Chicago Bears: Why Chase Daniel can beat the New York Giants

The Chicago Bears will be leaning on their defense once again, but Chase Daniel can absolutely beat these New York Giants.

With two crucial games following Week 13, the Chicago Bears are set to play it safe and roll the dice with backup quarterback Chase Daniel for the second straight week. The Bears will take on the New York Giants in the Meadowlands, and once more will count on their defense to do the heavy lifting.

Interestingly enough, though, these Giants are incredibly beatable in one particular area. Well, let me put it this way: The Giants are really, really bad in one particular area. If Daniel can take advantage, the Bears could very well put up a plethora of points without starter Mitch Trubisky.

A lot has been made of the Oakland Raiders and head coach Jon Gruden continuously making comments about finding a pass rush. Most Bears fans will not tire of seeing Gruden blasted with jokes, mostly on social media, due to these hilarious remarks. The Raiders are dead last in the NFL in sacks with just 10 on the year.

Here’s an intriguing number, though: The Giants are second-to-last, just in front of the Raiders with 14 sacks on the season.

Furthermore, our friends at Pro Football Focus have the Giants graded as the fourth-worst pass rush in football. Ironically enough, they are also graded as the third-worst at pass protecting.

In other words, get ready for the Khalil Mack show.

I digress.

Look at how little the Giants have done to agitate opposing quarterbacks this season. It’s actually hilarious that both the Giants and Raiders traded their best pass-rusher prior to the season and are now the two worst teams in football in terms of sacks.

When it comes to Daniel, he knows the Matt Nagy offense well. This is a huge advantage for the Bears, who implemented the system this year. Because of this, Daniel has a leg up already. The Giants hardly have any tape on Daniel — not just from this season, but throughout his career.

Could that be a blessing in disguise? Maybe.

Because the Giants are so poor at getting to the quarterback, though, it really is on Daniel’s shoulders this Sunday. I don’t buy into the thought that the Bears will lean on the run game too heavily, because that’s not the identity of this team — and that’s fine.

Daniel showed last week against the Detroit Lions that he can sneak some dime passes in there if he needs to. Take, for example, the crossing pattern by Anthony Miller — it was pretty.

The Bears are the best pass-blocking team in the league, once again courtesy of PFF, so if Daniel does his part, this is a win. Moreover, it could be a blowout. Yes, the Bears’ offense could absolutely put up a bunch of points even with Daniel at the helm.

It’s pretty simple logic. The Giants cannot get to the quarterback. The Bears are the best at protecting theirs. The rest is up to Daniel and his playmakers.

Don’t panic without Trubisky. Ryan Pace had a plan all along, and Daniel was a big part of it, following the Nagy hire. This game is far from a trap game. This game is more of a “We’ve done our due diligence” type of game, and the Bears should come out on top.

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