10 thoughts after the Chicago Bears rallied for a 16-14 victory over the Denver Broncos on the final play in Week 2 at Empower Field at Mile High.
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1. Chris Tabor hasn’t spent a lot of time talking about how the Bears’ offseason kicking derby was covered, but sift through a few of his remarks and it’s easy to tell he didn’t believe it was always between the uprights.
“I understand why there was a lot of hoopla on the kicking thing, probably in my opinion a little much, but that’s OK,” Chris Tabor said last week. “I get it.”
The special teams coordinator figured the Bears would be judged not on the results of what the long line of kickers they paraded through Halas Hall did but what the guy they eventually settled on did during the season. Reality is when the Bears crashed out of the playoffs, as they did with the Cody Parkey missing off the crossbar and upright, and then when they looked at as many options as they did during the offseason, it was fair game.
Did they know what they were looking for in a long line of guys with no experience or next to no professional experience? The goal, and this was repeated time and time again by general manager Ryan Pace and on down, was to discover a young talent who finally put everything together. The Bears believe that’s what some of the teams with the most successful kickers in the league have done. Once upon a time, they similarly stumbled into Robbie Gould. As the process played out, you began to wonder if they were going to have to abandon that search and go with an established veteran who was cut elsewhere.
Two games don’t tell us a ton, but Eddy Pineiro made one huge kick Sunday as time expired and two other big ones earlier in the game. Coach Matt Nagy put it best.
“Games like this just absolutely multiply your confidence to another level,” he said. “So for him, I like rooting for good people and he’s a good person. He fought through a lot to get to this point where he’s at right now. He listened to his coaches, and he trusted himself and he has his teammates who believed in him throughout this whole process. I always say good things happen to good people. Well, he’s good people and good things happened today. He helped us win that game. I mean he had a 40-yarder, a 52-yarder and a 53-yarder to win the game. You can’t make that up.”
The scene from Empower Field at Mile High
The best Bears-Broncos shots from our photographers from Week 2.
It was the longest field goal to win a game for the Bears on the final snap since Paul Edinger hit a 48-yarder to lift them to a 24-21 victory over the Raiders on Oct. 5, 2003, at Soldier Field. Edinger also hit a 54-yard field goal to beat the Lions 23-20 on Dec. 24, 2000, with just two seconds remaining at the Pontiac Silverdome. That kick knocked the Lions out of the playoffs. Pineiro’s kick prevented the Bears from returning home 0-2, something that would have cast a black cloud over a season that began with such high hopes two weeks ago. Can you imagine the added scrutiny if they lost the game on a missed kick?
Pineiro ought to be a slam dunk to be named the NFC special teams player of the week. He’s 4-for-4 on field goals and made the only extra point he has attempted. This is how the Bears go from thinking they can believe in Pineiro, for whom they traded a conditional 2021 seventh-round pick to the Raiders, to actually believing in him. That’s because before you see the guy do it in live action, you’re operating on hope.
“I was just hitting some kicks into the net,” Pineiro said. “Tabor was just telling me, ‘Get an easy swing in,’ this and that. I go, ‘Coach, I got you. This one’s for you.’ Just went out there and hit my kick, you know.”
Why did Pineiro tell Tabor the kick was for him?
“For all the things he has been through, the coaching staff’s been through,” Pineiro said. “The whole kicking situation. It was pretty cool.”
Thin air of Denver or not, Nagy’s confidence will be up with Pineiro a week after he elected to keep quarterback Mitch Trubisky and the offense on the field and go for it on fourth-and-10 rather than have Pineiro attempt a 51-yard field goal in the opener against the Packers. The Bears picked Pineiro as their guy after two preseason games (and one failed trade bid for Kaare Vedvik) and then didn’t make any roster moves after kickers were cut elsewhere. But he didn’t exactly start the season with a lot of street cred in the locker room or with the coaches. He has enough now that you can almost guarantee the Bears will reach the condition to ship that 2021 seventh-round pick off to the Raiders (the pick goes to Oakland if Pineiro is on the roster for just three more games). The price is worth it practically for winning this game alone.
