Chicago Bears: Team’s sloppy play a concern, despite win

Despite a convincing win in the box score, the Chicago Bears must clean up some of the sloppiness we saw on Sunday.

The Chicago Bears went into New Era Stadium and did exactly what they were supposed to do against the Buffalo Bills. They took care of business against a team they absolutely should  (and had to) defeat. When the clock struck all zeros, a look at the box score would have suggested a thoroughly dominating 41-9 win for the Bears.

While that is true in many respects, there were a number of sloppy plays, mental mistakes, and mistakes that the team must clean up before their next game against the Detroit Lions. In the end, none of these mistakes came back to cost the Bears, but against better teams, they most certainly will. Fortunately, the Bears were playing the absolute worst quarterback in recent memory in Nathan Peterman, who wouldn’t make the Bears pay for their mistakes.

Let’s start on the Bears’ opening possession. On a 3rd and 5 from the Buffalo 32, Mitch Trubisky took a sack and fumbled the football. Although the Bears recovered, it took them firmly out of field goal range and they had to settle for a punt.

On the next drive, back to back false start penalties by Charles Leno (he had 3 total on the day) took the Bears from 2nd and 5 at their own 22 yard-line to 2nd and 15 on their own 12. Fortunately, Trubisky bailed him out with terrific back-to-back throws to Taylor Gabriel to move the chains.

Leno’s third false start took the Bears from a fairly manageable 3rd and 8 at the Buffalo 36 to 3rd and 13. At the time the Bears were up 14-0 and should have at least picked up a few more yards for a field goal attempt.

There were also the two missed penalties against Akiem Hicks in which he appeared to make contact with Peterman’s head, but no flags were thrown. Now it’s hard to fault Hicks for playing hard and trying to get after the quarterback, but those two personal fouls could have potentially been big had they been playing a decent team.

Next, we come to the Bills only touchdown drive of the game. Yes, context is important, as the Bears were up 34-3, but there were a number of critical mistakes during this drive that cannot happen in a close game.

The Bears had the Bills pinned back on their own 19 yard-line facing 3rd and 16. Aaron Lynch brought down Peterman for a loss of 2 yards. However, there were two penalties on the Bears that extended the drive for the Bills. The first was a defensive holding by Prince Amukamara, and the other was an overly-enthusiastic hip thrusting celebration from Lynch which cost the team 15 yards.

Later in the drive, the Bears had the Bills in 2nd and 30 before a questionable facemask penalty against Roquan Smith extended the drive once again. Finally, on 3rd and goal, a defensive pass interference by Amukamara gave the Bills new life, and they finally punched one in the end zone.

Again, the hope is that many of these mistakes made late in the game were a result of being in the midst of a blowout game. However, this team is still learning to win and finish games, so they simply can’t have these types of mental lapses, regardless of the situation.

For a team near the top of the league in terms of being the least penalized (6.2 per game) yesterday’s game was hopefully an aberration. They’ll certainly need to limit those mistakes as they get into the heart of their schedule.