Mitchell Trubisky shines as Bears down Bengals 33-7: Recap

The Chicago Bears got a lot of great play from young players in their 33-7 win over the Cincinnati Bengals.

Yes, the Cincinnati Bengals are a really bad football team. But hey, in the NFL, you take wins where you can get them. And the Chicago Bears will take this 33-7 win and retain some pride as this season heads to its close.

Interestingly, I’d say that the Bears played so well because they took the training wheels off of their young team and just let them ride today. After fans begged to see it for weeks, we finally got a taste of what it looks like.

Partly because Fox allowed him to actually play football, Mitch Trubisky had his best game as a pro by far in just about every facet.

He showed off the kind of accuracy we expected to see when the Chicago Bears took him second overall in the 2017 NFL Draft. This throw to Adam Shaheen says it all.

In fact, Trubisky would’ve had a bigger day if Shaheen had pulled down the other contested throw his quarterback laid out for him in the end zone.

On top of that, he played very well from within the pocket as well as on the run. Instead of bailing out too early, he made subtle moves and delivered the ball downfield with confidence.

And what’s that? They ran a zone read with him in the red zone after setting it up all season and never running it? Wow! What an appropriate way for him to get his first rushing touchdown of the year: doing something he was good at in college.

Also, Trubisky’s running backs got the job done, too, which hadn’t been the case in recent weeks.

Tarik Cohen and Jordan Howard had back-to-back big runs on the Bears’ first drive, with Howard punching in a 21-yard touchdown to open up the scoring. In general, Howard had his best day in weeks with 147 yards on 23 (two TDs).

The Bears also got solid performances from their pass-catchers as Josh Bellamy, Kendall Wright and Shaheen all got loose for big plays. On a day when the Bears let Trubisky throw a bit in the first half, his receivers largely came through for him.

Wright (10 catches, 107 yards) especially destroyed the Bengals secondary, playing like a guy who the Chicago Bears might want to re-sign next year. Also, that’s the first 100-yard receiver the Bears have had this season.

Defense back to form

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And against a bad Cincinnati offense, the Bears defense had itself a very nice day.

They held Andy Dalton to just 141 yards passing on 14-of-29 attempts and kept the offense to 232 yards total. Roy Robertson-Harris, continuing to flash his ability, had a sack as did  A.J. Green was also limited to a fairly pedestrian game by his standards.

Furthermore, the Eddie Jackson Turnover Machine returned for another critically acclaimed performance. First, he picked off a tipped pass from Dalton. Then, made an incredible play to strip Green along the sideline before he ran out of bounds.

And Jackson’s still just a rookie. Just imagine who good he could end up.

No, the Bears weren’t perfect. They still committed some truly ridiculous penalties that took first downs and touchdowns off the board. And the coaching staff still made some questionable personnel decisions, especially regarding Cohen and Shaheen.

I mean, I know Hail Marys aren’t high-percentage plays to begin with, but they might have a greater chance to succeed when Shaheen, a 6’7″ former basketball player, is on the field rather than Daniel Brown. I guess that’s just me, though.

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But one can’t deny that the Chicago Bears played their best game of the season today. And they did it largely because they went against their nature and let their young kids play for once.

Too late to save John Fox and this coaching staff, but it’s still nice to see. Have to look forward to something for the rest of this year, right?