The Bears haven’t had many blowout victories this season, but they took advantage of their commanding lead against the Jaguars to play several backups in a 41-17 win.
They even rested quarterback Mitch Trubisky, giving Nick Foles his first action since getting injured/benched in mid-November. Foles played eight offensive snaps and threw incomplete on his only pass. He has now played 496 snaps to Trubisky’s 495.
Here are some other surprise appearances:
— On the offensive line, only center Sam Mustipher and right guard Alex Bars played the entire game. The Bears pulled left guard Cody Whitehair, left tackle Charles Leno and right tackle Germain Ifedi late to get some snaps for Rashaad Coward (six), Arlington Hambright (five) and Jason Spriggs (five).
— Punt returner DeAndre Carter played eight snaps at wide receiver.
— Undrafted rookie running back Artavis Pierce played five snaps, got two carries for 26 yards and scored his first touchdown
— Linebacker Josh Woods (10), linebacker Joel Iyiegbuniwe (10) and safety Sherrick McManis (nine) all played their season-high in defensive snaps.
Here are some other notes on playing time:
— At wide receiver, rookie Darnell Mooney led by playing 74% of the snaps. For the season, Allen Robinson has played 84% of the snaps, followed by Mooney at 74%, Anthony Miller at 55% and Javon Wims at 25%.
— Miller played 576 snaps (54%) as a rookie, 686 (64%) last season and is currently at 545 (55%) going into the season finale against the Packers.
— With the game clearly in the Bears’ control, they pulled back on Khalil Mack and played him a season-low 69% of the defensive snaps.
— Safety Eddie Jackson and linebacker Roquan Smith, both of whom typically play every snap or close to it, also had their lightest loads of the season. Jackson played 86% of the defensive snaps, and Smith was at 82%.
— No Bear has played 100% of the offensive or defensive snaps heading into Week 17. Here are the closest:
LT Charles Leno and RT Germain Ifedi, 99.5%
CB Kyle Fuller and S Eddie Jackson, 98.93%
S Tashaun Gipson, 98.54%
LB Roquan Smith, 98.34%
