Bears hold off Panthers 16-13 on Thursday Night Football: Score, recap, highlights and analysis (2024)

The Chicago Bears hung on to defeat the Carolina Panthers 16-13 on “Thursday Night Football”, picking up their third win of the season. Here’s what you need to know:

• Trailing by three late in the fourth quarter, the Panthers lined up for a potential game-tying 59-yard field goal attempt, but Eddy Pineiro’s kick was slightly short. It was the longest attempt of Pineiro's career.
• The Bears held Carolina to 213 total yards, the fewest allowed by Chicago and the fewest gained by the Panthers in any game this season.
• Bears running back D'Onta Foreman rushed for a game-high 80 yards and gave Chicago its first lead of the game on a 4-yard rushing touchdown in the third quarter.
• A week after committing five turnovers (three interceptions, two fumbles) in a loss to the Saints, Bears rookie QB Tyson Bagent completed 20-of-33 passes for 162 and no giveaways. Bagent is 2-0 as a starter when not committing a turnover this season (0-2 in games with a turnover).

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For a six-minute sequence in the third quarter Thursday night, the Chicago Bears did everything right.

Special teams made a play. The defense forced a three-and-out. The offense scored a touchdown.

You know the cliche.

“Beautiful,” cornerback Josh Blackwell said. “That’s just complementary football.”

The Bears didn’t do anything great in their 16-13 win over the Carolina Panthers. No one player had an exceptional game. But for those six minutes, they took control of the game and didn’t look back, and it started with Blackwell.

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For eight minutes in an interview room in the bowels of Soldier Field, Bryce Young kept repeating the same words and phrases, looking for an answer that has eluded the No. 1 pick throughout a trying rookie season.

Twelve times in eight minutes the Carolina Panthers’ quarterback used some variation of the word frustrated. He spoke for everyone in a frustrated franchise after another Thursday Night Football stinker in which the Panthers (1-8) showed the world they are the worst of the NFL’s worst.

When the team that has the first pick in the draft at quarterback loses to a team quarterbacked by an undrafted rookie from a Division II school in West Virginia, it’s time for some serious soul-searching — from the quarterback himself to the highest-ranking members of the front office and everyone in between.

“We can’t have performances like that. We’re better than that. We can’t put that on the field,” Young said. “It’s very frustrating. Ultimately, again, frustrating or not, it’s not going to help you next week. We’ve got to be able to use that and turn it into something and channel it and find a way.”

The Panthers’ offense put on a putrid display against a Chicago Bears’ defense that will remind no one of its 1985 predecessors. The Panthers managed just 212 total yards and 12 first downs — new lows in the Frank Reich era — in falling to the Bears 16-13.

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With 6:33 remaining in the third quarter Thursday night, it was time to put Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles on television. That’s what Amazon Prime Video’s telecast did following the commercial break after running back D’Onta Foreman’s touchdown run for the Bears.

Next to Poles was a graphic breaking down the trade he made with the Carolina Panthers involving the first pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, which the Panthers used on quarterback Bryce Young.

“A lot to talk about in terms of the trade,” play-by-play broadcaster Al Michaels said. “Ryan Poles with Chicago, they have a treasure trove. Look at this. I mean not since, I think Willie Sutton was robbing banks, did you see something like that.”

Michaels then went through some of the details of the trade.

“And there are pieces on this defense already that you like about where they are and where they’re heading,” analyst Kirk Herbstreit said. “You add on what they’re going to be able to do in next year’s draft — not just in the first round but really the first four or five rounds. They’ve got a lot of picks.”

After trading for defensive end Montez Sweat, the treasure trove isn’t as much as Herbstreit hinted at during the broadcast. The Bears have six picks in the first five rounds. It includes two in the first and two in the fourth. But his point still was made. The Bears and Poles are in a great position to build out their roster.

What Michaels and Herbstreit hit on at that moment in the third quarter seemed to be an important theme of Prime Video’s broadcast of the Bears’ 16-13 win against the Panthers on “Thursday Night Football.”

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• Defense. The Bears allowed a season-low 3.7 yards per play in Thursday’s win, their best in any game in two seasons under head coach Matt Eberflus. Chicago also did not allow a defensive touchdown for the first time in the past two seasons.
• Ball security. A week after committing five turnovers in the Bears’ loss to the Saints (three INT, two fumbles), rookie QB Tyson Bagent played a clean game in Thursday’s win over Carolina. Simple formula but the Bears are 3-0 this season in games in which they went turnover-free and 0-7 when they have committed a turnover (had multiple giveaways in all seven games).
• Thursday magic. The Bears improved to 2-0 on Thursday Night Football this season and 7-2 in Thursday games dating to 2018. Only the Bills (6-0), Browns (5-0) and Eagles (6-1) have a better record in Thursday games over that span.

Join Robert Mays and Nate Tice on The Athletic Football Show as they break down the Bears' win over the Panthers.

Check out the live stream here.

Here are my fantasy scoring takeaways from tonight’s Panthers-Bears game.

