Lovie Smith is on his method again to Chicago. In his first season as Houston Texans coach, Smith’s journey into city this weekend to face the Bears can be all enterprise, even when it comes on a stage at Soldier Discipline that produced an abundance of nice recollections over his 9 seasons. The Bears are 3-point favorites Sunday. But it surely’s removed from a gimme win as two bottom-tier groups work to seek out themselves on the ultimate weekend of September. Within the lead-up to the sport, listed here are a handful of eye-catching details and figures.
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The Bears’ all-time report versus the Texans, together with a blowout 36-7 victory within the final assembly in December 2020 at Soldier Discipline. Working again David Montgomery had an 80-yard landing run on the Bears’ first play from scrimmage because the offense rolled up 410 whole yards and cruised.
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Montgomery’s per-carry common Sunday within the Bears’ 27-10 loss to the Inexperienced Bay Packers. He amassed 122 yards on 15 rushes, the third highest whole of his profession. In his eight 100-yard speeding video games, Montgomery has averaged greater than 8 yards per rush thrice, together with two years in the past when he gashed the Texans for 113 yards on 11 carries for a ten.3-yard common.
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Bears speeding yards on their penultimate possession of Sunday’s loss, a 13-play drive that ended with Justin Fields’ run for no achieve on fourth-and-goal with 8 minutes, 7 seconds remaining. The Bears ran the ball 11 occasions on that drive. Combine in a false begin penalty and a 10-yard sack by Preston Smith, and the Bears’ march from their 10 yard line to the Packers 1 included greater than 100 yards on the bottom. One way or the other, they nonetheless wound up scoreless. Go determine.
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Lovie Smith’s profitable share over his 9 seasons as Bears coach. Smith had 5 profitable seasons and took the Bears to the playoffs thrice, together with the 2006 run to Tremendous Bowl XLI.
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Smith’s profitable share in his three head teaching stops because the Bears fired him. He’s 0-1-1 in his first season with the Texans. He went 17-39 over 5 seasons on the College of Illinois (2016-20). And he was 8-24 throughout a two-season stint with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2014-15). Smith’s solely postseason sport as a head coach because the Bears’ 2010 NFC championship sport loss was the 2019 Redbox Bowl, a 35-20 Illini loss to Cal.
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Takeaways by Smith’s Bears defenses throughout his 9 seasons in Chicago, a median of two.2 per sport. The Bears led the NFL in that class in 2006 and 2012, amassing 44 takeaways in every of these seasons. They completed within the high 10 in takeaways 5 different occasions as properly.
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Bears passing yards by means of two video games, final within the NFL. By a rustic mile. The Bears might double their passing yardage whole and nonetheless path the Thirty first-ranked New York Giants (318). The Bears are also final within the league in completions (15) and go makes an attempt (28). The San Francisco 49ers are second to final in these classes with 28 completions and 52 go makes an attempt.
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Dolphins passing yards within the fourth quarter of Sunday’s 42-38 comeback victory towards the Baltimore Ravens. Tua Tagavailoa accomplished 13 of 17 passes within the quarter and threw 4 landing passes, compiling extra passing yardage in a single quarter than the Bears have had in two video games.
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Receiving yards from Darnell Mooney this season, which ranks 264th within the NFL. Mooney, who had 1,055 receiving yards in 2021, has two catches this month. He made a 8-yard catch in Week 1 towards the 49ers and was stopped for a lack of 4 on his solely reception towards the Packers on Sunday.
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Mixed tackles made by Roquan Smith towards the Packers, matching Nick Morrow for the workforce lead. However solely three of Smith’s stops got here inside 4 yards of the road of scrimmage, an indicator of how leaky the protection was on an evening wherein it allowed 414 whole yards and 203 on the bottom.
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First-round picks on the Texans roster. That features rookie defensive again Derek Stingley Jr. and rookie offensive lineman Kenyon Inexperienced, who had been chosen third and fifteenth total in April. It additionally consists of defensive finish Jerry Hughes, who was chosen at No. 31 by the Indianapolis Colts in 2010. Hughes, 34, is in his thirteenth season and in Week 1 grew to become the third participant in workforce historical past to report not less than one sack, an interception and a pressured fumble in the identical sport.
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First-round picks on the Bears’ lively roster: quarterback Justin Fields, linebacker Roquan Smith, defensive finish Robert Quinn and offensive sort out Riley Reiff. (Receiver N’Keal Harry stays on injured reserve and offensive lineman Alex Leatherwood was placed on the non-football harm record two weeks in the past.)
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