‘It’s not good enough’: Bears overcome own errors to beat woeful Giants

The Bears found a team worse than themselves and treated it as such — eventually — in a 19-14 victory at Soldier Field.

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New York Giants v Chicago Bears

The Bears’ Leonard Floyd and Eddie Jackson tackle Saquon Barkley on Sunday.

Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images

Quarterback Mitch Trubisky threw for a season-high 278 yards, outside linebacker Khalil Mack got back on the stat sheet with a strip-sack and receiver Allen Robinson played perhaps his best game with the Bears. 

Still, by this time next month, all anyone will remember about the Bears’ 19-14 victory Sunday against the Giants at Soldier Field will be the mistakes.

In this disappointing season, that’s saying something.

‘‘We scored more points than them, but it’s not good enough,’’ Trubisky said. ‘‘We’ve got to be better in the red zone, we’ve got to be better on third down, we’ve got to be better on offense.

‘‘Today we found a way to score more points than them. We’ve got to watch it, get better and quit making mistakes.’’

The Bears are 5-6 heading into their Thanksgiving Day game in Detroit, but they are making preseason mistakes in Week 12.

On their second drive, the Bears thought they had a 29-yard touchdown pass to tight end Ben Braunecker, whose defender had fallen down. Trubisky hit him in the hands, setting up a surefire catch-and-run into the end zone, but Braunecker dropped the pass. Trubisky threw an interception in the end zone four plays later, the result of a miscommunication between him and Robinson.

In the second quarter, Trubisky had a seasonlong 60-yard pass to Robinson wiped out by an illegal-hands-to-the-face penalty against center Cody Whitehair. The Bears punted two plays later and gave up a touchdown on the Giants’ ensuing drive.

‘‘Coming out with the win, you’re proud of that,’’ coach Matt Nagy said. ‘‘But we want to make sure that — I think we all pride ourselves, I know I do — stuff doesn’t happen.’’

The Giants, who are 2-9 and haven’t won since Sept. 29, and Bears did what bad teams do. Both kickers started each half by booting the ball out of bounds, a penalty that gave the opponent the ball at the 40. The Giants’ Aldrick Rosas missed two field goals, and the Bears’ Eddy Pineiro missed an extra point. The Bears’ Pat O’Donnell punted a ball 13 yards. The Bears’ defense gave up a 23-yard touchdown pass with 4:17 left — on fourth-and-18 — when safety Eddie Jackson played the wrong coverage.

But nothing was as sloppy as the series of plays that set up Pineiro’s missed extra point. 

After trailing 7-3 at halftime, the Bears scored a touchdown on their first drive of the third quarter for the fifth consecutive game when Trubisky found Robinson for a 32-yard scoring pass. Pineiro made a field goal to end the next drive, giving the Bears a 13-7 lead. Mack’s strip-sack on the next play was recovered by defensive lineman Nick Williams, who ran it to the Giants’ 3.

Two running plays gained a total of one yard, setting up third-and-goal from the 2. With his players confused at the line of scrimmage, Nagy sprinted toward an official in case he needed to call a timeout before the play clock expired. Trubisky caught the shotgun snap, though, and ran a sweep right for a touchdown.

‘‘He made it just in time,’’ Nagy said.

Up 19-7, the Bears decided to go for two. Nagy was forced to take a timeout, he said, because of a ‘‘misalignment on the formation,’’ in which receiver Taylor Gabriel lined up at running back.

After the timeout, Gabriel split left, went in motion and caught a strike from Trubisky in the end zone. The play, however, came back because Robinson was whistled for offensive pass interference after setting a pick.

That forced the Bears to try a 43-yard extra point instead, but they were flagged for illegal substitution. The miscommunication, Nagy said, came because right tackle Bobby Massie had injured his ankle. The special-teams staff had replaced him, giving the Bears 11 players on the field, but some players thought they only had 10. Defensive lineman Brent Urban ran onto the field before the kick. That pushed the extra-point try back to 48 yards, and Pineiro missed it left.

And that’s how the Bears went from connecting on a two-point conversion pass to missing a 48-yard kick without a second of the game clock elapsing.

‘‘Of course, you want a pretty win, a clean game,’’ cornerback Prince Amukamara said. ‘‘But wins aren’t going to be pretty. They’re not always going to go how you want them to go. But it’s a win.’’

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