However, despite the fact they have no offense the defense is pretty good and be trouble inconsistent Bear offense. This Bills dominated the Vikings earlier this year. Even Tom Brady and the New England Patriots had trouble. They had to settle for four field goals before scoring their lone touchdown in the fourth quarter. The Bills offense could only score six points. For the Bears to go to the playoffs this a must victory