(670 The Score) It was all too perfect, and we should've known it. An impossibly gorgeous end-of-summer Sunday in Chicago and a 17-0 halftime lead for the Bears over a clearly outmatched Giants team now down two top playmakers due to injury.
So of course I still nearly threw up watching the rest of it, waiting out a penalty call with the clock at zeroes while lying on the rug after throwing myself off the couch and screaming "NOOOOOOOO!" loudly enough with windows open to concern neighbors.
But the correct ruling was made: offensive pass interference in the Bears' end zone, even if safety Eddie Jackson did then also arrive too early into the Giants receiver's back. Bears win 17-13, and they're now a perfect 2-0 to start this weird 2020 season, still leaving us confounded as to how exactly they got here.
All I know is that my stomach is still in knots. The result may be better than the alternative, but this experience can't be good for us.
Matt Nagy's team is good enough now to have won on the road when a terrible team kindly drops the game-winning score and have survived at home when another already-bad opponent is then without Saquon Barkley and Sterling Shepard.
According to back-of-the-napkin analysis performed by the Danny Parkins Show on 670 The Score on Friday, NFL teams winning their first two games end up reaching the playoffs roughly 60% of the time. Accounting for the extra spots now allotted in a 14-team playoff format, it now means about a 70% correlation. But it's hard to take a full accounting of what the Bears have shown to this point and have any conviction that this is some kind of contender. It's just too shaky in too many places.
Give David Montgomery all of the game balls for gutting out a neck injury to end up with 82 rushing yards on 16 carries and three receptions for 45 yards and a touchdown. But then remember to give him the actual ball late in the game while he's running roughshod over a tired defense instead of getting cute with another try at some "gotcha" play call. Relying on a tipped ball to land in the hands of Bobby Massie is also not a plan, ever.
What's more, this vaunted Bears front seven needs to do something soon to deserve such adjectives, as it has proved unable to impose its supposed strength at the most material times. They should've thrown this Giants line around all afternoon and instead spent most of the fourth quarter hung up on blocks.
The fact that we've gotten this far without mentioning the play of Mitchell Trubisky probably means incremental progress of some kind -- or at least that the quarterback position isn't our first issue. He made fine athletic plays on both of his touchdown throws, first drawing a defender from Montgomery with the threat of the run, then scrambling to extend the play while communicating with rookie wideout Darnell Mooney, who himself is a bright spot. One interception was a forced throw into a small area, the other a remarkable individual play by James Bradberry. Two of Trubisky's best throws also were dropped by Anthony Miller, including one that would've been a score.
We're learning that Nagy really did self-scout his offense and now has adapted his concepts to be more downfield rather than horizontal, with more lead blockers coming downhill with the quarterback under center. It's a welcome adaptation but will matter more if he can avoid his signature moments of overthinking at critical times.
Football is going to get harder for the Bears, and their margin for error at this point is razor-thin. They're relatively healthy compared to so many other teams after yet another spate of serious injuries across the league and are out to the kind of start that bodes well.
It's just a chore to consume so far and should come with all kinds of health warnings. Bears football to this point doesn't pair well with food and may have to be followed by either a regimen of antacids or heavy drinking. Perhaps both.
Dan Bernstein is the host of the Dan Bernstein Show on middays from 9 a.m. until noon on 670 The Score. You can follow him on Twitter @Dan_Bernstein.
