Bears on Bagent’s Performance, second win of the season |
CHICAGO - After getting their first win of the season against the Washington Commanders on Thursday Night Football, they got their second victory against the Las Vegas Raiders this past Sunday. According to linebacker Tremaine Edmunds, the defense’s domination was not at all surprising against the Raiders as that was an emphasis from last week.
“Obviously, it was very frustrating last week. But, we’re not looking in the past. My mind was focused on getting better, focused on repeating that performance as far as domination and that’s what our focus is on for the rest of the week,” Edmunds said. “Obviously, we want to be a dominant defense. We preach about it, that’s how we work in practice and so, I’m not surprised.” Last week was certainly frustrating, but the Bears have had many other frustrating weeks as well. The defense was not playing this well in the beginning of the season, especially when they blew a franchise record-tying 21-point lead against the Denver Broncos. The play calls are coming from head coach Matt Eberflus, who is stepping into that role because of Alan Williams’s dramatic resignation earlier in the season. This is not even an exhaustive list of all of the adversity this team has gone through. But, the Bears are finally starting to put together a better performance and have been competitive in all of their most recent games. Edmunds maintains that this adversity has helped to strengthen the team, as well as their developing chemistry. “We faced a lot of adversity. Adversity builds character,” Edmunds said. “You find out about your team, you find out about yourself and just to see the way that we stayed together, just the chemistry (we’re) building, I really think that’s the difference. It’s not really a big difference as far as how we’re playing.” On the offensive side of the ball, things were not looking good after quarterback Justin Fields went down against the Minnesota Vikings and was not able to play against the Raiders with a dislocated thumb. He is also doubtful against the Los Angeles Chargers in the Bears’ upcoming Sunday Night Football matchup (7:20 p.m./NBC). However, undrafted rookie quarterback Tyson Bagent out of Division II Shepherd did what he needed to to lead the Bears to victory, although running back D’Onta Foreman’s dominant performance surely helped the offense to control the game. In fact, he became the fifth running back in Bears history to have a three-touchdown performance, which is quite a feat on a team with such a rich history in running backs. The win is something that Foreman says the team needed, especially with how well Chicago was on both sides of the ball. “We definitely needed that. I think we played together as a team, complemented each other on offense and defense, plus three in the turnovers,” Foreman said. “I think that’s definitely been hurting us in games, so that was great to see. Feel like we ran the ball well. I think Tyson really commanded the offense and really had us all in the right spaces.” Bagent’s numbers did not exactly jump off the page with 162 passing yards and one passing touchdown. Still, he showed good decision making in being able to avoid pressure, particularly from edge rusher Maxx Crosby, who has recorded a sack in almost every game this season for Las Vegas. Bagent was only sacked once, which is less than any game where Justin Fields has started this season. In addition, this rookie seems to have better awareness of when to get the ball down the field as opposed to Fields who wants to run the ball more. If this performance keeps up, there could be a quarterback competition in Chicago. Nonetheless, Foreman and the rest of the team were not surprised by how Bagent performed Sunday as it was consistent with what they have seen all offseason. “I think he was just himself and nothing different, nothing any different than we’ve seen through preseason up until now,” Foreman said. “I think we all expected him to be that type of guy and come out there and do what he did today, so no surprise there from us at all.” Winning is certainly something that Bears fans are not used to. However, players such as elite receiver DJ Moore are hoping that this winning feeling will become a norm because it is something that you never want to end. “Once you get that winning feel, like I said a couple of weeks ago, you never want to lose it. So, we came into this locker room, the music was on and everything was going,” Moore said. “You don’t want to lose that feeling.”
