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Mitchell Trubisky shows signs of life in ugly win over Giants

CHICAGO -- Beating the New York Giants at home isn't much of an accomplishment.

New York (2-9) arrived at Soldier Field with a suspect secondary, a rookie quarterback and a worse kicking situation than even that of the Chicago Bears.

Yet, the Giants actually led at halftime -- despite two missed field goals by Aldrick Rosas -- and possessed the ball with a chance to win near the end of regulation.

Luckily for the Bears, quarterback Mitchell Trubisky settled into a groove in the third quarter and Chicago held on for a much-needed 19-14 victory.

The Bears' (5-6) defense, as usual, did enough to win.

But it was still a comedy of errors at times on offense.

Tight end Ben Braunecker dropped a wide-open touchdown pass. Trubisky tossed an interception in the end zone. Center Cody Whitehair was called for illegal hands to the face that negated a 60-yard Allen Robinson reception. The offense botched a two-point conversion attempt that somehow culminated with Eddy Pineiro attempting a 48-yard PAT (Pineiro missed wide left, of course).

Add it up, and it was an ugly victory. But almost all of the Bears' wins this year have been ugly. That's who they are.

QB breakdown: Minus the red-zone pick -- Trubisky's third of the season, tied for second-most in the NFL, per ESPN Stat's & Information -- and another poorly-thrown fourth-quarter interception, Trubisky played OK. He connected with Robinson on a handful of intermediate to longer completions and finished with a season-high 278 yards passing. But most encouraging, Trubisky actually ran when flushed out of the pocket. Trubisky had four rushing attempts for 21 yards and a touchdown.

Eye-popping NextGen Stat: The Bears had 300 total yards of offense for just the second time this season. Entering Sunday, every other team in the NFL had at least three games of 300 total yards of offense this season.

Troubling trend: The Bears' offense gets off the bus ... doing absolutely nothing. Sunday marked the 10th opening offensive drive of the season for Chicago that failed to yield points. You have to rewind all the way to Week 4 against the Vikings -- when Chase Daniel replaced an injured Trubisky -- to find a Bears scoring drive at the beginning of a game. Chicago opened up against the Giants going, you guessed it, three-and-out. The Bears lead the league in three-and-outs.

Describe the game in two words: Cruel punishment. My deepest apologies to those diehard fans that stuck with it for all four quarters. Yes, the Bears won. Yes, the game was tough on the eyes. It was like the Bears jumped into a time machine back to the unwatchable John Fox era -- but worse. At least Fox could argue that the Bears had subpar talent during his wretched three years at the helm. The 2019 Bears have talent, especially on defense, but they are struggling to put away teams they should easily beat.