(670 The Score) Maybe it shouldn't be surprising that the Bears won against the Patriots on Monday night. Maybe following up a 12-7 loss to one of the NFL's worst franchises with a 33-14 win against one of its best shouldn't really be shocking at all. The Bears are just one mediocre team in a league that, so far, seems full of them this season. An optimist would perhaps be annoying and say it's actually the ever-elusive parity that other major sports leagues are always trying to achieve, and that when everyone's bad, no one's bad! And yeah, maybe it's just because now Bears Twitter is going to be like 25% more tolerable this week, but right now it's kind of hard to disagree.
It feels like it's missing the mark to label the Bears' 33-14 victory Monday a "statement win." Believe it or not, the Patriots also look pretty average, and the Bears' defense is more than capable of comfortably handling a backup quarterback. It's not that the win saved their season – even with the same record as some NFC heavyweights, you can find the Bears neatly tucked into the bottom left quadrant of like every stat chart on the internet for a reason. What Monday night did, in all likelihood, was save their reputation. (Like the title says!)
Where to even start? Bet you can guess! Justin Fields played exactly like the quarterback we all expected him to be this season, and I'd argue he got pretty close to resetting expectations back to preseason levels in the process. There were still bad fumbles, a few weird screen passes and that one play where he had what felt like 90 seconds to throw it away and still took a sack, yet he was still far and away the most electric player on the field. It's hard to think of too many other games where he's looked as convincing from the Bears' first drive to their last. It certainly helps that the Patriots' pass rushers didn't seem all that interested in setting the edge for most of the game, but there's plenty of credit to be given to young quarterbacks learning to, as they say over and over and over again, take what the defense gives them. There's also plenty of credit to be given to Bears offensive coordinator Luke Getsy, who apparently had a revelation this past week and realized that his quarterback is the fastest player on the team. The number of designed Fields runs the Bears called fit seamlessly into the game plan and much to the glee of every single person who has ever had a suggestion for him, Getsy found a way to move the pocket around. At the least, he continued to distance himself from former Packers co-worker Nathaniel Hackett.
And speaking of saving reputations, I wouldn't blame rookie cornerback Kyler Gordon for going on a rant or two next time the Bears open the locker room. Gordon has quietly been getting better over the last month or so, and his interception Monday – the first of his pro career – felt like a long time coming. The Bears secondary was already fun to watch when Gordon was glaringly terrible, so imagine what could be in store now that he's starting to figure it out. Having both rookie defensive backs make one-handed interceptions in the same game -- as safety Jaquan Brisker did as well -- is how over-reactionary columns are born, but life's too short to not overreact to NFL wins at least a little. If there's one unit on this team that's already starting to look the way general manager Ryan Poles wants it to, it's the secondary. Maybe all those people saying that "three weeks is too early to judge the entirety of a player's career" were onto something.
The Bears are going to piss you off again this year, and probably soon. They still have to play the Lions twice. As long as they run that offensive line out, you don't need to cancel any flights in late January. But they were historically bad, not to mention a huge punchline, for the first month of the year. Saving their reputation isn't insignificant, especially for a team in their spot. Now they can just be mediocre in peace. What's better than that?
Cam Ellis is a writer for 670 The Score and Audacy Sports. Follow him on Twitter @KingsleyEllis.
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