“It means everything,” Pineiro said. “I’ve been working my butt off. All the stuff that I’ve been through, ‘Augusta silence,’ the kickers getting cut left and right, all the crazy things going on. It was a pretty cool moment to have this opportunity. (Pat) Scales snapped on-point, Pat’s (O’Donnell) hold on-point. The whole operation was clean.”
To hear Pineiro tell it, all the noise surrounding the Bears’ kicker situation — they were lampooned in Sports Illustrated — helped steel him for the moment.
“I think it’s prepared me,” he said. “Like I said, all the crap that I’ve been through, all the stuff and the whole kicking situation, what happened last year.
“I was talking to Pat on the sidelines going, ‘Man, I hope I get this shot’. I’ve been practicing my whole life for this and all the stuff that I’ve been through. I was praying, ‘God, give me this shot, give me this shot to win the game.’ This was an emotional kick. Just like I said, from the stuff that I’ve been through, the whole kicking situation. Do we have a kicker? Do we not have a kicker? The media, everybody just hiding it. It was an amazing moment.”
Do the Bears have a kicker now?
“I think they do, yeah,” Pineiro said.
That might be what Patrick Mannelly likes most about the young kicker. The retired long snapper picked up a lot in 16 seasons and 245 games, noting the tendencies, nuances and idiosyncrasies of kickers along the sideline — not just for the Bears, but opponents as well. Mannelly has that sixth sense when it comes to kickers and punters and he can give you a pretty good read on something in a pretty short period of time.
“I like that he said he was wanting a chance to kick the game-winner,” Mannelly said.
Sounds pretty standard, right?
“I have seen other kickers in that situation look scared on the sideline,” he said.
Fear definitely does not appear to be an issue with Pineiro. Two weeks into a 16-game season, the Bears and Tabor have made the right moves when it comes to their kicker.
2. The defense played pretty darn good football for the second straight week but the altitude and the heat — it was 87 degrees at kickoff — took a toll on a unit that was on the field for 76 snaps — 20 more than the Bears had on offense.
Denver possessed the ball for 32 minutes, 59 seconds, so the Broncos had an edge there. Afterward, cornerback Prince Amukamara was spread out on the floor in the locker room, still in his game pants and an undershirt.
“You try running at this elevation? “he said.
Another teammate approached inside linebacker Danny Trevathan, who began his career with the Broncos, and said he learned the altitude was no joke. The Bears were gassed after the midway point of the fourth quarter. There were some missed tackles. The pursuit to the ball wasn’t the same. The Broncos wound up totaling 27 first downs, the most the Bears have allowed since Oct. 20, 2016. The key here was that they surrendered only 14 points and got a takeaway in the red zone. Of Denver’s 27 first downs, 15 came on their final three possessions when quarterback Joe Flacco was able to hit enough short passes to direct two scoring drives.
“You don’t want that breakdown at the end,” outside linebacker Khalil Mack said. “Altitude is a real thing. At the end of the day, I don’t care how you get the W. It was a hard win. I’ll take it.”
The Bears asked for a lot from the defense and got just about all there was to deliver. Mack came off the field before the fourth-and-3 play when Denver was at the Bears’ 12-yard line. There was 1:02 remaining on the clock and coach Matt Nagy opted to use a timeout.
“There were some times there that they were tired,” Nagy said. “Even at the end, you saw Khalil come out on the fourth-down and so I just wanted to call a timeout. I felt like it was more important for him to be out there on that fourth down. He was tired. Those guys, you could feel it. I don’t think one day, coming out here early is going to make it any better when they’re going through that game and all through different plays.”
Nagy is probably right about that. A half-practice or even a full practice with an early arrival to Denver isn’t going to put his team in a better place to handle the conditions. It’s tough to come to Denver in December, but it’s more difficult in September when it’s warm.
Linebackers Roquan Smith (13) and Danny Trevathan (12) combined for 25 tackles with a lot of the action happening in front of them as Flacco kept most of his throws short to intermediate. Smith looked spent after breaking in on wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders to make a tackle on a catch in the flat late in the fourth quarter. Eddie Jackson had 10 tackles and two pass breakups and even though the ball was coming out quickly for Flacco, Mack and Nick Williams each were credited with a sack and six different players had one quarterback hit. With the offense not producing as it should — the Bears have one touchdown through two games — they needed the defense’s best.
