Stock up, stock down: Bears embarrass Giants

The Bears have won two games in a row, something that has been able to be said far too infrequently.

And of course it came at the end of the season when everything is already said and done.

There isn’t much else to be said. The Bears beat down a team that is in much, much worse shape than they are.

For all the anger and animosity and frustration we Bears fans have toward our favorite team and the powers that be inside Halas Hall, there is a lot of teams that have it worse. The Jacksonville Jaguars, Houston Texans, Detroit Lions and New York Giants all have messes on their hands with the trifectas of poor management, bad ownership and horrible rosters.

The Giants are particularly interesting to compare with Chicago though because the franchises are so similar: big markets that garner a lot of attention and proud and deep history along with single-family ownership.

But other than the Tom Coughlin/Eli Manning era, the Giants are about the same as the Bears, with slightly more consistency. These last six years though have been brutal to them.

Enough about that though, let’s review what could be the last win of Chicago’s season.

Stock up

Trevis Gipson, EDGE - The second-year pro is really starting to blossom, just when the Bears need to start looking at their roster for next season. Two sacks and two forced fumbles, plus a QB hit, this was Gipson’s coming out party. And that was on a Sunday where his teammate Robert Quinn set a franchise season record for sacks.

Deon Bush, S - Pretty incredible to me that Bush and teammate Tashaun Gipson, are tied for the team lead in interceptions, with two each and not more heralded teammates like Jaylon Johnson and Eddie Jackson. But such is life for Chicago in 2021 (2022, now). Bush has had a decent season. He also had his hand on the ball that then deflected and was picked by teammate Gipson.

Angelo Blackson, DE - Blackson has been around the league a while, the Bears are his fourth team. He’s not exactly young at 29, but he’s a nice rotational player. He had a sack, two TFLs, one of which was for a safety.

Stock down

Andy Dalton, QB - If this was Dalton against a bad team, yeesh. 18-for-35 against a passing defense allowing 245 passing yards per game and had just 14 turnovers coming to the game is not great. Dalton is probably going to be a back up at a couple more stops but his time as a starter probably should be done.

Akiem Hicks, DE - I love Hicks, he’s one of my favorite Bears players of the last decade and I hate to see him go out like this. He had just two tackles in the box score. I know he’s coming back from COVID and hopefully he will get a chance to shine against Minnesota but I had hoped for more for his final home game.

Thomas Graham, CB - This isn’t on Graham. He didn’t really do anything wrong on Sunday, it’s more of a head-scratcher as far as the coaches go or maybe something Graham isn’t doing during the week. Why isn’t he getting more chances to play? He played just four defensive snaps Sunday, behind teammates Marqui Christian (8) and Kindle Vildor (22).