Chicago Bears: Different year, same story in close loss to Atlanta Falcons

Three points

Front seven

Though the Falcons offense eventually wore them down later in the game, it’s hard not to be impressed by what the Bears’ defensive front did in this game.

From the start, Akiem Hicks and Co. bottled up Devonta Freeman and the Falcons’ potent rushing attack all day. Excluding a 12-yard run from Matt Ryan, Atlanta gained just 53 rushing yards total, including 37 from Freeman on 12 carries.

Then, Hicks ran wild all over the Falcons’ offensive line on passing downs, registering two sacks and generally pushing the pocket.

And with the defensive front playing as well as they were, the linebackers spent much of the day just cleaning up.

Jerrell Freeman and Danny Trevathan flew around to help the effort to corral Freeman and to bring down pass-catchers in the flat. Nick Kwiatkowski made his presence felt every time he hit the field in relief or on special teams. And Leonard Floyd, despite not registering a sack, had a tackle for loss and pass defended.

If this is how the Chicago Bears’ defensive front is going to play all year, they’re going to stay competitive in a lot of games.

Running game dominates

With the Chicago Bears only having four receivers active today, they leaned heavily on the run game to move the offense. And their plan arguably worked better than expected, thanks to their one-two punch of Jordan Howard and Tarik Cohen.

With Howard struggling to get going at first, the Bears turned to Cohen for a change of pace early. And it paid off. Cohen, despite taking a few big hits, quickly established himself as a receiving threat in this one. In fact, that’s how he got his first career touchdown.

He also ripped off a huge 46-yard run, breaking tackles and showing off his big-play ability in the open field.

His emergence as a threat, in turn, helped Howard. In fact, the imminent danger of him keeping the ball opened up the outside for Howard to score his touchdown. It was an interesting wrinkle from Dowell Loggains that took advantage of what the Bears had at their disposal: two talented playmakers in the backfield.

With the Bears offense lacking a lot of fire-power, both at receiver and at quarterback, those two guys may have to bear some heavy loads this year.

Secondary Slips Up at the End

After playing a strong game for three quarters, the Chicago Bears secondary of the past two years reared its ugly head once again.

On the verge of getting off the field and potentially having great field position for their offense, a blown coverage resulted in this:

I’m personally not sure which stung worse: the blown coverage itself or the brutal stiff arm that sprung Austin Hooper for the touchdown.

Then, on their next possession, the Bears let Hooper get free for a 40-yard catch on 3rd and 8. If they had gotten that stop, they could’ve tied the game with a field goal on their next drive. Instead, they were forced to go for the end zone.

And don’t even get me started with how much that touchdown play changed the game.

It’s a shame that happened, too, because the Chicago Bears got really solid play from their corners today. Marcus Cooper and Kyle Fuller held up admirably against Julio Jones and the Falcons’ quick receivers. They tackled aggressively all game and even provided a pass breakup (!).

But solid isn’t always good enough, and it’s definitely not good enough if you’re going to fail in crunch time.