EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — When it was announced that Justin Fields would not play, joining starting defensive backs Kyler Gordon and Jaquan Brisker on the inactives list, Sunday’s game become one of those, “Let’s get out of here unscathed” situations for the Bears.
The opposite happened.
First, it was right tackle Riley Reiff, who left with a shoulder injury and did not return. Then safety Eddie Jackson went down with a non-contact injury on Jets receiver Garrett Wilson’s 54-yard touchdown. Jackson was carted off and immediately ruled out with a foot injury.
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Early in the third quarter, wide receiver Darnell Mooney got his ankle rolled up on at the end of a David Montgomery run. He left the field and didn’t put any weight on his left leg. NFL Network is reporting that Mooney could miss the rest of the season with an ankle injury. He’s Fields’ favorite target and hasn’t missed a regular-season game in his career.
There might not be a player who is appreciated inside the building as much as Mooney. This would be a setback for the offense and a player who is expected to be a fixture for the offense moving forward.
In the fourth quarter, Larry Borom, who replaced Reiff at right tackle, went to the locker room with an injury. Wide receiver Chase Claypool went to the medical tent after what he called more “tweak” than injury. Wide receiver Equanimeous St. Brown also came up limping but returned to the game.
“Moon, BoJack, Larry, Riley, that’s tough. It’s a violent game,” center Sam Mustipher said. “You never want to see guys that you go to battle with every day, that you go to work with every day, go down.”
The injuries all occurred on MetLife Stadium’s controversial slit-film turf. Two weeks ago, NFLPA president J.C. Tretter put out a statement calling for the “immediate replacement and ban of all slit-film turf.”
“It was really bad,” Claypool said about the surface. “Myself tweaking something and then BoJack. Guys going down. It was really bad. What can you do about it?”
The Bears played on the same turf in Week 4 against the Giants, so Mustipher knows what’s ahead in recovery this week.
“You’ll feel it after the flight the next few days for sure,” he said. “Knees, ankles, hips. I’ll have to see the chiropractor on Wednesday, get realigned. You definitely feel it more so on turf than you would on grass.”
Montgomery was one of the bright spots on offense. He quietly had 79 rushing yards on 14 carries and three catches for 34 yards. He avoided injury but noted the risk with the turf.
“It wasn’t a good surface,” he said. “You’ve seen a lot of guys on both sides just going down, and that’s not out of coincidence. It definitely wasn’t a good surface.”
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With Jackson and Brisker out, and Dane Cruikshank leaving the game with a hamstring injury, the Bears were down to two safeties — DeAndre Houston-Carson and rookie Elijah Hicks, the latter of whom made his NFL debut on defense.
Hicks was the closest defender on Elijah Moore’s 22-yard touchdown catch, trailing Moore by several yards.
Without Mooney, an offense that is far from explosive lost its top guy.
“It stinks,” quarterback Trevor Siemian said. “As a player, terrible. But if you spent any time with Darnell, he’s one of the best dudes in the locker room.”
Said Claypool, “It was super hard. He helps out a lot. He spreads out the offense a little bit and he spreads the defense out a little bit. It was really tough seeing him go down, especially seeing how hard he works.”
The Bears are 3-9 for the first time since 2017, and things could get worse without two of their best players likely missing time.
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Before the game, Siemian told Claypool, “The first opportunity we get, we’ll come to you.”
He did on third-and-goal on the Bears’ opening drive, attempting a fade that fell incomplete, as Claypool looked for a flag that wasn’t thrown.
Claypool started the next drive with a 20-yard reception after Siemian faked a toss to Montgomery. Then on second-and-11, with Claypool in single coverage against Defensive Rookie of the Year candidate Sauce Gardner, Siemian put one up.
“As we got closer to the game, I told him, ‘Hey, I don’t care who’s over there, I’m gonna throw it to you,’” Siemian said. “One of those things. I think he’s a great player. Got a big body, huge catch radius. He’s a good player. Just wanted to give him a couple chances.”
Claypool went up and hauled in the 31-yarder, his longest reception as a Bear. He also drew a flag on Gardner.
.@ChaseClaypool would not be denied
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) November 27, 2022
If Fields takes note of anything that Siemian did, it would be throwing it Claypool’s way more often, even when he’s covered. It didn’t work out on the next two tries. Siemian attempted a fourth-down fade to Claypool in the fourth quarter that fell incomplete, and another deep ball on the next possession fell to the ground.
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But Claypool had been ineffective since his first game as a Bear. Maybe this can help get him going.
“Yeah, I’m feeling more comfortable in the offense,” he said. “They’re getting me some looks, like they always have been. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn’t. I’ve never not felt involved.”
How Mike White stacked up
We don’t have Fields’ stats to break down, but we can look at how soundly the Jets quarterback dominated the Bears’ defense.
• White’s 149.3 passer rating is tied for the eighth best all time against the Bears. He’s one of two opposing quarterbacks since 2015 — joining Matthew Stafford last season — to have at least a 149 passer rating.
• According to TruMedia, White had an EPA (expected points added) per dropback of 0.65, the fourth best in the NFL this season. His 0.72 EPA per pass attempt was seventh.
• The Bears failed to consistently pressure White. They had three QB hits and one sack. When they did bring a fifth pass rusher, White feasted. His EPA of 2.10 against a blitz was the third best in the NFL this season.
• White averaged 11.25 yards per pass attempt, the eighth best in the league in 2022.
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Snap-count observations
| Player | Snaps | % |
|---|---|---|
57 | 100% | |
57 | 100% | |
57 | 100% | |
57 | 100% | |
57 | 100% | |
57 | 100% | |
48 | 84% | |
39 | 68% | |
38 | 67% | |
31 | 54% | |
23 | 40% | |
23 | 40% | |
18 | 32% | |
18 | 32% | |
13 | 23% | |
12 | 21% | |
10 | 18% | |
8 | 14% | |
2 | 4% | |
1 | 2% | |
1 | 2% |
• Right guard Teven Jenkins returned to the lineup after missing last week’s game with a hip injury. Borom replaced Reiff at right tackle, and then Michael Schofield came in when Borom got hurt.
• Siemian took the blame for the sack when Bryce Huff blew past Borom, who was looking in the other direction at the snap.
• Montgomery stood out, fighting his way through tacklers even with the game out of reach. “It’s just who I am,” he said. “This is my character and how I carry myself. We could be losing by 100 and I’m still gonna go out there and be me, so I could show my team that I’m gonna give y’all everything I’ve got no matter the circumstances.”
• Darrynton Evans, one of the first additions by the new regime last winter, was the No. 2 running back and had some good moments — a 33-yard catch-and-run and nine carries for 34 yards. He was called up from the practice squad on Saturday.
• While Evans did a nice job, you’d like to see rookie Trestan Ebner getting those opportunities. He had only one snap and zero touches.
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• Before Mooney left the game, he was not targeted. He had never been targeted fewer than two times in a game in his career (44 games).
• Byron Pringle had his first touchdown as a Bear, an impressive catch of a 50-50 ball. He finished with two catches for 12 yards. St. Brown had one catch for 7 yards.
• Before Mooney’s injury, Dante Pettis hadn’t played an offensive snap. He was only used on punt returns, a curious shift, but probably one that should be coming to get Claypool more reps.
• Tight end Cole Kmet led the Bears with six targets. He had three catches for 27 yards.
| Player | Snaps | % |
|---|---|---|
63 | 100% | |
63 | 100% | |
63 | 100% | |
63 | 100% | |
63 | 100% | |
50 | 79% | |
48 | 76% | |
39 | 62% | |
39 | 62% | |
35 | 56% | |
34 | 54% | |
33 | 52% | |
26 | 41% | |
22 | 35% | |
21 | 33% | |
18 | 29% | |
8 | 13% | |
4 | 6% | |
1 | 2% |
• Linebacker Jack Sanborn had a career-high 14 tackles, including one for a loss. It seemed like Sanborn was always there to clean things up before a back got to the secondary.
• Nicholas Morrow had eight tackles, including one behind the line. He now has a TFL in five consecutive games after only two in the first seven weeks.
• Joe Thomas and Matt Adams split time as the strongside linebacker. Adams had one tackle, while Thomas did not make the stat sheet.
• Without Gordon, the Bears went with Jaylon Jones as the third cornerback. It was a quiet day for Jones. Kindle Vildor was the one in coverage on Wilson’s long touchdown. He did have a solid pass breakup on third down.
• Jaylon Johnson finished with seven tackles and the first pass defensed for a Bears cornerback in three weeks.
• Speaking of ending droughts, Armon Watts’ sack — his first as a Bear — ended a five-game streak of zero sacks for the defensive line. The last one had been Al-Quadin Muhammad’s in Week 6.
• The defensive line, however, continued to struggle to pressure White. Only Justin Jones had a QB hit among the D-linemen. Houston-Carson had the other quarterback hit.
• Defensive end Dominique Robinson had two tackles and Trevis Gipson had one. Robinson’s last QB hit came in Week 1. Gipson, who leads the Bears with eight QB hits, has now gone without one in three consecutive games.
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SPECIAL TEAMS
• Punter Trenton Gill handled kickoffs for the Bears. He had two touchbacks and one kickoff on which the coverage teams stopped Zonovan Knight at the 16-yard line — Adams and Josh Blackwell shared the tackle.
• Gill took the final kickoff last week after Cordarrelle Patterson’s touchdown, otherwise he hadn’t kicked off at all besides the Giants game when kicker Cairo Santos was absent.
• Santos was only called on for a 22-yard field goal. He is now 17-for-18 on the season.
• Pettis had a 12-yard punt return. Velus Jones Jr. did not take any kickoffs out of the end zone — the Jets had six touchbacks.
(Top photo of Eddie Jackson chasing Elijah Moore: Vincent Carchietta / USA Today)