The statement win of the 2018 season belonged to the defense. Holding the best offense in football to six points and picking off an All-Pro quarterback four times makes that a no brainer. However, there was another Chicago Bears hero who went unnoticed amidst the carnage. That just isn’t right. So it’s time to give him a shoutout.
What a game by James Daniels. Remember him? The rookie 2nd round pick became the Bears’ starting left guard midway through the season. A bold move considering he’s only 21-years old. A virtual child by NFL standards. He was having a pretty good year for the most part, but people didn’t expect that to last going into this game.
Why? He was facing the best defensive player in football. Aaron Donald was Defensive Player of the Year in 2017. He’s a dominant interior pass rusher who has humiliated some of the best guards and centers in the league. Now the Bears were appearing to feed a young rookie to him like a slab of meat to a hungry lion.
Turns out? Nope.
Subscribe to the BFR podcast and ride shotgun with Dave and Ficky as they break down Bears football like nobody else.
HowARD TimE pic.twitter.com/alhvYpUjxR
— Bears Barroom (@BearsBarroom) December 10, 2018
James Daniels is a Chicago Bears hero for stopping Donald
Keep this in mind. Donald had 16.5 sacks coming into the game. He had at least two sacks in five of the past six games. The guy was playing on another level. Then Daniels proceeded to shut him out. Not only did Donald fail to sack Mitch Trubisky, he only had two tackles on the night total. The guy was rendered almost irrelevant. Not only that, but he was even less of a factor in the running game.
Daniels pushed him out of the hole a number of times for both Jordan Howard and Tarik Cohen. The Bears piled up 194 yards rushing. Trubisky was only sacked once despite his off night. That was the best performance Daniels has had in his career to date and a surefire sign the team may have gotten somebody special at a discount price in the draft.
