Bear Digest

Bears drop the ball but not the game in 24-20 comeback victory

Chicago Bears receivers dropped passes like they never played in cold weather before and lost some respect, but they rallied for a victory over the Giants.
Gene Chamberlain|
Daniel Bellinger of the Giants is denied a TD by Jaquan Brisker in Sunday's first half.
Daniel Bellinger of the Giants is denied a TD by Jaquan Brisker in Sunday's first half. | Mike Dinovo-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

The Bears said they wouldn't do it again, actually promised their eyes had been opened in Cincinnati when they had a chance to put away an opponent with a worse record and needed a miracle comeback to win.

Instead, the Bears not only opened the door for doubters over the rest of this season by doing exactly what they said they wouldn't do, they did it against a 2-7 New York Giants team. Once again they had an answer with a late comeback but they've stamped themselves as a less serious team.

They managed to come back from a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter for a 24-20 win after knocking Jaxson Dart out of the game. Caleb Williams scrambled in for the winning points from 17 yards out with 1:47 remaining.

The Bears completely dominated the early part of the game, once again letting a team hang around, didn't score enough points when they had opportunities, then suddenly found themselves down to their last few possessions.

Olamide Zaccheaus dropped a pass in the end zone and just about everywhere else on the fieldd. Williams threw inconsistently, and Ben Johnson never saw a fourth down he couldn't try to convert unsuccessfully when they could have kicked field goals.

Despite a running game doing damage, the Bears kept going to their iffy passing attack and Caleb Williams completed only 10 of 18 for 94 yards in the first half. Eventually he went 20 of 36 for 220 yards with a TD.

A Bears defense totally in control early eventually leaked and the Giants poured through, Jaxson Dart expanding a 10-7 Giants lead to 17-7 on a 24-yard QB run around left end. Eventually, they knocked Dart out of the game with a concussion but by then trailed by 10.

The dagger came when Noah Sewell missed a tackle on Devin Singletary at the sideline and Tyrique Stevenson was hurdled on a 41-yard gain to set up a 10-point Giants lead with 10:19 remaining.

This was supposed to be "Bear weather," with temperatures below freezing. Instead, Bears receivers, Zaccheaus in particular, treated the ball like a block of ice. Williams needed no help finding incompletions but his receivers provided it nonetheless.

The critics had suspiciously eyed the Bears' 5-3 record and who they beat, called them pretenders. More proof was needed.

On Sunday, the Bears only provided more reason for doubt. Rallying at home to edge a weak team from the nation's media capital is only going to ensure their status as wannabees in the eyes of critics for the rest of the year.

It's better than losing, but if the Bears want respect from someone outside of Chicago now they're going to need to stack up wins late in the year against their murderous schedule in the final month.

The bright side of that schedule for the Bears is that, thankfully, there will be almost no more pushovers for them to regard lightly.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.