Homefield Disadvantage, Wasted Swag, Letting Down Alumni, and Other Bears Bullets

It is a helpless feeling when that blinking black cursor sits on a blank page and all you can do is stare at it while hoping something transfers from your brain to your fingertips. And while I’ll come short of saying the Bears broke my brain, I doubt yesterday’s performance helped matters.

  • Good morning:
  • The Bears were an awful home team under John Fox, but turned it around under Matt Nagy last year, losing only once during the regular season at Soldier Field. But because the regression stick is knocking over everyone and everything within Chicago’s city limits, it’s only fitting that the Bears’ home record is taking a hit, too. During this most recent run of futility, three of the Bears’ four home losses this year have been by one score, while the other was a blowout. A scenario like this would usually push me to ask which feels worse between the blowouts and the close games, but the answer is they all suck equally.
  • That game didn’t need to end the way it did. And while the kicker should make a 41-yard field goal on what was a pretty decent day by October’s standards in Chicago, it should have never come down to a field goal. The Bears ran more plays (77-42), gained more yards (388-231), owned the time of possession edge (38:00-22:00), and committed fewer penalties (8-5). So what was the difference? Red-zone scoring offense. The Bears scored one touchdown in five trips. We’ll dig in deeper later, but I’m still not over the madness that was Chicago’s red-zone offense. In the end, the Chargers scored two touchdowns in their four red zone trips while the Bears scored just one in five trips. The Bears lost by one point when they should have won by many more than that.
  • The Bears also lost the turnover battle 2-1 because Mitch Trubisky threw a bad ball that turned into a bad interception. He also fumbled one play after missing a wide-open Taylor Gabriel who had beaten aging linebacker Thomas Davis for what would have been a touchdown.
  • Why yes, that *IS* the same Thomas Davis who said Trubisky “kind of has that Aaron Rodgers effect” while as a member of the Carolina Panthers in 2017. BLERGH.
  • Chargers Head Coach Anthony Lynn once had that thought, too:
  • Siiiiiigh. What happened to THAT guy?
  • Lotta great Deals of the Day at Amazon today, including Instant Pot, fancy watches, weights, toys, and more. #ad
  • Had the Bears squeezed out a win yesterday, this probably would have been our lead:
  • https://twitter.com/NFL/status/1188508929858232323

  • One week after the Bears were a team openly searching for an identity, Kyle Fuller’s interception of Philip Rivers served as a reminder of what the team was supposed to be. A defense-first squad with swag that sets up an offense that should generate touchdowns with short fields. And more important than that, they were a resilient team that played with swagger and confidence. I miss those guys a lot.
  • The other highlight for me was this:
  • https://www.instagram.com/p/B4IT43tlzKo/

  • The Bears could’ve done better for their alumni, but I love that the 2000’s Bears got their due. For many fans of a certain age, that era of players provided a first taste of winning football. Those guys deserved to see a better game on Sunday.
  • Of all the players in the video above, I’m happiest for Thomas Jones. The talented Bears back didn’t get an invite to the Bears 100 celebration last summer and never really got a chance to say goodbye when he was jettisoned to the Jets in a 2007 trade. Jones, who ran for 3,493 yards and 22 touchdowns in 45 games over three seasons with the team, deserved all of the love and then some.
  • More from Jones:
  • https://www.instagram.com/p/B4IQ23zhyWL/?igshid=1spbb8prp194g

  • At least other teams were having fun out there on Sunday:
  • Here’s a stat line that is going to annoy you: 24/36, 267 yards, 2 TD, 0 INT, 107.1 rating. That is what Matt Moore put up against the Packers on Sunday Night Football. And even though the Chiefs fell short and lost 31-24, Moore looked like a competent quarterback in Andy Reid’s system who could get the ball to playmakers without mucking it up for everyone else. Moore is a veteran NFL backup who hasn’t been a team’s primary starter since 2011, when he started 12 games for the Dolphins. And did I mention this is just his first year in Reid’s system? If not, I’m glad I did.
  • Remember when the Bears signed Marvin Hall in the offseason to be a back-of-the-depth chart receiver and special teams ace? Well, they did. And he didn’t make Chicago’s 53-man roster, so naturally, he’s doing nice things for the Lions:
  • This is now two consecutive years in which the Lions have picked up a piece from the Bears’ scrap heap and the player turned out to be useful. Last year, that player was Cre’von LeBlanc (who ultimately tortured the Bears in the Sunday wild-card game last January).
  • written by

    Luis C. Medina, who you can find on Twitter at lcm1986, has been covering the Chicago Bears at Bleacher Nation since 2017. Since then, he has written about 3 head coaches, 5 play-callers, and 11 starting quarterbacks. Previously, Luis wrote about the Cubs and MLB at BN (2015-16) and worked in the Chicago Tribune sports department (2011-16). He also co-hosted a Cubs postgame show, Outside the Ivy, in 2019.

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