Chicago Bears: Top 5 Performers from Last Night’s Preseason Opener vs. Denver
Published by Gabe Salgado on August 10, 2012
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears
Last night the Chicago Bears opened their 2012 preseason schedule with a loss to the Denver Broncos by a final score of 31-3.
The Bears looked brutal out there on the field. The offense was stale as the Bears only gained a total of 158 yards.
The offensive line couldn’t clear a path for the running game, and at times they struggled with pass protection. The passing game was inconsistent. The Bears only completed 16 of 22 passes for 96 yards as a team. As for pass protection, Bears quarterbacks were sacked a total of six times.
The running game struggled even more as Bears only rushed for a total of 36 yards, averaging only 1.7 yards per carry between six ball carriers. The defense was even worse…
Rod Marinelli’s group gave up 338 total yards to the Bronco offense. They only forced one turnover which was an interception by Major Wright. They also had quite a bit of trouble getting to the quarterback, but they did manage to get three sacks.
The Bears’ return game was non-existent as they only gained a combined 60 yards on both kick returns and punt returns. Overall, this team just flat out struggled. Perhaps things could have been different if guys like Jay Cutler, Matt Forte, Brian Urlacher, and Julius Peppers had played tonight.
I will say on the Bears’ behalf that they are working in a new offense and that seems to be a work in progress. Plus they also wanted to get a good look at the younger players on defense. Hopefully last night’s loss was just a learning curve and not a sign of things to come.
But despite the 28-point defeat, I did manage to find some positives from last night’s game. Let’s take a took at who stood out for the Bears on Thursday night.
