Chicago Bears: Week one MVP, studs, and duds against the Lions

With Week 1 final, who played well and who struggled for the Chicago Bears?

The Chicago Bears took down down the Detroit Lions 27-23 Sunday afternoon, in somewhat of a sloppy win. After a slow start, the Bears came roaring back with a fourth-quarter comeback.

Let’s take a look at who performed well, and who had some struggles.

Duds:  The pass rush

The vaunted pass rush of the Chicago Bears really struggled to get home. Akiem Hicks was able to get the only sack of the game for the Bears but was otherwise held in check. Khalil Mack was someone whose name we heard very little during Sunday’s game, only getting in on 4 total tackles with zero sacks.

The Lions were able to handle this Bears’ pass rush this week which was rather surprising given the Lions unimpressive offensive line. I wouldn’t be too concerned about this from the Bears side of things. I feel this is an outlier performance from a normally very good unit.

Studs: Cordarrelle Patterson, Jaylon Johnson, Kyle Fuller

All three of these players played a big role in the victory and were consistent throughout the game for the most part. Rookie Jaylon Johnson was someone who had really nice plays including getting the last pass break-up to win the game. He also took this monster hit from Marvin Jones and got right back up.

Cordarrelle Patterson was arguably their most consistent player throughout the game. He had a couple of nice kick returns including a big 45-yard return that set up a late scoring drive. He also ran the ball 4 times for 19 yards and caught a pass for 12. The box score may not tell the whole story for Patterson.

Wrapping up the studs with Kyle Fuller, who is one of the more consistent players on the defense. Kyle was on the receiving end of a huge interception which lead to a scoring drive while playing good defense all game.

MVP: Mitch Trubisky

While I can admit I am very hard on Mitch Trubisky, I can also admit that he turned in a fantastic fourth quarter. He was leading the charge during the comeback and making some great throws while doing it, including this absolute dime to Anthony Miller.

This can also be a confidence-building performance by Mitch, who did very much struggle in the first half and most of the third quarter. If the Bears can get fourth-quarter Mitch going forward they can make some noise in this competitive NFC North.