Bears vs Dolphins: Takeaways from the snap counts, stats, and more

The Chicago Bears have only won one of their last three games, but in those contests they have scored 33, 29, and 32 points, while racking up 390, 371, and 368 total yards. Chicago's offense has come on and looks like it has turned a corner, but the defense has been struggling and is likely to stay on a downward trend. When the Bears traded Robert Quinn and Roquan Smith away, that put a lot of pressure on the coaches and players to make up for their loss, but there's only so much that can be expected with a talent deficiency.

The Bears lost to the Miami Dolphins yesterday 35 to 32, and they gave up 379 yards, 21 first downs, and allowed the 'Fins to convert 5 of their 10 third-down tries, but they stopped them on both of their fourth-down attempts. Chicago's offense went for 368 yards, racked up 23 first downs, converted 10 of 16 (62.5%) on third down, 1 of 2 on fourth down, and held the ball for 34:46 of the sixty minutes.

Now let's take a closer look at the playing time breakdowns for the Bears and also some individual stats.

OFFENSE

Justin Fields had a phenomenal game, and I wrote about its historical significance here.

Cole Kmet had 2 runs for 9 yards and 5 receptions for 41 yards with 2 TDs.

Darnell Mooney caught 7 balls for 43 yards and a TD.

Chase Claypool had a run for 4 yards and 2 catches for 13 yards, but his deep ball ability was evident in drawing a pass interference and having another one missed by the incompetent referees. He got in for 26 calculated snaps in his Chicago debut.

Dante Pettis had 1 catch for 12 yards, and N'Keal Harry caught 1 for 6.

David Montgomery had 14 runs for 36 yards (2.6 yards per carry) and 1 catch for 8 yards.

Khalil Herbert ran 7 times for 23 yards (3.3 ypc) and returned a kick for 30 yards.

As the season progresses I’d expect Claypool and Harry to start carving into the reps that are currently going to Equanimeous St. Brown, and once Byron Pringle is activated from IR Pettis will lose some reps.

Rookie Velus Jones Jr. was inactive.

DEFENSE

The Bears didn't sack Miami QB Tua Tagovailoa at all, and they were only credited with 2 QB hits. Tua threw for 302 yards, with 3 TDs, and a passer rating of 135.7.

Kyler Gordon led the Bears with 8 tackles, Eddie Jackson had 7, and Jack Sanborn, who got the start at middle linebacker, also had 7.

Four tackles each for Jaquan Brisker, Jaylon Johnson (1 pass defended), and Nicholas Morrow (1 PD), who was playing the weakside linebacker spot.

SPECIAL TEAMS*

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

Cairo Santos hit his only field goal and all three extra points.

Trenton Gill had his first punt blocked, but the 2 punts he got off went for 83 yards. However, his net average was just 25.0.

DeAndre Houston-Carson and Elijah Hicks each had a special teams' tackle.

Pettis' punt return went for 2 yards.

To check out the full Bears vs 'Fins 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.