Chicago Bears vs. Carolina Panthers: Full Report Card Grades for Chicago
Published by Matt Eurich on October 5, 2014
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Chicago Bears
After a hot start on offense in the first half, the Chicago Bears struggled to put points on the board in the second half against Carolina, ultimately falling to the Panthers by a score of 31-24.
The Panthers got on the board first, returning a punt for a touchdown in the first quarter to give them an early 7-0 lead.
Jay Cutler and the Chicago offense began pushing the ball down the field before Cutler was intercepted by Carolina’s Roman Harper at the Carolina 31-yard line in the first quarter.
The defense was able to create a couple of turnovers in the first half, and the Bears offense was able to turn those turnovers into points. Chicago then went into halftime with a 21-14 lead.
Matt Forte was the star of the Bears offense for much of the game, finishing with 166 total yards, including 105 receiving yards, but he will be remembered for his fumble late in the fourth quarter, which helped set up the Panthers’ game-winning touchdown.
Despite Forte’s fumble, head coach Marc Trestman said after the game that the offense needed to put the ball in the end zone, but it was simply unable to.
“The fact of that matter is that we get down there and we haven’t been able to push it through,” Trestman told the media after the game, via ChicagoFootball.com’s Kevin Fishbain. “We were on the wrong side of the field, and we just couldn’t get enough going to get a couple of first downs and start moving the ball. There were a couple of drives that were significant in the second half.”
With their loss on Sunday, combined with Green Bay‘s victory over Minnesota on Thursday Night Football and Detroit‘s loss on Sunday, the Bears now sit in fourth place in the NFC North division with a record of 2-3.
Here are our report card grades for each Bears unit following their Week 5 loss to the Carolina Panthers.
