Bears' Defense Proves Its Not a One-Man Unit

The Chicago Bears needed to compete without two of their biggest weapons again as Khalil Mack and Allen Robinson needed another week of rest before hopefully returning to action next week against Detroit.
It didn’t matter, as the Bears were able to route the Buffalo Bills 41-9 thanks in large part to a dominant defensive performance that featured two touchdowns and four turnovers.
Critics will find a way to hate on the offensive performance, specifically Mitch Trubisky’s, as he only threw for 135 yards and was out-gained by Nathan Peterman.
Despite Trubisky’s lackluster performance, he really only had one play that was noticeably bad, which was the lone interception he threw.
Besides that, he executed when he needed to, converted on some clutch third downs and had two deep passes that could’ve been touchdowns but were instead defensive pass interference calls.



It was also nice to see Jordan Howard get some production in the red zone as he was able to add two more touchdowns to his total.
Despite only gaining a total of 190 yards, this wasn’t a bad game offensively.
The defense was just so controlling that the Bears often didn’t have a long way to go to score or simply weren’t on the field at all as there was a scoop and score and pick-6.
If you’re finding things to be legitimately upset about after this game, then your pessimism is downright astounding.
Back to positive news … the defense was lights out from start to finish.
Fans were concerned by how this defense has looked without Mack the last couple weeks and were wondering if he was the only thing making this unit so good.
While he surely is the anchor and takes this defense to the next level, the Monsters of the Midway proved they were back and didn’t need Mack to carry them.
Getting Mack back will obviously help things, but the defense made a statement today that they aren’t just a one-man unit. There was production from all over the field, but the three players that really stuck out to me were Roquan Smith, Kyle Fuller and Leonard Floyd.
Smith isn’t a flashy player by any means so he won’t make many highlight plays besides some hard hits, but he collected 13 tackles as well as a forced fumble that Eddie Jackson brought back for a touchdown.
The rookie is showing that he is going to be a key contributor on this defense for a long time.
Fuller played great in coverage today as he didn’t give up any big plays and deflected a pass that Adrian Amos brought in for an interception. Fuller also made an impressive play on the ball to get his fourth interception of the year.
Lastly, Floyd looked the best he’s looked all year, which has been said about him in back-to-back weeks by yours truly. He may not have picked up any sacks, but he was consistently getting to Peterman and had a well-deserved pick-six.
Those weren’t the only great performances of the day as there were great performances all over the field.
It really was a complete game defensively.
The 14 penalties called against the Bears were alarming, but the officials seemed a little trigger-happy as there were many questionable calls on both sides of the ball. Regardless, the Bears did what the Bears had to do and that’s win the game against a weaker opponent.
They were able to do so while allowing Mack and Robinson to rest for another week, which is going to be crucial heading into the back end of their schedule against their divisional opponents.
After coming out flat against Miami and giving the game away to New England, it appears the Bears have found their middle ground and are discovering their identity.
It will be exciting to see how this team performs with a healthy Mack and Robinson, but, regardless, this team proved they can win big without them.
That’s just temporary, however, as this team is going to need those two to be fully healthy to make some noise towards the end of the season.
Let’s hope this week off was just what the doctor ordered and they’ll be ready to terrorize Detroit on Sunday.