This weekend of football was a Kid Cudi song.
“I be high, but I be low … But that’s OK ’cause that’s the story of my life” — at least the story of my football weekend.
Let’s dig into some Bullets before I hit the road back to Chicago from Green Bay.
I had some thoughts on last night’s game. But even I don’t think I could’ve put it any better at the top than Kyle Brandt did this morning on Good Morning Football:
Sigh. There are going to be games like this in Year 1 post tear-down. Which, again, why does NBC insist on putting a team going through the wringer like this in front of a nationally televised audience?
It is maddening watching the same movie played out by different characters. Particularly in primetime games. If it is any consolation, there are just two such games left on the schedule — Week 6 is a Thursday Night Football affair against Washington and then a week later against New England on Monday Night Football. After that? Nine noon starts to close it out and a TBD in Week 18 that will surely be a nooner (assuming both (or either) the Bears and Vikings have nothing to play for in the regular-season finale).
What a difference a week makes:
Flawed? Yes. Very much so. Overmatched? Definitely. Error-prone? Well, that much I’m not sure. They could be. And they certainly were last night. But the Bears were being lauded at this time last week for playing heady and opportunistic football. This week? Not so much. I wonder if this is something that could pop up week-to-week. It would not surprise me if one of the league’s youngest teams is also streaky. Early season inconsistencies tend to be a staple of young, developing squads. So, I’ll give these Bears some extra rope for the time being. HOWEVA, the inconsistencies from Week 1 to Week 2 need to be ironed out by year’s end. If that isn’t the case, we’re going to take issue with it.
Every loss doesn’t have to be a referendum on how Ryan Poles’ first offseason went as a shot-calling GM. But there is no denying the collection of pass blockers and pass catchers were looking like it was made up of stop-gap, one-year players looking to prove themselves and holdovers from an underperforming offense of years past. This isn’t to say this group can’t play better. But the risk of this offense looking that clunky was always there when your major offseason additions were on the conservative side of things and leaned to the defensive end of the spectrum.
Money talks, right? The Bears are spending $20,132,737 more on their defense than their offense. If money talks, then that previous sentence speaks volumes.
And yet, they still were unable to unearth the type of 3-technique defensive tackle who wouldn’t allow Packers running backs to cook to the tune of 33 rushes, 193 yards, and a 5.85 average yards per carry.
Plus, if you’re going to invest heavily in the secondary on draft weekend, Kyler Gordon needs to play better. As one might expect, the Packers were picking on the rookie corner at every turn. The results were what you would expect. Don’t get me wrong. I realize Gordon has a ton on his plate with the Bears working him as a boundary corner and in the slot. But that’s not an excuse not to be better than what was shown last night. Ideally, Gordon treats this teachable moment as a first step into further development. Otherwise, that’s the pick that will make Bears fans scratch their heads.
Of all the things that went down last night, the one that was most in an affront to me is Gordon making Sammy Watkins look like the player I thought I was drafting in so many fantasy drafts in years gone by. Where was this when you were on my fantasy squad and being hyped as someone who was going to thrive catching passes from Patrick Mahomes!?
On the other side of the ledger, give credit where it is due: The Bears backs were on one last night. David Montgomery had the type of bounce back game that will quiet the buzz of replacing him as RB1 for the time being. Monty put up 122 yards on 15 carries (8.1 yards per rush) and Khalil Herbert chipped in with 4 rushes and 38 yards — something I hope we see more of as the year goes on. Seeing that tandem gash the Packers rush defense made it understandable as to why play-caller Luke Getsy let Justin Fields throw it just 11 times. It’s almost as if the Bears had a game-plan they were sticking to no matter what.
In theory, I like the idea of ground-and-pound to keep Aaron Rodgers on the sideline. And keeping the ball out of the air (mostly away from Jaire Alexander and Darnell Savage) isn’t the worst idea on its own. We would’ve drilled the previous regime for abandoning the run early, so I don’t want to plaster this one for sticking it out (even late). However, the Bears have to let Fields throw at some point. To me, this year isn’t about wins and losses at the end of the day. Instead, the main goal should be to figure out if Fields is THAT DUDE at QB. And that is going to be impossible to evaluate when there are games where he throws just 11 passes.
In a one-off isolation, I’m fine with the offensive game-plan being to take the air out of the ball and play keep-away from Rodgers. But this cannot be the plan of attack when they play teams like the Texans and Giants — who are Chicago’s next two opponents on the schedule.
Ugh. This is what I was hoping to avoid this season. Island games in which you hope to evaluate Fields against the cream of the crop in primetime, but can’t do so because of built-in excuses. A lack of playmakers on the outside. An offensive line with two second-year players and a rookie. A game-plan designed to protect the ball and keep Fields out of harm’s way against a pretty fearsome pass-rush. Blergh. But, again, I don’t want to make this a referendum on the offseason that was in Chicago. That’s water under the bridge.
This feels like a good time to allow ourselves to dream of an offseason in which the Bears own their own first-round pick *AND* project to have $107,762,319 in available salary cap space. Then again, this team has plenty of holes to fill. And they won’t all be addressed in one fell swoop. This is going to take hitting a few draft and free agent classes before it gets right.
Brett put the goal line play in great context:
In a world where the call is corrected, and the Bears are suddenly down by only a touchdown in the 4th quarter, maybe things proceed differently from there. You can’t question that the Packers’ goal line “stand” was energizing for them and deflating for the Bears.
Buuuuuut, it probably wouldn’t have changed the ultimate outcome of the game. There is still a pretty clear talent deficit among these two rosters, and also still a whole lot of developing to come – we hope – for this Bears offense. Maybe a botched goal line call some day down the road won’t be such a critical point of discussion.
Fields thought he scored (h/t Alyssa Barbieri/BearsWiret). He wasn’t alone:
Take that for data:
Eberflus defends the 4th-and-inches shotgun play (via NBCS Chicago’s Alex Shapiro), but I struggle to do so. Maybe the ride home to Chicago after finishing Bullets will change my mind. But if Eberflus truly believes that’s the Bears’ best play to score in that situation, then that says something about this offense. Perhaps that they didn’t score says something about how much improvement this offensive line needs.
In case you were curious: Lucas Patrick out-snapped Teven Jenkins 22-19, per Kevin Fishbain’s weekly snap count check. Tough to feel strongly about a snap number in a game where your offense ran just 41 total plays. But I’m not sure if this is what’s best for Jenkins’ development.
It doesn’t do much to make me feel better. But the math checks out enough to give me a silver lining around a dark cloud:
On the other hand, I don’t love this math:
*mutters obscenities under breath for 3 hours*
You should’ve seen the look on my face after I finished my drive to Lambeau and saw all the push notifications about that Bucs-Saints fight. And to think, this is only where the fun begins:
First-year Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel is cut from a different cloth:
We’re onto Houston. Soon enough…
NEWSLETTER