3. Mitch Trubisky has not played well through two games.
There’s no other way to put it. It can’t be sugar coated and nor should it be.
He played a turnover-free game and made a nice move to climb the pocket on the final offensive play when he hit Allen Robinson for a 25-yard gain with one second remaining so Eddy Pineiro could kick the game winner. It was still a rough game for Mitch Trubisky following a poor showing in Week 1. And the passing game is still not in rhythm, averaging 4.8 yards per attempt. Among qualifiers entering Monday night, only the Jets’ Sam Darnold has a worse average at 4.3. To put it in context, the top eight in the category were at 8.1 yards per attempt or higher last season. Trubisky was tied for 17th last season at 7.4 and after two games, admittedly a small sample size, he’s a long ways off from that.
Yes, I am sure the Bears wanted the ball coming out quickly to negate a pass rush led by Von Miller and Bradley Chubb. That can lead to shorter throws and fewer yards per attempt. It’s precisely what the Raiders did in Week 1 when Derek Carr sliced up the Broncos by completing 22 of 26 passes for 259 yards. Trubisky was 16 of 27 for 120 yards and the Bears are not threatening opponents vertically or getting wide receivers without the name Robinson involved. Taylor Gabriel had two targets, one catch and 11 yards. Anthony Miller had one target, one catch and 2 yards. Trubisky looks jittery in the pocket and I think Matt Nagy is limited here.
Look at the Bears’ lone trip to the red zone in the third quarter. They began with first-and-goal at the 5-yard line and handed off twice for a 3-yard gain and no gain to set up third down at the 2. Trubisky faked a handoff to Mike Davis and backed up scanning the end zone for a target. The Broncos really didn’t rush him. They didn’t want to create a running lane for him; they wanted him to quarterback. He backpedals and throws incomplete to tight end Trey Burton and the Bears picked up a defensive holding penalty on cornerback Chris Harris, who grabbed Robinson coming off the line of scrimmage. With first-and-goal from the 1, the offense needed three handoffs to David Montgomery to get into the end zone. Yes, that’s a commitment to the run that wasn’t present last week, but it’s also taking the ball out of Trubisky’s hands.
Nagy rebounded from a rough game with the call sheet in the opener — Trubisky did not. His second down throw to Robinson before the 25-yard gain was broken up by Kareem Jackson, and it could have been picked off. He threw a ball behind running back Tarik Cohen in the flat earlier on the final possession. It’s been a rocky two games for the second overall pick of the 2017 draft, especially when there was some balance to the game plan and the Bears were able to produce 153 yards rushing. This wasn’t a deal where the Broncos were simply able to pin back their ears and rush the quarterback. Far from it.
“For me, I’ve always been taught that quarterbacks are evaluated by how they finish games and what they do,” Nagy said. “So, this is again one of those games that you saw where there just happened to be some more runs that went on. We tried to control Von Miller and Bradley Chubb. Two guys that are real game changers. We wanted to make sure that we controlled them. We wanted to get back to throwing the ball a little bit, but when the time presents itself to throw the ball, we will do that. For me, I’m just proud that he made that throw at the end.
“I thought (Trubisky) was in the groove at times. But, they were doing some things that take away, take out (Robinson) and we knew Vic (Fangio) was going to do that. He’s been with us for a while and he knows Allen’s a pretty good wide receiver, so we try to get the run game going. I don’t know exactly what his numbers were, but I think it goes back to when you’re trying to run the ball, you give your defense a little break and a breather. I think there were a couple drives in there, where we had nice enough plays.”
You can’t take anything away from Trubisky on the final play. He kept his eyes up and was able to see Robinson break free. You also can’t overlook the fact that he played a turnover-free game, something that is significant when the defense he has is as good as it is. But the performance still was short of what the Bears should be expecting and requiring on a weekly basis.
