Every Bears defender seemed to have a tale of woe in a 20-12 loss to the Giants on Sunday at MetLife Stadium.
Even linebacker Roquan Smith, who had Giants back-up quarterback Tyrod Taylor in his sights in the backfield on a third-and-four play at the Giants 27-yard-line in the fourth quarter and the Bears trailing 17-12 — only to see Taylor spin away for an eight-yard gain and a first down.
With a stop, the Bears get the ball back with 10 minutes left and a chance to take the lead with a touchdown. Instead, the Giants drove for a field goal for a 20-12 lead with 5:31 left.
“I hate missing tackles and quarterbacks and that’s definitely one,” said Smith, who had a team-high 10 tackles. “Hats off to him for making a heckuva spin move. But I expect myself to those plays every day of the week. Hopefully I see him again one day and I can give him a taste of something. But he got me on that one, so hats off to him.”
It was that kind of day for the Bears defense, which seemed so intent on stopping Giants running back Saquon Barkley that it left them vulnerable to sleight-of-hand play-action bootlegs of quarterback Daniel Jones — and ended up getting burned by both.
Barkley rushed for 146 yards on 31 carries (4.7 avg.). But Jones tore the Bears’ heart out with his deft touch and sneaky-fast legs. He rushed six times for 68 yards and two touchdowns — a 21-yard score that gave the Giants a 7-3 lead in the first quarter, and an eight-yard run for a 14-3 lead in the second quarter. The Bears allowed 262 rushing yards — the most since 2013.
“It was a lot off quarterback runs –more than we anticipated,” Smith said “Those guys had a good game plan and they got some plays on us. It was good on their behalf and us not sticking to our keys. If you do that, you’ll have a great shot at stopping them. But hats off to those guys. Good play-calling on their behalf. We’ve just gotta get better from it.”
On both plays, the Bears had virtually zero containment, leaving Jones a gift-wrapped path to the end zone.
“We gotta keep contain. We’ve got to follow our rules,” linebacker Nick Morrow said. “What’s frustrating mostly is not executing. We’e got to get a little better execution — myself included. Because we know we can stop ’em. We know we can be in position to make those plays. You got to make a move.”
Safety Eddie Jackson also gave credit to the Giants, but also lamented lapses by the Bears — himself included –that helped make Jones such a damaging force.
“[It’s] the eyes. You gotta keep your eyes in the right spot,” Jackson said. “They were doing a good job of setting it up –running with Saquon, running, running and then slip a boot here and there. We just gotta do a better job with our eyes and on the edge.”
It was a day of frustrating lament. Rookie Kyler Gordon had a 40-yard pass interference penalty that led to a field goal. Morrow had Barkley in his grasp on a third-and-nine play in the second quarter — before Barkley reversed field and turned it into a 15-yard gain and led to Jones’ second touchdown.
“I’ll start with myself –missed tackles,” Morrow said. “Had a chance to get off the field on third down and he reversed field and got in there even closer in the red zone and [that] put the team in a bad spot. That starts with me. That was a TFL for me and they kick the field goal [instead of a touchdown]. It’s definitely frustrating. I’ve got to make that play.”
