Mike Glennon and Mitch Trubisky threw touchdown passes, the defense came up with a stop on a game-deciding two-point conversion, and the Chicago Bears came away with a 24-23 preseason win against the Arizona Cardinals.
Trubisky didn’t check in until late in the third quarter, but made the most of his playing time. The No. 2 overall pick completed 6 of 8 passes for 60 yards with a touchdown, no interceptions, and a 135.4 rating. His 6-yard strike to Benny Cunningham gave the Bears a 24-14 lead with 1:55 left in the game. It looked like that touchdown pass iced the game, but the defense allowed two quick scoring drives that yielded nine points in the last 90 seconds of the game.
If you felt similar to how you did when the Bears coughed up a fourth-quarter lead in the preseason-opening loss against the Denver Broncos, you were not alone. But this time around, it was the Bears who did just enough to force Blaine Gabbert into an incomplete pass to an open receiver on the two-point attempt.
Glennon stumbled out of the gates once again, and his play was inconsistent in the first half. But Tarik Cohen and the Bears’ running backs carried the load until Glennon was able to get it going. Cohen gained 72 yards on nine carries in the first quarter as the Bears out-rushed the Cardinals 75-4 in the quarter. Glennon, who completed seven of his first eight passes before being intercepted by Tyrann Mathieu, bounced back to finish 13 of 18 for 89 yards with his first touchdown pass with the Bears, an interception (his second in as many games), and 78.2 rating.
Once again, the Bears’ first-team defense did a number on an opposing offense. Arizona engineered just one scoring drive in its first five possessions in the first half. The special teams contributed too, with Connor Barth nailing a 42-yard field goal that opened the scoring and Deonte Thompson ran back what might be the most exciting play of the year with a 109-yard touchdown on a missed 63-yard field goal attempt.