The Chicago Bears (4-6) will host the New York Giants (2-8) in a rematch of last season’s overtime thriller.
The Bears are coming off a disappointing 17-7 loss to the Los Angeles Rams, which sank their playoff aspirations. But a game against a struggling Giants team might be just the thing they need.
Before the game, we caught up with managing editor Dan Benton of Giants Wire to get the scoop on the Bears’ Week 11 opponent.
Here are six questions with Giants Wire:
1. After starting the season 2-2, the Giants have lost six straight games and sit at 2-8. What’s been the biggest reason for New York’s struggles this season?
List out everything that takes place on a football field, superimpose it over a dart board, close your eyes and throw. It really doesn’t matter where the dart lands, that’s among the biggest reasons for the Giants’ struggles. As sad as it is, I’d probably be better served naming the few things that have gone right as opposed to everything that has gone wrong. There is no meat in the middle of the defense, the secondary is confused and blows assignments with remarkable frequency, the pass rush is inconsistent, the run defense is lacking, missed tackles are killer, turnovers on the offensive side of the ball facilitate some of those defensive failures and then there is, of course, relentless injuries, drops and the immense amount of rookie playing time (Giants lead the league in rookie snaps by an almost unthinkable amount).
2. QB Daniel Jones made a splash in his debut for the Giants. Since then, he leads the NFL in turnovers with 21. What’s your assessment of how the rookie has looked this season?
The turnovers are what everyone would like to focus on, and while there is no excusing them on any level, Daniel Jones has played supremely well outside of that. He’s shattered countless rookie records and has a shot to set the NFL record for touchdown passes by a rookie, not to mention various other franchise and historical marks. Like Eli Manning, he has a persistently calm demeanor and never allows himself to get too high or too low. He’s a smart kid who gets better every day and just needs to learn how to deal with being protected by vastly under-performing tackles and a general lack of pass protection that has led to him being beaten into the ground with alarming frequency. The future is extremely bright for DJ and for those of us who watched him at Duke, the time will soon come for us to revel in the delight of knowing we had it right when so many others had it wrong.
3. RB Saquon Barkley hasn’t been as effective a runner as last season. After topping 100-yards rushing in his first two games, Barkley hasn’t gone over 72 yards since. Is Barkley suffering from a sophomore slump or is he the victim of circumstance?
In that Week 3 game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Barkley suffered a high-ankle sprain that was supposed to keep him out eight or more weeks. Rather than sticking with the timetable, Barkley returned a month (or more) early and has clearly not been the same player on one wheel. That’s not to take away the full brunt of the blame for his lack of success, but it’s certainly a contributing factor alongside an offensive line that couldn’t block a JV team at this point. In a Week 10 loss to the New York Jets, Barkley was contacted at the point of the handoff on 11 of his 13 carries. No one can find success like that. As a result, Barkley has tried to do entirely too much by himself and that freelancing simply doesn’t work at the NFL level.
4. The Giants defense is allowing 361 yards per game, which is sixth-worst in the NFL. Can you assess the strengths and weaknesses of the Giants’ defense this season?
There are honestly no strengths on the Giants defense. If we were forced to name one, it would be their three down linemen — Dexter Lawrence, Dalvin Tomlinson and B.J. Hill (and now Leonard Williams). The collective group has played well individually this season, but that would really be about it. There’s nothing behind those lineman in the middle of the defense and as noted previously, the entire secondary is plagued by lack of hustle, poor tackling, blown assignments and just general laziness. It’s a dumpster fire.
5. What’s your prediction for the game?
Mitchell Trubisky will probably have a career game, the Bears wide receivers will probably earn massive long-term deals off this game alone and the Chicago run game is bound to break out for the first time this season. In the end, it’ll be more of the same for Big Blue. Bears 24, Giants 20