Week 9 Postgame: Bears find wings in Buffalo, fly to 41-9 Victory

Even with the Bears going scoreless in the first few drives, it was hard to imagine this would ever become a competitive game for the Bears. The defense gets a second week to build confidence against the dregs of NFL offenses before facing some tougher division opponents. The offense didn’t have to do much to make this game a blowout. Which is good because they didn’t do all that much.

Box Score

Trubisky displays enough variety in performance to allow you to reinforce whatever you believe about him

Think he’s inaccurate and mistake-prone? He provided you with a couple wildly off-target throws, and fumble and a bizarre interception which must have involved a miscommunication. Think he’s a promising talent who’s doing enough to make plays and moving the offense as he develops? He did plenty of playmaking and offense-moving to keep you happy. This is good news for people who enjoy arguing about the Bears’ most important investment. For everyone else, it’s biskness as usual.

Anthony Miller is creeping his way into an integral role on this offense

The second-round pick and training camp superstar didn’t start out this season with a large role, and he had a few set-backs from injuries. With Allen Robinson out, he’s taking advantage of his opportunity and certainly played the part of a reliable go-to well this game. His chemistry with Trubisky is growing by the week, and the dumbo in my fantasy league who put him on the waiver wire is going to be regretting it by the end of the season.

Bears in the backfield

Akiem Hicks, Eddie Goldman, Leonard Floyd, Aaron Lynch, Roquan Smith, and even Isaiah Irving all made some noise in the backfield, mostly with pressures and running-back tackles for loss. The Bears defense consistently won the line of scrimmage battle today, and consistently piled more difficulties onto the plate of poor Nathan Peterman, who stepped into an impossible situation and will end up getting blamed for two interceptions that are mostly on his receivers.

Bills in the backfield

The Bills’ defensive line caused trouble for Chicago, and it was most clear when the Bears failed to convert an early third and 1. The Bears running game was able to mostly overcome with evasive play-calling and some Jordan Howard truck-smoshing.

Jordan Howard is settling into his role

The last two games we’ve seen Howard’s role increasing often in integral plays. He’s been on the field all season, but his presence didn’t seem as strong in part because his plays seemed to be afterthought run plays to get a couple yards and slow the game down or to keep the defense honest to allow the other plays to work. For two weeks now, his plays have been an important part of moving the ball, and both weeks he’s found his way into that special zone at the end of the field. No, not the red zone...

Leonard Floyd gets a pick-six before a sack this season

Which is perhaps an appropriate metaphor for his season. He continues to contribute on this defense, but not in the way we all want him to. I just want to see that guy throw some quarterbacks onto some grass. Is that too much to ask?

The Bears picked the right game to get some penalties out of their system

The Bears came into this game as the second-least penalized team in the NFL. They won’t be leaving with that standing. I’m going to hope this was just a momentary lapse and it couldn’t come during a better game.

Kyle Fuller got paws on all three interceptions

Adrian Amos and Leonard Floyd will get credit for the first two picks, but Kyle Fuller popped the ball up for assists in both of those before catching the third himself. He continues to establish himself in the turnover game, which is a pleasant shift from 2017’s 22 passes defensed to only 2 interceptions.

I don’t know why I still get nervous when Tarik Cohen runs backwards

I should know better by now.

Roquan Smith is quietly coming along nicely

With Khalil Mack ravaging defenses at the beginning of the season, it was hard for anyone else to make much of an impression. Which was just as well for Smith, who took a little time to get settled. He certainly made an impression today, helping force the fumble that led to Eddie Jackson’s pick-up six. Roquan continued scooping up tackles all day, leading the team with 11 solo and 13 total.

Bills are flirting with the negative point differential record

The current record for a negative point differential in a 16 game season is held by the 1981 Baltimore Colts, at -274. After this 9th game, the Bills will be at -145, which puts them on pace to hit -258: just a few pick-sixes away from the crown.

Get well soon, Taylor Gabriel

Turbo has stepped up as a player defenses need to game plan around. I hope he can participate in next weeks’ big cat smackdown.

It may not impress many fans that the Bears beat a struggling Nathan Peterman-helmed Bills team, but it’s important to be able to take advantage of weak teams. You don’t want to be the week three Vikings.

Speaking of NFC North teams, the Bears are still first, regardless of what the cheese-heads do in New England.

This is a fun time to be a Bears fan.