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| Bennett had a big performance. Photo Credit: Howard Smith/USA Today Sports |
Martellus Bennett caught two touchdowns passes as the Bears hung on to beat the Jets 27-19 at MetLife Stadium on Monday night. Chicago improves to 2-1 while New York drops to 1-2 on the early season.
By: Michael Hanley
The Bears looked as if they were on their way to blowing out the Jets after getting a pick 6 from Ryan Mundy on the second play from scrimmage for the Jets, to quickly go up 7-0 and set the tone to this game. Then when Jay Cutler and the Bears offense did get the ball for the first time, they raced down the field and Cutler capped it with a 7 yard touchdown pass to Martellus Bennett, who showed great control and footwork being able to stay in bounds right along the boundary of the back of the end zone. At 14-0 Chicago was looking very comfortable at MetLife Stadium while the Jets looked like a boxer that had just got hit with a right hook.
Geno Smith and the Jets offense had trouble at first finding any sort of rhythm they could get into and start to chip away at this Bears lead. Smith was rushed quite a few times courtesy of the Bears pass rush, which forced him into making some poor throws, which would have resulted in more interceptions had the Bears secondary been able to haul in a few of those errant passes from Smith.
The offensive line had trouble keeping any of the Bears defensive line from getting to Smith on a regular basis. They were losing a good amount of the battles upfront, which threw the offense off the tracks. The running backs Chris Johnson and Chris Ivory for New York were unable to find any running room as the Bears defense crashed down on them repeatedly and cut the run lanes off almost completely. Johnson & Ivory would finish with 24 & 44 yards rushing respectively, alarmingly low production from the duo. All the Jets were able to muster in the first quarter was a Nick Folk 40 yard field goal.
The tide turned a bit in the Jets favor in the second quarter as their defense got settled in and started to make headway and limiting the production of the Bears offense and also the offense found its game and got into a rhythm. This turn in play resulted in New York getting back into this game which looked so bleak after the rough start. Smith engineered two solid drives in the quarter, showcasing his touch and ability to fit passes into tiny windows to his WRs.
The first scoring drive netted them a field goal which pulled them to within 17-6. The next drive would be by far the most impressive of the evening. Smith was able to get some pass protection from his offensive line and found his open men and got his team down the field methodically in nine plays. It was capped off with a 19 yard touchdown pass to Jeremy Kerley, which made it only a 17-13 deficit for the Jets just before halftime.
Chicago came storming out in the third quarter as Cutler lead the offense easily down the field and connected with Martellus Bennett from 13 yard out for a second time tonight for a touchdown and gave the Bears a double digit lead again at 24-13. Bennett was the star for the Bears on a night where Cutler's favorite target Brandon Marshall was not playing at 100% full strength. The tight end finished with 5 catches for 54 yards and two key touchdown grabs. Meanwhile Cutler rounded out a solid performance for himself throwing 23/38 for 225 yards and two touchdown passes.
The Jets did respond with another Nick Folk field goal which got them within 24-16 just before the third quarter ended. Despite some of the miscues Smith and the Jets defense made, they were able to hang in there and give themselves a chance in the fourth quarter.
The Bears offense would continue its swoon into the final quarter as the Jets pass rush was getting to Cutler and forcing him to throwaway the ball and shutting down any big play potential through the ground or air for Chicago.
New York would once again drive down the field but once they got deep into Bears territory, stalled again and settled for a forth Nick Folk field goal that made it 24-19 Chicago.
Chicago was up against it as the momentum was with the Jets and they were in dire need of a sustained drive, if for nothing else to chew up some valuable time off the clock. They would get just that as they plotted down the field and used Matt Forte to give some balance to this Bears offense and keep the Jets defense honest. Though the drive stalled, it set up a Robbie Gould 45 yard field goal which he nailed and gave his team a 27-19 lead.
The Jets gave it one last shot to comeback and even the game and they got down to the Bears red zone and had four opportunities to get the touch down and setup a two point conversion attempt. Despite having numerous injuries to their secondary, the Bears defense held up and shut New York out of the end zone to preserve victory.
It finished up what was a very up and down night for Geno Smith as he went 26/43 for 316 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions.
Follow me on Twitter: @Magic20099
