Jay Cutler took more abuse than some crash-test dummies before exiting at halftime with a concussion. Dropping back to pass 20 times in the first half, the Bears quarterback was sacked nine times, lost one of three fumbles and threw one interception.
“When you get pressure like that, it’s just tough to do anything,” said coach Lovie Smith. “It’s tough on the quarterback. It’s tough to get anything going with the passing game or the running game.”
The nine sacks in the first half set an NFL record, but the Giants weren’t finished. Backup quarterback Todd Collins was knocked out of the game late in the fourth quarter with a neck injury when he was drilled in the back by linebacker Michael Boley while completing a five-yard pass to Earl Bennett.
A few plays later, third-string quarterback Caleb Hanie was sacked by defensive end Justin Tuck, giving the Giants 10 sacks, the most by a Bears opponent since the stat became official in 1982. Tuck and Osi Umenyiora led New York with three sacks apiece.
“We tried a lot of different combinations to try to offset their rush a little bit, whether it was chipping, keeping the tight end in,” Smith said. “We just have to do a better job blocking.”
The Bears mustered just 110 total yards and six first downs in the game. They were 0 of 13 on third down and 0 of 1 on fourth down. They gained only 22 yards on 29 plays in the first half and just 39 yards on 36 snaps on 11 possessions before Devin Hester’s 11-yard run on the last play of the third quarter.
“The NFL is a humbling business,” said center Olin Kreutz. “It always has been. Those guys are great players across the way. Sometimes you get your [butt] kicked, and we did tonight.”
The Bears (3-1) didn’t run a play in Giants (2-2) territory until midway through the third quarter—and Matt Forte was promptly thrown for a two-yard loss back to the 50 on third-and-one.
“It was a tough loss for our football team tonight,” Smith said. “We felt like we were ready to go, ready to play the best game we’ve played all year. Of course, it didn’t turn out that way.”
When Cutler wasn’t getting knocked to the ground, he completed 8 of 11 passes for 42 yards. Forte (12 carries for 26 yards) and Chester Taylor (3-22) combined to rush for just 48 yards on 15 attempts.
The defense kept the Bears in the game, holding the Giants without a first down on nine of 11 possessions through three quarters. But the unit ultimately wilted while trying to carry the rest of the team on its back.
Even though the offense was struggling mightily, the Bears only trailed 3-0 at halftime. After Lawrence Tynes’ 22-yard field goal late in the first quarter, the Chicago defense yielded just five yards on 14 plays with no first downs on New York’s final five possessions of the half.
Julius Peppers produced the defense’s biggest play, swatting the ball out of quarterback Eli Manning’s hand for the Bears’ second and final sack of the game. Brian Urlacher recovered the fumble at the Chicago 48. But the offense failed to capitalize on the takeaway, going three-and-out.
Manning completed 18 of 30 passes for 195 yards and a 79.2 passer rating in the game.
Ahmad Bradshaw’s three-yard touchdown run gave the Giants a 10-0 lead with 2:48 left in the third quarter. The TD capped an eight-play, 90-yard drive highlighted by Manning completions of 25 yards to Travis Beckum and 21 yards to Hakeem Nicks and a 25-yard run by Bradshaw.
After a Collins interception, the Bears got the ball right back when Chris Harris recovered a botched handoff at the Giants’ 29. The offense once again failed to pick up a first down, but Robbie Gould’s 40-yard field goal drew the Bears to within 10-3 with 10:58 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Bradshaw later dashed up the middle for 22 yards and was headed into the end zone when Zackary Bowman poked the ball loose from behind at the Bears’ 14 and scrambled to recover it at the 1.
But the Giants clinched the win on their next possession, widening the margin to 17-3 on Brandon Jacobs’ one-yard TD run with 4:31 to play. Bradshaw (23 carries for 129 yards) and Jacobs (6-62) combined to rush for 144 of their 191 yards in the second half.
“It was just a total team loss for us,” Smith said. “We realize how it looked, which was bad. But this is one game. That’s the bright part of it. If there’s something positive, it only counts for one loss. We finished up the first quarter [of the season] 3-1. We’ll go back to work tomorrow and start trying to fix some of these things.”
After the loss, Urlacher refused to take solace in the Bears’ 3-1 record.
“I’m not happy right now,” said the veteran middle linebacker. “We didn’t see this one coming. We had a good week of practice, but we didn’t play well today.”
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