“Obviously, there’s stuff we have to clean up, specifically me on offense,” Trubisky said. “Just getting better and finding more balance in the pass game. I thought the O-line did a great job today creating holes for the run game and we want to be more explosive as a passing offense as well. But when it comes down to the end, we just found a way. It wasn’t just me on that last play, it was the O-line with the protection and our guys getting open downfield, everybody still believed we could get in position and special teams did a great job of finishing it off. We know we’re not where we want to be as an offense. I’m not where I want to be as quarterback, but you use these games and these wins as momentum to keep getting better and finding ways to win and keep improving our skills.
“People are going to say what they’re going to say. I know I still have a long way to go and improve my game. My job is to help my team win games. It wasn’t the prettiest, but we came away with a win and helped put them in a spot to let Eddy (Pineiro) boot that one through for the game winner. You feel good about that, but we are going to look at the film later and know that we still have a ways to go and I have to keep improving.”
I receive emails every week after 10 thoughts and before the weekly mailbag where folks want to know why the Bears didn’t draft Patrick Mahomes or Deshaun Watson instead? There isn’t an answer that adds up for the Bears right now. Mahomes has now thrown three or more touchdowns passes in seven consecutive road games. That’s a remarkable feat. The Bears have Trubisky, and are operating on their own plane and they’re going to have to get better.
The offense is going to have to be more explosive. As everyone knows, the quarterback receives too much praise and credit when things are going well and too much blame when things are a little messy. Trubisky has to be better and maybe the Redskins in Week 3 provide the right opponent. Washington’s defense, which was supposed to be one of the team’s strengths entering the season, has been terrible. Carson Wentz and Dak Prescott combined to complete 54 of 69 passes (78.3 percent) for 582 yards, six touchdowns and only one interception through the first two weeks. That’s 8.4 yards per attempt, a figure that looks a whole lot better.
4. It was a fantastic play by Kyle Fuller to intercept Broncos quarterback Joe Flacco on the Bears’ 3-yard line with less than five minutes remaining.
Denver had third-and-goal from the 2 and Emmanuel Sanders and rookie tight end Noah Fant were split out to the left with Fant on the outside. Kyle Fuller and slot cornerback Buster Skrine figured a pick play was coming. Every offense has them, the Bears included. Sure enough, Fant cut inside, turning his body almost as if he was blocking out for a rebound and Sanders cut to the sideline. Had Skrine tried to pursue Sanders, he likely would have run into Fant. Instead, Fuller remained outside and was in perfect position vs. Sanders, especially after blitzing safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix forced a high throw. That actually made it easier for Fuller, not Sanders, to make the catch.
“We just kind of felt it out,” said Fuller of the first takeaway of the season for the defense. “We see that a lot in that situation.”
Said Clinton-Dix: “It was a blitz but I knew the ball was coming out hot so I just tried to get my hands up and disrupt the throw. That was on Kyle. That had nothing to do with me. That was Kyle playing the drill and he had his eyes in the right spot.”
It required communication, something Fuller and Skrine have worked on in practice. That’s key because you’ve seen the short touchdown throws before where the receiver is left free and the defensive backs look at each other with body language that reads, “What the hell were you doing?”
“We worked that on practice,” Skrine said. “We went in and out. He took my man. I took his man. We thought it was going to be a pick route and that’s what it was.”
With any luck, Fuller’s key interception starts the defense on a roll when it comes to takeaways.
“It’s here now and we just have to trust the process,” Clinton-Dix said. “When the ball is thrown our way, we have to take advantage of it. They come in bunches. This is one down and they are coming now. Next week, first quarter.”
5. An offensive line that took some heat in Week 1 was better and more detail-oriented to lead the way for 153 yards rushing — and kept Von Miller and Bradley Chubb without a sack.
It started with a gameplan to have Mitch Trubisky get the ball out quickly, but tackles Charles Leno and Bobby Massie played well and the group did better as a whole.
“I’m proud of our quarterback and I am proud of our center (James Daniels) for getting (the offensive line) right,” right guard Kyle Long said. “We’ve got to keep making progress, steady incremental improvement.”
Von Miller was held without a sack for the second consecutive game and it left him referring to himself in the third person.
“We’ve got to keep playing,” Miller said. “I’ve got to find a way to do my job no matter how fast they throw it. It’s a double loss for Von today. I’ve got to triple down. I’ve got to come three times harder this (next) week.”
