The Chicago Bears won their first preseason game Saturday night in which they defeated the Arizona Cardinals by a final score of 24-23 at University of Phoenix Stadium. This game saw the starters play longer than week one both on offense and defense, which gave people a better idea of what the team can potentially bring to the table in 2017.
One of the biggest stories was starter Mike Glennon playing a full first half this game, attempting to redeem his short yet rough outing in the first preseason game against Denver. The fans were most eager to see rookie QB Mitchell Trubisky after his impressive debut, and he got playing time once again in the second half.
The defense is another topic of conversation as it showed some very positive things during the game.
Quick recap
To recap the game, the Bears defense held the Cardinals to seven points in the first half which came on a 4th and goal TD pass to Jermaine Gresham from Carson Palmer after a Glennon interception in the red zone. The Bears goal-line defense stuffed the Cardinals the first three downs, but could not stop the final passing play. Meanwhile, the Bears scored early on a Connor Barth field goal and then scored two late touchdowns to end the first half. The first touchdown came on a nice drive by Glennon that ended in him finding Kendall Wright on a seven-yard pass to make the score 10-7 Bears.
After another nice defensive stop by the Bears, Cardinals kicker Phil Dawson attempted a 63-yard field goal which missed wide-right and short. Waiting in the end zone was Bears WR Deonte Thompson, who caught the missed kick and returned it 109 yards for a touchdown a-la Devin Hester to end the half. The score was 17-7 Bears.
In the second half, the Cardinals opened up with a very long drive that ended in a Blaine Gabbert rushing touchdown to make it 17-14. After an offensive drive with Mark Sanchez at QB, the Bears brought in rookie Mitchell Trubisky. The young quarterback was under a lot of pressure with the third-string offensive line getting mugged as he was sacked several times and taken down with a facemask grab.
But in the fourth quarter, Trubsiky drove his squad down the field and threw a six-yard pass to Benny Cunningham for a touchdown to make it 24-14. After the Cardinals drove and kicked a field goal, they recovered an on-side kick after Daniel Braverman muffed the kick letting the ball slip under him. The Cardinals got into the end zone with 14 seconds left but missed the 2-point conversion and the Bears would clinch the 24-23 win.
Quarterback performances
This game got the Bears their first decently long look at Mike Glennon. After a 0.0 passer rating in the first game, Glennon showed some improvement with a bigger sample size. He finished his night 13/18 with 89 yards, a touchdown, and a pick.
Many of his passes were short screen or dump passes and not much was thrown downfield. He is lucky he was not picked off twice late in the 2nd quarter as a pass in triple-coverage was deflected off the hands of the Cardinals defender. It was not a spectacular performance, but he finished strong on his last drive throwing the touchdown.
Mitchel Trubisky as previously mentioned came in under constant pressure. The pocket collapsed on him quickly numerous times which made it more difficult for him. Despite getting sacked twice, grabbed by the facemask and hit hard on a number of passing plays, he managed to go 6/8 with 60 yards and a touchdown. He continued to look great rolling out and finding his open targets downfield and even completed some gutsy throws in tough coverage for completions.
Veteran Mark Sanchez was 2/2 with 23 yards.
Defense and other solid performances
The defense really impressed in this games, especially the front seven. They had constant pressure on the quarterback and generated turnovers, which they only had 11 total of last year. Roy Robertson-Harris recorded back-to-back sacks and B.W. Webb, who was struggling in the game on tackling was able to intercept Blaine Gabbert late in the game. Kyle Fuller came back and recorded three tackles and Deon Bush led the team in tackles with seven. Both Jonathan Bullard and Leonard Floyd had hits on the quarterback early in the game.
One of the most impressive offensive pieces was rookie RB Tarik Cohen who got a lot a decent amount of playing time in the first half.
Cohen rushed for 77 yards on 11 attempts with his longest rush at 25. Cameron Meredith was the leading receiver with 26 yards, followed by Tanner Gentry with 19 yards.
The Bears will take on the Titans in their third preseason game.
