Chicago Bears: Week 14 MVPs

The Chicago Bears fell to the Green Bay Packers 45-30 on Sunday night to drop to 4-9 on the season.

Offensive and Special Teams MVP: Jakeem Grant

Grant’s breakout game against the Packers was certainly a pleasant surprise. After being shipped to the Chicago Bears mid-season for a late-round pick, expectations were relatively low. For the most part, Grant had brought mixed reviews in the return game, with his solid returns mostly being canceled out by the yard lost from him regularly taking kickoff returns from several yards into his own end zone. Although I’m still not sold on keeping Grant long-term, he certainly showed his value on both offense and special teams.

The Bears offense put up a season-high 27 points in the first half, and Jakeem Grant was the primary reason why, with a 46-yard touchdown reception on a pass that was caught behind the line of scrimmage, and a 97-yard touchdown on the punt return. Out of any player that suited up for the Bears this week, Grant was the most valuable, and his valiant effort shouldn’t go unnoticed, regardless of the game’s outcome

Defensive MVP: Robert Quinn 

I wasn’t expecting much from the defense, given their current health, but even I didn’t think it would get as ugly as it did Sunday night. Whether the Packers were running or throwing the football, they moved the ball downfield with ease after the first quarter, and the defense was outclassed in every aspect of the game.

Even with the atrocious showing from Chicago’s defense, there were still a few notable performances. Jaylon Johnson did as good of a job as he could’ve considering who he was covering for most of the game, and Eddie Jackson made a couple of nice plays in coverage. Once again, Robert Quinn solidified himself as the team’s best pass-rusher, now that Khalil Mack is out, with two more sacks, to put him at 14 for the year. I would’ve liked to see him get more pressure in the second half, but it’s hard to blame Quinn for the game’s outcome.

Rookie MVP: Justin Fields 

It was far from Fields’ best performance throwing the football. He threw a pick-six, and both of his touchdowns were on short passes taken upfield by the receiver. Still, Fields showed his excellent rushing ability and made a couple of nice throws. He was pressured on roughly half of his dropbacks and the injury to Jason Peters certainly didn’t help that. But at the end of the day, Fields and the offense did enough to win the game, and it’s hard to place blame on a unit that scored 23 points (if you subtract the special team’s touchdown) on one of the best defenses in football.