The rushing yardage isn’t insignificant. The Bears rushed for more than 153 yards only four times last season. They won three of those four, losing only the overtime game at Miami.
“We talked about that going into it,” Nagy said. “For myself, for the players, for the offensive line to be able to get into a rhythm, and you want to be able to do that. They did a good job early on taking some things away, which is expected at times. But our guys offensively, knowing where we were, finally to score that touchdown at the end, they showed resolve. My challenge to the offense this whole week was, ‘What kind of resolve do we have? Where are we at?’
“So, we are going to be evaluated every week on where we are and how many points we score, and however we end up doing that. Some people might not see it because you’re not with us all the time, but that locker room in there and the amount of guys who are offense, defense, special teams hugging each other and just saying good job, I’ll take that.”
6. My Twitter mentions filled up when Eddie Goldman was penalized for roughing the passer early in the fourth quarter.
Joe Flacco missed Royce Freeman and the incompletion would have set up third-and-14. Instead, the penalty moved the Broncos to the Bears’ 14-yard line and Brandon McManus hit a 32-yard field goal moments later to bring Denver within a touchdown.
Eddie Goldman smoked rookie left guard Dalton Risner and hit Flacco. Referee Adrian Hill ruled Goldman landed on top of the quarterback. Fast forward to the end of the fourth quarter and Bradley Chubb hit Mitch Trubisky just as the ball was released and was penalized for roughing the passer on a call that sent Broncos fans nuts.
“He crushed me,” Trubisky said. “Whether I get the call or not, that’s not up to me. I’m just out there trying to do my job. Sometimes you get it, sometimes you don’t. It’s football. It is what it is.”
Said Chubb: “They called it roughing the passer, so that’s what it was. I didn’t get an explanation. I didn’t even ask for one. If he called it, he called it.”
Said Goldman: “The rule is you can’t land on them. It’s tough to do. I might have (landed on Flacco). I don’t know.”
It’s a rule designed to protect quarterbacks and both fan bases felt jobbed. I think when you watch the replays, they’re somewhat similar. It will be interesting to learn if the NFL winds up fining one players or both for the hits. Suffice to say, this isn’t your father’s NFL.
7. It was a rough day at the office for Broncos left tackle Garett Bolles. And by rough I mean it was a complete nightmare.
Garett Bolles was called for holding four times (two were declined) giving him five in two games this season. He also had one declined in the season-opening loss to the Raiders. He’s having trouble with the rush coming off the edge, and it’s nothing new. Bolles led the Broncos with 14 penalties last season – 11 of them for holding (four were declined).
“It was frustrating,” Bolles said. “I’ve built a reputation for myself in this league of holding. I disagree with it, to be honest. There are some calls I disagree with, and there are some things that I understand. I have to go back and watch the film and see what I can do. But I have the best O-line coach in the National Football League with (Mike) Munchak. I’m grateful for him. I know he’s going to get me on the right path and just believe in me. I know my teammates believe in me, I know my coaches believe in me, I know the front office believes in me. I’m going to turn this around. I promise you all that.”
Broncos right guard Ronald Leary was also hit for two holding calls and he’s now got four penalties (three holds) through two games. So the pressure the Bears brought, and defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano did a nice job of mixing things up, really caused some fits for Denver. Bears opponents (Green Bay and Denver) have combined for 20 penalties for 152 yards. Only the Titans (26) and Eagles (22) have had opponents total more penalties so the Bears are doing a nice job — again we’re talking a small sample size — of drawing calls.
8. The Bears will be adequate at the tight end position if Trey Burton stays on the field and puts up the kind of modest receiving statistics he had a year ago.
How Trey Burton performs this season remains to be seen. The club took a cautious approach with him after he suffered a groin injury near the end of training camp, one that was unrelated to the sports hernia surgery he underwent during the spring. He was targeted three times in Week 2 — his season debut — and caught two passes for 5 yards.
Burton caught 54 passes for 569 yards and six touchdowns last season, trailing only wide receiver Anthony Miller (7) in that category for the Bears. He was a good outlet for quarterback Mitch Trubisky and helped move the chains. Burton was targeted 15 times on third down last season and made eight receptions for 76 yards, resulting in six first downs.
