Just bloody awful: Bears dismantled in London by Raiders
The Bears came out with nothing in London against the Oakland Raiders Sunday, and finished the game the same way.
The Raiders dominated the line of scrimmage, squandered a 17-0 lead but then composed themselves and pounded their way past the Bears 24-21.
It left the Bears (3-2) wondering where their own running game has gone, why their defense suddenly couldn't stop the run after losing Akiem Hicks again to injury, and whether they can regain the edge they once had after their bye week.
"Gut wrenching," running back Tarik Cohen said.
They gave up 99 first-half rushing yards after losing Hicks, one of their best run stuffers early. Yet they quickly scored 21 third-quarter points to lead, only to give up a 97-yard TD drive to Derek Carr and the Raiders (3-2).
Then Chase Daniel threw an interception to Gareon Conley with the Bears at midfield looking for the tying or winning points to end it.
"There's no excuses for it," Daniel said, taking the blame for the pick. "You're 16, 17 yards away with a chance to tie the game or send it into overtime and I like our chances with the way we had been playing, really, in the second half.
"It's unfortunate."
The game was probably lost well before the interception simply because the Bears couldn't stop the run or run it themselves.
Josh Jacobs rolled for 123 yards on 26 carries, making him the first back since Saquon Barkley last Dec. 2 to gain 100 yards against the Bears defense. He had two touchdown runs.
The Raiders were able to roll up 34:43 in possession time to just 25:17 for the Bears, the opposite of last week's Bears win over Minnesota.
"We just got leaky," Bears linebacker Danny Trevathan said. "I wouldn't say we started slow, we just didn't play the game we wanted. They came out and ran the ball pretty well, they got up to the second level. Their running back is pretty good. We just didn't have an answer at first. A couple guys went down.
"We could just sit here and make excuses but they just came out and bled us."
It was the same on the other side.
"In this game, you know, it usually starts up front and we know that," coach Matt Nagy said. "We preach it, talked it. We understand that. We just, throughout the game, we weren't very successful offensively with running the football.
"We need to figure out why."
David Montgomery had 11 carries for 25 yards and a 1-yard touchdown, and as a team the Bears ran for just 42 yards on 17 attempts. All their offense came out of Daniel's arm and Allen Robinson's receiving ability.
Robinson made TD catches for 4 and 16 yards in the third-quarter combeback, and Daniel completed 22 of 30 for 231 yards with two interceptions.
Still, the Bears had the lead after Robinson's 16-yard TD catch and seemed destined to get the ball back with 5 1/2 minutes remaining after an incomplete third-down pass.
Then Kevin Pierre-Louis was called for running into the kicker and Oakland used the fourth-and-one situation to pick up the first down on a fake punt. Then they went on to Jacobs' 2-yard go-ahead TD plunge to end the 97-yard drive.
When it ended, Nagy wanted nothing to do with the thought the Bears' slow start should be blamed on coming over to London late in the week instead of early like the Raiders. They were sluggish, though.
"It had nothing to do when we came here and when we didn't," Nagy said. "It's about playing football."
They definitely didn't do enough of that on Sunday.
Twitter@BearsOnMaven
