Machine-like Mitch Mauls Bears

It was an embarrassment on several levels.

The Buffalo Bills and Mitchell Trubisky completely dominated the Bears 41-15 in the second preseason game Saturday at Soldier Field, with much of the damage coming against the starting defense.

Trubisky led four touchdown drives on Buffalo's first four possessions, and the Bills were up 34-6 at halftime. It wasn't just the defense collapsing against the Bills offense that was disturbing, as the Bears first-team attack under Andy Dalton ran its streak of series without first downs to four on the year before finally getting a first down on the third series.

"I feel like for us we didn’t get in too much of a rhythm early," Dalton said, repeating a refrain from the first preseason game. "Consecutive three-and-outs. We started to get a drive together and then the turnover.

"Penalties set us back at times. We have to be a little more efficient and more consistent with our performance."

The one shining light for the Bears offense in the first half came on a 73-yard touchdown pass Dalton threw to Rodney Adams down the sideline against man-to-man coverage. The Bears were already down 28-0 at the time.

"It was nice to get the deep ball to Rodney," Dalton said. "He made an unbelievable play. He just had a baby and made that play. I think he rocked the baby afterward. That was pretty good.

"There’s some takeaways we can say (from the game). There’s some things we did well. Overall we’d like to be a little more consistent."

Dalton went 11 of 17 for 146 yards with an interception just before halftime that Trubisky quickly converted into another Buffalo field goal for a 34-6 lead.

Always a classy player amid tough circumstances with the Bears, Trubisky didn't use his success to taunt anyone or throw in a few "how do you like me nows?"

“It felt good to do it against these guys but I’m also rooting for a lot of those guys on the other side and they’re still like family to me,” Trubisky said.

Trubisky tore the Bears up for 221 yards on 20 of 28 passes with a 4-yard TD throw to former Packers and Bengals receiver Jake Kumerow.

While Trubisky met with both cheers and boos at the game's beginning, it was Dalton and the first-team Bears offense that drew the most boos. The chant went out very early calling for Fields to play but he didn't come in until the third quarter.

Then the fans went wild for Fields, who was 9 of 19 for 80 yards and ran for 46 yards.

"I think fans have to realize we’re on the same team," Fields said. "We’re all trying to win games and that’s really our main focus. We’re not worried about who has touchdowns, who’s doing this and that. We’re just out here trying to win."

Fields went so far as to call it disrespectful to Dalton for fans to be so one-sided.

"I really think it’s kind of disrespectful to Andy, them cheering my name out like that," Fields said. "They have to trust in coach to make sure he’s making the right decisions. Just cheer him on, you know?

"That's not helping Andy play better, to cheer my name. That’s not doing none of that. My advice to them would be just cheer whoever’s on the field."

The defense deserved to be roundly booed for the inability to stop the Bills until late in the game. Buffalo drove 72, 64, 48 and 34 yards for TDs its first four possessions and scored on six of its seven possessions when Trubisky was quarterback.

The other Bears points came on a 13-yard Khalil Herbert run and a 54-yard Brian Johnson field goal in the fourth quarter with Fields playing.

Pass blocking proved a major problem all game due to injuries as the makeshift line they've assembled with the first, second and third teams allowed four sacks and 12 hits on the quarterbacks.

Coach Matt Nagy is trying to watch the various line combinations used to try to prevent anyone from being hit too much but Fields took one blow that knocked off his helmet.

"It’s just kind of the situation we’re in right now and there’s not much that we can do for that," Nagy said.

As a result, it becomes difficult for coaches to evaluate the play of Fields.

"So we’ve just got to keep doing our best to evaluate him based off of that play that time, taking everything else and putting it aside: How did he do on that play?' " Nagy added.

The Bears got out of the game with only a few more injuries. Bilal Nichols has a toe injury. It's unclear whether this was the same toe problem he had early in training camp or a new one. Also Javon Wims has an appendix problem and linebacker Austin Calitro suffered a hamstring injury.

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