What’s interesting is the Bears are back to five tight ends on the 53-man roster after claiming J.P. Holtz off waivers from the Redskins last week. The club carried five tight ends last season, probably in part because of the ill-fated decision to hang on to Dion Sims for one year too long. But Ben Braunecker, who is still around, and Daniel Brown happened to be core special teams players and the numbers worked for five in the tight end room. Remember, they didn’t have five healthy at the same time as Adam Shaheen sat out the first half of the season with a foot injury and Sims was on injured reserve for the second half of the season following a concussion at Buffalo in Week 9.
I am interested to see if five tight ends will be a short-lived thing.
Holtz, who was inactive four days after arriving, is considered a blocking tight end and was active for the Redskins’ Week 1 loss to the Eagles, playing on special teams only. He could pitch in potentially as a fullback or H-back here. The Bears were the only team in the league to enter this weekend with five tight ends on the 53-man roster and there were only five clubs with four — Buffalo, Cincinnati, Houston, Miami and the New York Giants. Shaheen is considered an in-line tight end and that is what converted offensive lineman Bradley Sowell is. If Holtz is a blocker too, now you’re talking about three blocking tight ends for a team that didn’t run the ball in the opener. Perhaps there will be a related move to the position in the near future.
9. I thought the final offensive play, the 25-yard strike to Allen Robinson, was interesting through the eyes of the wide receiver.
Allen Robinson knew time was running out, if it hadn’t already expired, and gave himself up in time for the officials to put one second back on the clock for the Bears to win the game.
“It was a concept that we have that sent me across the middle of the field,” Robinson said. “How they played it, it really opened wide up. Mitch (Trubisky) was able to climb up in the pocket, and I felt like I was pretty open. All I was focusing on was just catching the ball and getting down, which I was able to do for us to have a chance to make the kick.
“I’m not sure what the coverage was. It was some kind of two-high. I will have to go back and look at the tape to know exactly what it was. I was about where I was supposed to be, maybe I got a little bit deeper because he started stepping up in the pocket, but for the most part that was where I was supposed to be.
“I knew there were nine seconds before the play and it was going to be tight, bang-bang. So once I caught it, I tried to get down. The officials didn’t say anything when I did. They just kind of huddled. I think Denver kind of came on to the field hoping it was over. It was never like, ‘Game over and let’s review it.’ They put one second back on the clock for us.”
10. The Bears travel to Washington in Week 3 where the Redskins have to be wishing the game could be played on any other day of the week.
It’s tough to connect trends from one season to the next when rosters change so much. And it’s even more difficult to connect a trend that’s held for more than two decades. But the Redskins are horrendous at home at FedEx Field on “Monday Night Football.” Since 1998, they are 1-16 in home games on Monday night and have lost six in a row dating back to a 17-16 victory over the Giants on Dec. 3, 2012.
10a. Speaking of Monday’s game, the Bears opened as a 6 1/2-point favorite over the Redskins at Westgate SuperBook in Las Vegas.
10b. The NFL released roster data beginning with the first week of the season. Here is how the Bears stacked up with the average for the entire league in parentheses.
Average height: 6.14 (6.17)
Average weight: 245.92 (245.19)
Average age: 26.17 (26.09)
Average experience: 4.40 (4.09)
Rookies and first-year players: 8 (10.69)
Players 30 and older: 9 (7.56)
10c. The story on special teams is kicker Eddy Pineiro, but punter Pat O’Donnell followed up a strong game in the opener with another solid game here, hitting a career-long 75-yard punt and having a net average of 50.4 yards.
“When you’re up here you gotta make the kicks count,” O’Donnell said, referencing the altitude.
10d. It was a little surprising to see cornerback Sherrick McManis a healthy scratch for the game. He proved to be the odd man out with tight end Trey Burton returning to action as four tight ends dressed. Perhaps the altitude (there were no touchbacks) factored in the decision.
10e. The NFL released data in terms of what states produce the most players and what high schools have produced the most current players. Illinois is 11th with 52 players calling it their home state. Florida is tops with 212 followed by California (177) and Texas (173).
