Snap counts, stats and more: Chicago Bears vs Carolina Panthers

All statistics and snap counts are taken directly from the NFL's Game Statistic and Information System.

If you only looked at the final team statistics, you’d guess that the team with the yardage edge (293 to 153), time of possession edge (38:35 to 21:25), more first downs (20 to 5), more offensive plays (69 to 37), and the better third down efficiency (40% to 18%), would be the team that came away with the W.

But we know better.

The Chicago Bears found a way to beat the Carolina Panthers despite all those stats favoring Carolina. The Bears were aided by two defensive touchdowns from rookie safety Eddie Jackson, but it was an all around outstanding day from the defense that was the story of this 17-3 Chicago victory.

Besides the two Jackson takeaways, Danny Trevathan had an interception of his own. They also sacked Carolina’s Cam Newton five times and held him to a 54.9 passer rating. It has been a very good two weeks for the Bears’ D.

Now on to the snap counts and some other stats for the Bears

All snap counts will be in the following format:
Player - Total O or D snaps (%) - Total ST snaps (%)

QB

M Trubisky - 38 (100%)

I wrote this last week, and it fits here as well — Mitchell Trubisky didn’t have a very pretty game, but he was smart with the football. He completed 4 of 7 passes, for 107 yards, with a passer rating of 101.8. He was also sacked 4 times.

The play calling isn’t doing Trubisky any favors, but if the Bears’ D is going to play this good, we should expect them to stay conservative. Next week against the New Orleans Saints will provide a big test for the Bears defense and their offense.

Pro Football Focus sent over some interesting stuff on Trubisky.

Even with so few pass attempts, the Bears still had trouble keeping the quarterback clean. Mitchell Trubisky was under pressure on seven of his 13 drop backs (53.8 percent), the highest rate of any quarterback in Sunday's games. The rookie quarterback was 1-of-2 for 8 yards when under pressure.

OL

C Leno - 38 (100%) - 4 (18%)

B Massie - 38 (100%) - 4 (18%)

J Sitton - 38 (100%) - 4 (18%)

K Long - 38 (100%)

C Whitehair - 38 (100%)

This was not a very good game for the Bears’ o-line, but the predictable play calling isn’t helping them either. They are running in obvious running situations and passing when it’s obvious a pass is coming.

From PFF:

Both Bears offensive tackles were clean in pass protection. Neither LT Charles Leno nor RT Bobby Massie allowed pressure on 14 pass blocking snaps, earning 74.9 and 76.4 overall grades in the process. Each of the team's three interior starters were credited with a sack.

I’ll have my Sackwatch on Wednesday, so we’ll see if my sacks allowed coincides with what they have.

RB

J Howard - 34 (89%)

M Burton - 11 (29%) - 10 (45%)

T Cohen - 7 (18%) - 7 (32%)

T Mizzell - 1 (3%)

The Bears only ran Jordan Howard, and he had 21 attempts for 65 yards. Tarik Cohen was targeted 3 times in the passing game and he caught 1 for a huge 70 yard gain. According to PFF, Cohen lined up in the backfield once, he was split out wide 4 times, and he was in the slot twice.

WR

T Gentry - 33 (87%)

T McBride - 20 (53%)

K Wright - 8 (21%)

J Bellamy - 3 (8%) - 12 (55%)

Trubisky threw 1 pass to a wide out and Tanner Gentry caught that pass for an 8 yard gain.

TE

D Sims - 29 (76%) - 4 (18%)

Z Miller - 25 (66%)

A Shaheen - 19 (50%) - 10 (45%)

Zach Miller caught 2 of the 3 of the passes thrown his way for 29 yards.

Adam Shaheen did this.

ST

These players only appeared in the 3rd phase

J Anderson - 17 (77%)

D Brown - 16 (73%)

C LeBlanc - 12 (55%)

D Bush - 10 (45%)

P O'Donnell - 10 (45%)

A DePaola - 10 (45%)

C Barth - 8 (36%)

T Compton - 6 (27%)

B Sowell - 4 (18%)

Connor Barth missed a 52 yard field goal (it was blocked), but he made a 19 yarder. Patrick O’Donnell placed 1 of his 6 punts inside the twenty, and he had a 49.3 average.

CB

P Amukamara - 72 (100%) - 3 (14%)

K Fuller - 65 (90%) - 3 (14%)

B Callahan - 46 (64%)

M Cooper - 7 (10%) - 8 (36%)

Kyle Fuller had 5 tackles and a pass defended, Prince Amukamara had 4 tackles and a PD, and Bryce Callahan chipped in with 2 tackles.

S

A Amos - 72 (100%) - 8 (36%)

E Jackson - 72 (100%) - 3 (14%)

D Houston-Carson - 1 (1%) - 14 (64%)

Adrian Amos had 6 tackles, 1 TFL and a PD, and Eddie Jackson was historically good.

From the NFL.

Jackson is the first player in NFL history with multiple defensive touchdowns of at least 75 yards in a single game.

He is the only rookie in NFL history with two 75-yard defensive touchdowns in a single season.

Here’s a PFF nugget about the safety position.

Both Bears safeties had highly graded performances even though Eddie Jackson stole the show. The rookie earned a 90.4 overall grade and was only targeted once on 46 coverage snaps, while Adrian Amos wasn't far behind at 88.8 overall. The third-year safety was targeted four times, allowing two catches for a total of negative two yards with a pass defensed as well.

LB

D Trevathan - 70 (97%) - 1 (5%)

L Floyd - 60 (83%)

C Jones - 58 (81%) - 8 (36%)

P McPhee - 44 (61%) - 1 (5%)

S Acho - 38 (53%) - 14 (64%)

I Irving - 2 (3%) - 14 (64%)

Christian Jones is playing like a guy that realizes he’s in a contract year. He followed up last weeks solid game with another 11 tackles.

Danny Trevathan had 4 tackles, 1 TFL, a sack, 2 QBH 2 passes defended and an interception. Also, according to PFF, “In 37 coverage snaps, he was targeted four times, allowing three catches for 19 yards with an interception, all against running back Christian McCaffrey.”

Leonard Floyd had 4 tackles, 1 TFL, a sack and 2 QBH, and Pernell McPhee had a sack, 1 TFL and 3 QBH.

DL

A Hicks - 63 (88%) - 2 (9%)

E Goldman - 52 (72%) - 2 (9%)

J Bullard - 38 (53%) - 1 (5%)

M Unrein - 28 (39%) - 6 (27%)

R Robertson-Harris - 4 (6%) - 6 (27%)

Akiem Hicks is playing like an All Pro. He picked up his 6th sack on the year, which is only 1 off of his career high that he set last season. He had 5 tackles against the Panthers.

Per PFF:

Defensive end Akiem Hicks was difficult for the Panthers to stop. He earned an 85.5 overall grade and had the highest pass rushing grade on the defense at 86.5, generating one sack and seven hurries on 40 pass rushing snaps. He did miss one tackle in the game, but all four of his tackles were stops in the game.

Mitch Unrein and Eddie Goldman each had a half a sack, with Unrein adding 3 tackles and Goldman getting 6.

PFF had thoughts on Chicago’s defense.

The Bears' pass rush consistently got after quarterback Cam Newton. He was under pressure on 23 of his 43 drop backs (53.5 percent), in some part due to defensive coordinator Vic Fangio blitzing on a season-high 43.5 percent of passing plays (19 out of 43). Newton's completion percentage dropped by more than 15 percent when under pressure and more than 30 percent against the blitz.

For more numbers, the ESPN box score and team stats are both pretty good ones to check out for all of the game’s statistics.

Did any of these numbers stand out to you guys?