Bears vs Buccaneers: Snap counts, snaps and more

That was one of the bigger wins of the Matt Nagy era as his Chicago Bears fought hard and came back to narrowly beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 20 to 19.

Nagy is now 24-13 during the regular season, and his next win will give him sole possession of 7th all-time in Bears history. His .649 winning percentage is 5th all-time in franchise history with Mike Ditka currently in 6th at .631.

But back to Thursday night, it wasn’t an overall aesthetically pleasing game, but there were several pretty moments for the Bears, including this one, this one, this one, and this one.

And then of course the final play of the game is my favorite play of all; victory formation.

The Bucs outgained the Bears, 339 yards to 243, they also had the time of possession edge, 31:32 to 28:28, and they were flagged far more as well, 11 for 109 yards to just 6 for 66 from the Bears.

In third down efficiency the Bucs were 4 for 14 (29%) while the Bears were 3 for 10 (30%), and Tampa Bay was 1 for 2 on fourth downs.

The Bears held Tom Brady and the Bucs to their lowest point total this year and they halted their three game winning streak.

But now let’s take a closer look at the playing time break downs for the Bears, and also some individual stats.

OFFENSE

Nick Foles had an awful short miss early in the game, and then he whiffed on a wide open deep shot, but he settled down to help get the Bears the win. Overall he was 30 of 42 for 243 yards, with 1 touchdown and 1 interception, for a passer rating of 83.7. He was also sacked three times and had a kneel-down to end the game.

The running game never got started for a second consecutive week, but keep in mid the Bears faced two very good run defenses in the Colts and the Bucs. I’m not worried about the run yet, but they do miss the change of pace that Tarik Cohen brought to the team.

David Montgomery had the Bears’ first rushing TD this year among his 10 runs for 29 yards. He also caught a career high 7 balls for 30 yards.

Allen Robinson was the games leading receiver with 10 receptions for 90 yards, and he leads the team through 5 games with 35 grabs for 421 yards.

Anthony Miller caught all 4 of the balls thrown his way for 28 yards, and he continues to be the number thee receiver behind A-Rob and rookie Darnell Mooney, who had 2 catches for 15 yards.

Mooney’s emergence has all but pushed Ted Ginn Jr. out of the picture on offense. If it wasn’t for Cohen’s injury, which gave Ginn the punt returner job, he may be inactive.

Tight end Jimmy Graham is up to 4 TDs on the season now, and he had 3 receptions for 33 yards.

Rookie tight end Cole Kmet still isn’t seeing the field much on offense, but he did show up on the stat sheet this week... with a holding penalty.

Speaking of penalties, the Bears o-line picked up just their 3rd penalty this year as Bobby Massie was flagged for a hold, but it was declined. Masie also had a fumble recovery.

DEFENSE

This was the Khalil Mack show as the Bears’ All-Pro made an impact all night long. In fact, Chicago’s defense harassed Brady quite a bit with 3 sacks and 8 quarterback hits.

Mack also had a sack that was negated by a penalty, so it’s no wonder Brady got the Hell of the field as soon as the final whistle sounded.

Danny Trevathan had a game high 8 tackles, with 1 pass defensed, and fellow inside linebacker Roquan Smith had 7 tackles, a tackle for loss, and 2 PD. He also has a couple missed tackles that he vows to clean up.

Kyle Fuller delivered the hit of the game in what gave him his forced fumble, and he also had 6 tackles.

Robert Quinn recovered the fumble in a heads up play, and James Vaughters had a sack, which was the first of his career.

With Deon Bush out this week the Bears used Deandre Houston-Carson (2 tackles, 1 PD) as an extra defensive back along with nickel Buster Skrine (3 tackles, 1 TFL).

SPECIAL TEAMS*

*The above image has players that only played in the third phase.

Cairo Santos was a perfect 2 for 2 on extra points and 2 for 2 on field goals, including a 38 yarder under two minutes which gave the Bears the lead.

Patrick O’Donnell had 5 punts for a 45.6 average (41.6 net) with 3 punts inside the 20 yard line. With a one game head start on most of the league, O’Donnell’s 10 punts inside the 20 is tied for most in the NFL right now.

Cordarrelle Patterson had 3 kickoff returns for a 39.7 average, he had a special teams tackle, plus he had 3 runs for 7 yards, and 3 catches for 38 yards.

To check out the full Bears vs Buccaneers box score I find that ESPN has an easy to navigate site.

All statistics and snap counts are taken directly from the NFL’s Game Statistic and Information System, as are the accompanying pictures.