Bears and Panthers Who Wins and Why
The Chicago Bears and Carolina Panthers battle on Thursday Night Football with the Bears benefiting in the 2024 NFL Draft by winning.
Transcript
00:00 [music]
00:10 In an abbreviated format during an abbreviated week,
00:13 because it's Thursday night football from Soldier Field,
00:17 it's the Bears and the Panthers, who wins and why?
00:21 [music]
00:23 Basically, there is no reason why the Bears should be 2-8 after this game.
00:28 The only areas the Panthers even get a push in this is when the Bears are passing.
00:33 Caroline has big strength as Brian Burns in the pass rush,
00:36 and he's got a concussion.
00:38 Cornerback C.J. Henderson has a concussion.
00:40 Safety Xavier Woods is trying to gut it out through a thigh injury.
00:44 Their other cornerbacks are mediocre, and they're going against old teammate D.J. Moore.
00:49 The Bears may not be great, but they do one thing really well,
00:53 and that's run the ball. It's their lifeblood.
00:55 They're fourth in rushing, even without Justin Fields contributing a lot this year,
00:59 and they're going against the Panthers' defense ranked 28th against the run.
01:03 Carolina has given up more rushing touchdowns than any team.
01:07 The Bears stopped the run better than all but three teams right now,
01:10 and Carolina hasn't put together a strong rushing attack,
01:13 even with Miles Sanders and Chuba Hubbard.
01:16 The Bears' pass rush is picking up with Montez Sweat,
01:20 and they have both starting safeties back finally,
01:22 which helps against the run and pass.
01:25 The Panthers, meanwhile, have trouble protecting their little quarterback Bryce Young.
01:29 Adam Thielen is always tough to defend, but he isn't a big play receiver,
01:33 and eventually that type of receiver can be accounted for by the secondary.
01:38 Special teams has to go to the Bears as well.
01:41 Carolina's counting on Amir Smith-Marset, the former Bears fumbler, to return punts,
01:46 while their kicker is the kicker the Bears did not want, Eddie Pinheiro.
01:51 Hunter Johnny Hecker is more known for being able to fake punts than for punting.
01:57 Also in coaching, it's Matt Ibervloos going against his former boss Frank Reich,
02:01 who was run out of Indy after Ibervloos left.
02:04 Reich is plenty of experience, but not much of an offense at this point.
02:08 Intangibles also favor the Bears on this night.
02:11 Home field, short work week, but they're at home, so they had more prep time,
02:16 and they really are frustrated by losing some games that they played well enough in
02:20 to win.
02:22 I'm seeing this as a relatively easy night for the Bears on the lakefront, 27-13,
02:27 and in winning, they only held their own chances for the first pick in the 2024 NFL draft
02:34 since they owned Carolina's pick.
02:37 (upbeat music)
02:39 (upbeat music)