CHICAGO, Ill. — Well, the Chicago Bears find themselves out of both the loser’s column and the basement of the NFC North with a 20-13 win against the Detroit Lions on Sunday afternoon. Much like most of their games this year, it wasn’t pretty but at this point, a win is a win.

The offense found their stride on a trio of drives in the middle part of Sunday’s game but as a whole, they are still struggling to find consistency and it almost cost them again in Week 10. The defense hasn’t been stellar but they are doing more than enough to keep this team in almost every game.

While the season still appears to be on life support (if not over already), this was enough of a win to keep them breathing for another week. Who stood out in Sunday’s game? Let’s find out.

Winners

QB Mitchell Trubisky

Despite what some may believe when it comes to the Bears’ quarterback situation, I give credit where credit is due. On Sunday, I believe Trubisky had his best game of the season.

No, his numbers weren’t great. He was (16-for-23) for 173 yards and three touchdowns and he still lacked consistency for a full four quarters. Even so, he led the team on three separate scoring drives and looked about as decisive as he has this year when he was making his throws. He was also hurt by a few drops.

Yes, he still lacks pocket aware and no, this isn’t the type of game that would make anyone re-think whether or not he *could* be the quarterback of the future but again, it was a step in the right direction. Again, it was also what I believe was his best game of the 2019 season.

ILB Nick Kwiatkoski

The bad news in this? It appears Danny Trevathan is going to be lost for the year. There’s been no official word but when your arm bends back the wrong direction like Trevathan’s did, it’s never a good sign.

On the plus side, Kwiatkoski continues to show up when called upon. In relief of Roquan Smith earlier in the year, he was excellent. On Sunday, he was excellent again.

After coming in the game, the fourth-year veteran totaled 10 tackles, a sack, a tackle for loss, a quarterback hit and an interception that really helped seal the deal for the Bears in the third quarter. With Trevathan’s injury, it may be Kwiatkoski the rest of the way and that doesn’t appear to be a bad thing at this point.

WR Allen Robinson

If there’s been one consistent presence on the Bears offense this year, it’s been the sixth-year receiver. Robinson didn’t do anything overly special on Sunday but he did finish with six catches for 86 yards, including a big-time 33-yard catch.

Robinson continues to be the most consistent playmaker the Bears have and one that has been a safety valve for Trubisky all year.

His presence as a whole in this offense has been vastly impressive and continues to be one of the only consistent bright spots and will be a valuable asset moving forward.

CB Buster Skrine

I don’t think anyone would debate that the defense simply hasn’t been the same for the majority of the 2019 season. From a sacks and takeaway standpoint, they simply don’t have the same dominant presence that they did from 2018.

With being said, Skrine has been a very pleasant surprise in the secondary. As most know, I wasn’t a big fan of the signing originally. I’ll gladly admit I was wrong because he’s been a consistently good player all year and showed up multiple times on Sunday.

Skrine finished the game with five tackles and a pass defended but for anyone who watched the game, we know how good his coverage was and how big of a contributor he was in the win. With Kyle Fuller somewhat struggling today, Skrine’s performance was not only much needed but even that much more impressive.

Losers

WR Taylor Gabriel

Simply put- Gabriel has simply not been the same player in 2019. I believe that part of it is frustration with this offense and he’s also not being used as much as most had expected. Even so, his drops continue to be an issue.

On Sunday, he dropped a perfect pass from Trubisky on third down that ended up leading to a field goal for the Lions. On the first drive of the game, he bobbled a somewhat high throw and wasn’t able to pick up the first down on a third and manageable.

Part of me feels for Gabriel. He hasn’t been used properly and his numbers have not been good. There was also plenty of smoke around the trade deadline that they were looking to deal him and other rumors saying that he wanted out.

Either way, he’s stuck in Chicago for another seven games and his performance has to be better.

Defensive Leadership

As mentioned in the “winners” section, the Bears’ defense took another big hit today with the loss of Trevathan. That now makes the total loss of defensive leaders to two, with Trevathan and Akiem Hicks.

The defense is still pretty damn good but as I talked about before, they aren’t the same unit. From a production standpoint, Kwiatkoski should fill in well but this is yet another high-level player that is a leader that will be sorely missed. This is simply something we didn’t see happen a lot to the Bears in 2018. These types of hits add up as the season goes on.

Offense

Up until the final drive of the first half, the Bears offense was struggling in a big way again. They had minimal first downs and simply put weren’t moving the ball at all. Things changed for a total of three drives and at one point, there was a thought that maybe, just maybe, the offense had finally figured things out. Turns out, those three drives were a temporary relief and was just enough to get the Bears a win.

The fact still remains that this is one of the worst offenses in the league. They aren’t running the ball well, they aren’t passing the ball well and frankly, there are too many penalties. That’s something this unit simply can’t afford to overcome. The play calling has also been horrendous for the most part.

With only seven games left, I don’t foresee a scenario where this offense magically gets things figured out. We are likely looking at big changes this off-season.