Chicago Bears: Week 4 awards, surprises and question marks

Surprise Performers: Kevin Toliver and Bilal Nichols

Going into Week 4, the Bears were a bit thin in their secondary. Namely, Prince Amukamara and Marcus Cooper were out. So, that gave a chance to both Kevin Toliver and Bryce Callahan for extended playing time. Both played well, but Toliver was even better than one could have asked.

The Bucs knew Toliver was an easy target. After all, if you’re an undrafted free agent cornerback going up against a trio of lethal wide receivers on the NFL’s top passing attack, you’re going to be targeted frequently.

Toliver led the Bears in tackles with seven overall (five of them solo) and looked like he had been there before. There were a couple of plays where he was beaten, but that’s to be expected by someone as raw as he is. For being thrust into the situation, he played very well.

Meanwhile, rookie defensive lineman Bilal Nichols got in on the fun quite often as was used as a rotational guy quite a bit. Nichols ended his game with an impressively well-rounded line of: Four tackles (two solo), two tackles for loss, a quarterback hit and half a sack.

Nichols has garnered a good amount of playing time as a rookie and has been very active up front. He’s often near the quarterback and has shown tremendous explosion off the line of scrimmage. The Bears should certainly feel like they stole Nichols out of Delaware in the fifth round.