USA Today
A New Sack Man for Bears
The New York Giants were even worse than advertised. Robert Quinn, Trevis Gipson and the Bears defense made them look even worse.
Quinn on Sunday gave a game between two losing teams some redeeming value by setting the Bears single-season sacks record with a strip-sack of Mike Glennon and Gipson had two strip-sacks as the Bears defense dominated the Giants 29-3 in the home finale at Soldier Field.
"It's football, I mean it's towards the end of the game and you're just trying to finish it out strong and guys are having fun and I guess I caught fire at the right time," Quinn said.
The edge rusher has been hot all season and the record says so.
Quinn's big moment came with 8:06 left in the fourth quarter one play after a defensive holding penalty wiped out a sack he might have shared with Bruce Irvin. The next play, Quinn came off the edge and swarmed Quinn for an 8-yard loss and the first-down fumble was recovered by the Giants' Matt Skura.
It was sack No. 18, breaking Richard Dent's mark of 17 1/2 set in 1984.
"I had that one good jump and I knew I had that corner, so the quarterback was still there, the secondary had their guys on lock and I was able to make history," Quinn said. "So, of course, thank you to everyone on defense that was out there with me to allow that to happen."
It came after Quinn had spoken with Dent by phone on Saturday.
"Just pulled up to the house, we talked for a little bit, just small talk, talking a little football," Quinn said.
Dent did remind Quinn he really hadn't even been a starter when he had his 17 1/2 sacks. The Bears had Dan Hampton and Mike Hartenstine as defensive ends that season and Dent, in his second year, was a situational pass rusher until defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan gained confidence in him.
"But, you look up his career and no matter if he started 16 or 10 games, his career holds up on its own," Quinn said. "That's why he's in the Hall of Fame, of course."
In his typically focused and understated manner, Quinn was more worried about the game and was surprised the Bears stopped it with a timeout after his sack.
He hadn't forgotten about the record, though. He couldn't.
"So I mean, yeah people didn't let me forget about it all day so while I was trying to just brush it off and play football I was getting reminded by the guys on the bench which is, I mean, they just want to see people, you know a teammate, a brother, everyone be successful," Quinn said.
Glennon looked every bit as bad as he was in 2017, when Bears GM Ryan Pace signed him to be the bridge quarterback starter to Mitchell Trubisky.
Winless as a starter since leaving Chicago, Glennon got blindsided by Trevis Gipson, coughed up the ball on the first play from scrimmage and Bilal Nichols returned it 12 yards to the 2 to set up a 2-yard David Montgomery TD run.
On the next series, Glennon threw an interception when his pass over the middle was tipped by Artie Burns to Tashaun Gipson. The Bears turned it into a 4-yard TD pass from Andy Dalton to Darnell Mooney and the meaningless rout by one eliminated team over another was on. The Bears eventually had four takeaways.
The Bears added a Cairo Santos 21-yard field goal and Angelo Blackson's safety on a running play, a 44-yard Santos field goal before halftime, and another 2-yard Montgomery TD run in the third quarter to finish the walkover.
"The defense, I mean, just look at everything that happened today," Dalton said. "We were given the short field multiple times. For us to take advantage of it and score touchdowns, get up 14-0, was big.
"They didn't let up all day. Our defense played unbelievable all day. They kept giving us great field position, kept giving us good opportunities and we definitely left some out there but it was a big one for us."
The Giants wouldn't let Glennon throw after the start he had, and he made only five pass attempts with the fourth quarter four minutes old before finally padding his totals late. He finished 4 of 11 for 24 yards with two interceptions and the Giants had a season-low 151 yards. Deon Bush picked off one late in the game.
Glennon had a passer rating of 5.3. When the sack yardage was added in the Bears held the Giants to minus-10 yards net passing, the third lowest total ever achieved by their defense in the regular season.
"That's what the defense is about," Trevis Gipson said. "We want to be about turnovers and getting the ball back to our offense as fast as possible."
Dalton finished 18 of 35 for 173 yards while the Bears had just 87 yards rushing on 27 attempts. Giants running back Saquon Barkley had 102 yards, his first 100-yard day since he tore his ACL during Week 2 in Chicago last year.
The big 22-3 lead at halftime did let the Bears gamble on offense and tee off on defense.
Coach Matt Nagy called a flea flicker pass to Darnell Mooney that went for 23 yards, had 340-pound nose tackle Khyiris Tonga line up in the backfield and had Montgomery try to throw a jump pass on a fourth down gamble that was intercepted at the goal line.
"Philosophically, you want to always do that," Nagy said. "Now there's certain situations based off the teams you're playing and how that goes, field position certainly, but again, we've had that mentality.
"There's been times that we've been more conservative this year than what we've been, for whatever reason, or even today, but it's just sometimes it's a feel with where you're at, how you're playing on defense, how you're playing on offense and when it works, it's great. And when it doesn't, it's usually not a good call."
Of course, there's always the chance it was the final game at home for several Bears free agents after this season but also Nagy.
"Again, for me, I take it day by day," Nagy said. "If it goes that way, it's meant to be. And at the same point in time, I'm so stuck in today's game and the feeling that I have that I don't even have time to really—I haven't thought about that.
"Maybe I will down the road if that was to happen. If not then I'm just gonna do exactly what I've been doing all year long, which is prepping for Minnesota."
Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven
