Senior Author
The Bears (5-3) will search their sixth win of their final seven video games Sunday after they host the Giants (2-7) at Soldier Discipline.
The Bears rebounded from a 30-16 loss in Baltimore Oct. 26 with an exciting 47-42 comeback victory in Cincinnati final Sunday. After the Bengals turned a 41-27 fourth-quarter deficit right into a 42-41 lead, Caleb Williams’ 58-yard landing cross to Colston Loveland with :17 remaining lifted the Bears to the victory.
It was the primary time that the Bears have scored a successful TD in regulation after dropping the lead within the closing minute of the fourth quarter since 1977.
The Giants opened the season 0-3 after which gained two of three, together with a powerful 34-17 victory over the defending Tremendous Bowl champion Eagles. However they’ve since dropped three in a row, permitting 33, 38 and 34 factors, and are 0-5 on the street this 12 months.
The offense enters Week 10 on a roll, coming off a prolific efficiency final Sunday in Cincinnati through which the unit produced its most factors (47) since 2018 and most yards (576) since a 61-7 rout of the Packers in 1980.
First-year coach Ben Johnson is making a major influence. After rating final within the NFL in whole yards (283.5 per recreation) final season, the Bears are fourth this 12 months at 378.4—together with a league-leading 428.8 since Week 6.
Extra importantly, the Bears have improved in factors per recreation from twenty eighth in 2024 (18.2) to sixth this 12 months (26.9). They’ve scored no less than 25 factors in 5 of their final six video games, successful all 5 of these contests.
The Bears rank second within the NFL in dashing, averaging 144.4 yards per recreation. Final week in Cincinnati they amassed a season-high 283 yards on the bottom, with rookie Kyle Monangai working for 176 yards on 26 carries whereas making his first NFL begin rather than the injured D’Andre Swift. Within the course of, Monangai joined legendary Corridor of Famer Walter Payton as the one gamers in Bears historical past with no less than 26 rushes and 176 yards in a recreation.
With Swift questionable for Sunday’s recreation, Monangai will likely be prepared if known as upon to shoulder many of the workload for the second straight week.
Williams will look to construct on an impressive outing in opposition to the Bengals through which he handed for 280 yards and three touchdowns. His decisive TD to Loveland capped the fourth game-winning drive that Williams has engineered since Week 18 of final season, tied for the second most within the NFL throughout that span.
This season Williams has thrown for 1,916 yards with 12 TDs, 4 interceptions and a 93.5 passer ranking. He has solely been sacked 14 instances in eight video games after taking 68 sacks in 17 begins final 12 months as a rookie.
The Giants protection ranks twenty eighth within the NFL in factors allowed (27.7) and is twenty ninth in whole yards, thirty first in opposition to the run and twenty fourth versus the cross. However the Bears aren’t taking something with no consideration in opposition to a unit that options two-time All-Professional nostril sort out Dexter Lawrence, finish Kayvon Thibodeaux and outdoors linebacker Brian Burns, who leads the NFL with 11.0 sacks.
“You can argue that is the perfect defensive entrance that we have seen up to now this 12 months, and so [it’s] an enormous problem at hand,” Johnson stated. “We will must be on our stuff right here once more this week and I do know the blokes are going to be prepared for this problem.”
“Burns performs at a high-effort stage; he is only a actually proficient cross rusher,” added offensive coordinator Declan Doyle. “He is slippery, and while you speak about Lawrence, he’s a very massive human in there inside. He eats up a whole lot of blocks and tries to free issues for his or her linebackers to go make performs.”
Key matchup: Bears proper sort out Darnell Wright vs. Giants outdoors linebacker Brian Burns
One week after being named offensive participant of the week by Professional Soccer Focus for his efficiency in opposition to the Bengals, Wright will face the league’s sack chief in Burns, a proficient seventh-year professional who has 6.0 sacks in his final 4 video games.
Rookie first-round decide Jaxson Dart quarterbacks a Giants offense that ranks 18th within the NFL in whole yards (322.0 per recreation) and twenty second in factors (21.9).
Since changing veteran Russell Wilson following New York’s 0-3 begin, Dart has thrown for 1,175 yards with 10 TDs, three interceptions and a 93.9 passer ranking in six begins. The twenty fifth total decide on this 12 months’s drafted posted a season-high 107.0 passer ranking final Sunday in a 34-24 loss to the 49ers, finishing 72.7% of his passes (24 of 33) for 191 yards and two touchdowns.
“You may inform [Dart] is actually giving them a spark,” Johnson stated. “Their offense can rating some factors, they usually have playmakers.”
A harmful twin menace, Dart has rushed for 251 yards and 5 TDs on 51 carries. He’s the one quarterback because the NFL/AFL merger in 1970 to each cross and rush for a landing in 5 of his first six begins.
“He’s performing some actually good issues,” stated defensive coordinator Dennis Allen. “He sees the sphere properly. He does job of with the ability to get the ball out of his palms at instances after which but when he does not like what he sees, he is in a position to create together with his toes. That’ll be an enormous problem for us when it comes to his skill to run the soccer, whether or not it’s scrambles or designed quarterback runs.”
The Giants offense remains to be making an attempt to beat the lack of receiver Malik Nabers and rookie working again Cam Skattebo to season-ending accidents. Receiver Wan’Dale Robinson has helped decide up the slack, catching 47 passes for 540 yards and two TDs. His 15 catches on third down are tied for the third most within the league.
The Bears protection leads the NFL with 19 takeaways and 11 interceptions. The unit has pressured no less than three turnovers in a league-high 5 video games. The Bears have been reliant on takeaways this 12 months, producing 18 of their 5 victories and only one of their three losses.
Linebacker Tremaine Edmunds and security Kevin Byard III are tied with Jaguars linebacker Devin Lloyd for the NFL lead with 4 interceptions.
Producing extra strain on the quarterback stays a prime precedence for the Bears. The excellent news is that defensive finish Montez Sweat has recorded a sack in every of the final three video games and defensive finish Austin Booker made an influence in his season debut final Sunday with a strip sack that resulted in a key takeaway.
After dropping defensive lineman Dayo Odeyingbo to a season-ending Achilles harm versus the Bengals, the Bears bolstered their cross rush Tuesday by buying defensive finish Joe Tryon-Shoyinka in a commerce with the Browns. The fifth-year professional is predicted to play Sunday in opposition to the Giants.
Key matchup: Bears defensive finish Montez Sweat vs. Giants proper sort out Jermaine Eluemunor
Sweat has been trending in the fitting route with a sack in every of his final three video games and can look to proceed that streak Sunday in opposition to Eluemunor, an skilled nine-year veteran who has began all 23 video games he is performed in two seasons with the Giants at each sort out positions.
* One of many Bears’ most important regular-season wins got here in opposition to the Giants within the 1977 finale when Bob Thomas’ 28-yard area aim with :04 left in time beyond regulation on an icy area at Giants Stadium gave the Bears a wild card berth and their first playoff look since successful the 1963 championship.
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