Winners and Losers of Chicago Bears' Week 2 Performance
After a promising start, the Chicago Bears imploded in Week 2.
Head coach John Fox didn't have any answers as his team went down 29-7, a disaster on the road against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with seemingly endless negatives and no positives.
And the summary is dire: four turnovers in the first half, 45 passes as opposed to 16 carries that went for 1.3 per and costly mistakes, both in the realm of flags, muffed punts and beyond.
Indeed, any goodwill earned by playing the Atlanta Falcons close in Week 1 dried up faster than a puddle in a desert, and the chants for rookie quarterback Mitchell Trubisky are bound to begin earlier than most would have guessed.
Even with the outlook so negative, let's take a moment to unearth the good as well when examining the winners and losers from Sunday's woeful showing.
Loser: Tarik Cohen
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Tarik Cohen fell off fast.
The 22-year-old wowed the NFL realm in Week 1. Chicago fans knew of him after the team rolled the dice in the fourth round on a little-known North Carolina A&T product. And he responded with five carries for 66 yards and eight catches for 47 yards and a score.
One problem: The Falcons were known for having problems containing versatile backs. The Buccaneers? Not so much.
Cohen didn't just rush for 13 yards on seven carries, nine of those yards coming on one tote. His eight catches only went for 55 yards, and he muffed a punt.
Mark Potash of the Chicago Sun-Times caught the rookie's reaction to the gaffe: "That was a dumb mistake. If I had to do it again, I would just stay way from the ball."
Hope for Cohen is far from lost, but the Buccaneers defense provided quite the reality check.
Winner: Kendall Wright
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As Bears fans should have hoped, Kendall Wright stepped up in a big way with both Kevin White and Cameron Meredith lost for the season.
The wide receiver didn't do much of anything in the opener despite mild expectations because he has meshed so well with offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains in the past.
Both parties remedied this issue on Sunday, as the 27-year-old wound up leading the team in targets with 10, which he turned into a team-high 69 yards. Deonte Thompson scored the only receiving touchdown on the day, though Wright looked like he could assume the role of No. 1 wideout.
Fans can tell the Bears need it. Wright isn't a strong boundary presence, but if he can open up the offense from the inside, provided the offensive line improves, it will enable Chicago quarterbacks to put more points on the board.
Loser: Josh Bellamy
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It doesn't get much worse than the day Josh Bellamy had.
On paper, the wide receiver caught four of his seven targets for 51 yards, the target total placing him behind three names on the list in that category.
That's nice, but he seemed to go under the bus in interviews after the game.
Both Mike Glennon and Fox seemed to point blame at the 28-year-old for an interception that went back for the touchdown.
Rich Campbell of the Chicago Tribune captured the quarterback's reaction, followed by a note from Fox: "I'm not sure we ran a real clean route on the out cut."
It's an unfortunate turn of events for Bellamy given his opportunity to see more snaps in the base offense after the wealth of injuries to the depth chart.
Then again, that depth chart might provide him with another chance just yet.
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Winner: Eddie Goldman
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It has been a long road back for Eddie Goldman.
The 2015 second-round pick missed 10 games last year thanks to injury and just slipped through concussion protocol to take the field on Sunday.
There, the Florida State product recorded his first sack of the season on a monster pressure. Off the stat sheet, he helped clog running lanes as the Buccaneers only mustered 117 yards on 34 carries.
It doesn't sound like much overall, but Goldman has always flashed the upside of a big contributor in the middle.
If he can keep working on said upside in the trenches next to Akiem Hicks, he's going to fill a major need for the team that it would otherwise waste assets addressing in the near future.
Loser: Jordan Howard
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Indeed, it was a bad day at the office for Bears running backs on Sunday.
Jordan Howard, one of last year's biggest breakout players, also found himself struggling behind a patchwork offensive line on his way to nine carries for seven yards. Even worse, he received just one target in the passing game.
Yet, somehow it manages to get even worse.
According to Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune, the 22-year-old left Raymond James Stadium with his arm in a sling.
Howard had been on the injury report leading up to the game with a shoulder issue. We'll need to wait on further reports to know more, but based on the shuffled-around line with Kyle Long missing in action, he would have a hard time putting up quality numbers either way.
Winner: Willie Young
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One of the NFL's more underrated role players struck again on Sunday.
Willie Young recorded his first sack of the season for a depleted linebacking corps already dealing with issues thanks to the season-ending injury suffered by Jerrell Freeman.
The 31-year-old has played a critical role for the Bears over the past few seasons while the team rebuilds and faces a barrage of injuries. He has a minimum of 6.5 sacks in each of his past three seasons, including 7.5 a year ago.
Young got home for his first of the season Sunday. Rotating with Pernell McPhee and across from Leonard Floyd, he continues to quietly be one of the bigger reasons the Bears (also quietly) have one of the better front sevens in football.
Loser: Mike Glennon
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Glennon had to know the job wouldn't be easy when he signed his name on the dotted line.
After a ho-hum 213 yards and a score on 40 attempts in Week 1, he went into full-blown disaster mode against the Bears, going 31-of-45 for 301 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions.
It's an odd situation all-around. The pick that went back for a touchdown didn't necessarily fall on Glennon. He's hearing chants for the guy on the depth chart behind him despite two starting offensive linemen playing out of position to make up for an injured starter, and he's rolling with what easily looks like the worst wideout depth chart in the league.
And yet there's no chance Glennon gets out of this via benching.
The Bears aren't going to trot out an impressionable rookie such as Trubisky behind a shaky line and with little in the way of weapons.
They paid Glennon big money on the chance he'd help the team win games—and the requirement he'd take punishment like this if things went this way.
Granted, the season is young, but Glennon's ride has hardly started and it has come off the tracks already.
Winner: Zach Miller
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Has anyone won more than veteran tight end Zach Miller over the course of the past two weeks?
Seemingly back from the cut list after the additions of free agent Dion Sims and rookie Adam Shaheen, Miller received six targets in Week 1.
Sunday, he tied for second on the team with nine targets, bringing in six for 42 yards. He isn't averaging double-digit yardage per catch by any means, but he has seen a bump in usage compared to early expectations.
Now his body simply needs to uphold its end of the bargain. Miller has missed seven games since joining the Bears in 2015. If he's good to go now and the coaches can work well with him and Wright, all hope isn't lost for Chicago's passing attack, provided the line gets healthy.
At the age of 32, Miller could be heading toward a renaissance of sorts.
All contract information courtesy of Spotrac unless otherwise specified. Stats courtesy of NFL.com. All advanced metrics courtesy of Pro Football Focus.
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