• D’Onta Foreman should be rostered in a lot more fantasy leagues. His roster rate in ESPN leagues is 43.8 percent largely due to Foreman not getting many fantasy points out of his carries, but it’s clear that the Bears are likely to use him in a platoon with Khalil Herbert and in the Chicago offense that should equal flex value that makes Foreman rosterable in nearly every league.
• DJ Moore just isn’t going to be much more than a low-end flex in this Bears passing offense, as his 10.9 PPR points tonight marks the fourth time in five games that he’s scored fewer than 11 PPR points.
• It may now be time to start sounding a bit of alarm on Adam Thielen, as he has scored only 18.1 PPR points over the past two weeks combined.
• Chuba Hubbard is now looking like a weekly sit candidate, as he has scored a single digit point total in five of the past seven games.
• Miles Sanders was already a drop candidate before this game and posting only two carries for minus five yards and 3.0 PPR points tonight, it’s clear the Panthers aren’t letting his salary determine his work volume.

Panthers kicker Eddy Pineiro‘s potential game-tying 59-yard field goal comes up short with 1:35 to play. Pineiro had never attempted that long of a field goal in his career.

Pineiro’s career long was 56 yards made earlier this season against the Vikings. It’s his only make on three career kicks of 55-plus yards.

Panthers RB Miles Sanders has two carries for -5 yards so far tonight. Sanders hasn’t finished a game with negative rushing yards since he was a sophom*ore backup to Saquan Barkley at Penn State in 2017 (1 carry for -3 yards vs. Pitt).

Sanders, who has rushed for 224 yards in eight games this season, signed a four-year, $25.4 million deal ($13 million guaranteed) with Carolina in the offseason.

Panthers kicker Eddy Pineiro cuts into the Bears’ lead with a 39-yard field goal.

Pineiro is a perfect 8-for-8 on kicks within 40 yards this season and he’s made at least one field goal (any distance) in eight of nine games in 2023.

The Bears lead the Panthers 16-10 heading into the fourth quarter.

This is Chicago’s eighth game in two seasons under Matt Eberflus that it has led a game through three quarters and the Bears went 3-4 in the previous seven such games. The .429 win percentage in games they led entering the fourth over the past two seasons ranks 31st in the NFL. Only the Texans have been worse (4-6-1, .409).

The Bears finally scored a touchdown in the third quarter, capitalizing on great field position and a couple strong, downhill runs from D’Onta Foreman, who was the found to find the end zone. This is one of those games where the Bears should be able to put Carolina away the way their defense is playing — or the way the Panthers’ offense is playing — but it’s only a six-point game and Carolina is near midfield to start the fourth quarter. If the Bears can make it a two-score game, that would probably do it. But this would be ugly if they can’t get a win over an inferior team. Those opportunities don't come often for the 2023 Bears.

With his fourth reception tonight, Panthers WR Adam Thielen became the fifth undrafted player in the common draft era (since 1967) to record at least 600 career receptions.

Most Career Receptions by Undrafted Player – Common Draft Era (Since 1967)

• Antonio Gates: 955 from 2003-18
• Wes Welker: 903 from 2004-15
• Rod Smith: 849 from 1995-2006
• Danny Amendola: 617 from 2009-21
• Adam Thielen: 600 from 2014-pres. <<

>> Including 4 tonight (edited)

Foreman went from deep bench candidate to lead back after Khalil Herbert was injured and it led to a bell cow workload, as Foreman was fifth in the league in rush attempts in Weeks 6-9 with 60.

He will rank as high or higher in that category after Week 10, as Foreman has 15 carries for 62 yards and a touchdown with 6:33 left in the third quarter.

Despite this strong workload, Foreman is still available in 56.2 percent of ESPN leagues, but with his 15.4 PPR points tonight, Foreman’s roster rate is certain to improve even if Herbert return in Week 11, as Chicago could turn this into a platoon setup.

It took 38:47 of game time but the Bears score the first offensive touchdown of the night on a 4-yard rush by D’Onta Foreman.

It’s Foreman’s third rushing score of the season and fourth overall. All three of Foreman’s previous touchdowns this season came in Chicago’s Week 7 win over the Raiders (two rush, one receiving).

The Bears opened this game as a 3.5-point favorite and are still the favorite despite being on the wrong side of a 10-9 halftime score, as Chicago is listed at -1 points in live in-game betting a BetMGM.

• Not much. The Bears and Panthers combined for three field goals, three punts and 131 total yards in the second quarter, 55 of which came on Chicago’s half-ending drive.
• Cairo Santos made his third field goal of the game to close out the first half and bring Chicago within one point at 10-9. It’s Santos’ fifth career game with at least three made field goals in the first.

It hasn’t been high scoring from a fantasy perspective for either team tonight.

Chicago has been on the better side of this ledger, as D.J. Moore tallied 9.0 PPR points D’Onta Foreman had a serviceable 6.1 PPR points and Cole Kmet weighed in with 5.5 PPR points that could pro-rate to a low-end TE1 point total over the course of a full game.

It doesn’t look nearly as good for the Panthers players, as Bryce Young had only 4.12 points, Adam Thielen followed his subpar Week 9 with only 3.8 PPR points, Chuba Hubbard tallied only 2.0 PPR points, and Miles Sanders was shut out.