Bears winning streak snapped in ugly fashion in 20-12 loss to Saints

The Chicago Bears defense played well enough to win once again. But the rest of the team let them down in a 20-12 loss to the New Orleans Saints.

People thought I was crazy when I brought up concerns about the Chicago Bears offense after last weekend’s win over Carolina. Wait and see, right?

The Bears will start throwing and scoring when they play teams like the New Orleans Saints, right? They’ll just have to take the training wheels off Mitch Trubisky then, right?

Well, that didn’t really happen.

The Bears offense put together another lame performance against the Saints as Chicago fell 17-12.

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But they weren’t the only reason they lost this game. Jeff Rodgers is not going to happy when he watches this film of this game tomorrow. Then again, he might as well enjoy it while he can. He won’t be coaching here much longer.

I’m not convinced most of these coaches will, but you already knew that. Anyway, let’s get into the game.

Bears get sloppy in loss

The Chicago Bears showed they could win ugly for two straight weeks against Baltimore and Carolina. Now, they came up with an ugly loss. And unfortunately for fans, that’s been the rule rather than the exception.

The defense struggled at first, but with the game in the balance, they came up with the big plays we’ve come to expect.

Just when you thought the Bears were toast, Jonathan Bullard and Adrian Amos forced late fumbles from Mark Ingram to get the Bears the ball back.

The offense, though? Please.

Oh wait, you thought John Fox would change and let Dowell Loggains open things up more against the New Orleans Saints? And then you thought they were going to run the ball on 3rd and 4th-and-1 after Jordan Howard had 23 carries for 102 yards?

Run-run-pass, run-run-pass, conservative-conservative, and then, when running the football makes sense, it’s time to throw? Maybe this is just fan perspective here and hindsight’s 20-20, but goodness.

Trubisky’s interception stings, of course, and it looked ugly from the moment he threw it. But I’m not putting this loss all on his shoulders. I’ve seen enough to where I think it’s fair to question whether or not the Bears are putting him in a position to succeed.

Then again, we all knew that was a question when they started him in the first place. And at times, he’s been good enough, or at least played his part well enough not, to overcome some of that. He certainly wasn’t terrible today. But he still needs some work, and he also needs some help.

Plus, when the Bears actually got a great play from their offense, it repeatedly came to nothing. The Zach Miller touchdown catch-that-wasn’t proved that. Since I can’t find one that actually shows the process of the catch and not just his leg snapping, I’ll leave that out.

Also, the strategy of just being alright with field goals doesn’t help when the kicker can’t hit them. That’s something Connor Barth seemingly can’t do over 45 yards.

And the idea that this coaching staff should stick around because they coach players up really well doesn’t fly when you have guys lining up offsides on the other team’s field goal attempts and giving away first downs.

But sure, I’ll wait and see and hope they turn it around. I’ll wait and hope, like the rest of you, but I’m not holding my breath.

Stud of the Game: Tre McBride

The Bears didn’t play Dontrelle Inman today, but they certainly got contributions from someone in the receiving corps.

I had hoped to see McBride get some run since he showed some life against the Minnesota Vikings. But though he’s seen plenty of snaps since his call-up, he hasn’t done much with them.

Until today, anyway.

McBride’s speed helped punish the Saints for playing zone defense, which they must do whenever possible. And he had by far the best game of his career, putting up three catches for 92 yards.

Unfortunately, the Bears couldn’t get much from them.

His 45-yard catch ended up only leading to a field goal. His 25-yard catch later led to nothing. And he couldn’t connect with Trubisky on his game-sealing interception.

Still, the Bears finally did get something useful from their wideouts today. Let’s hope McBride can keep giving them plays like that for the rest of the year.

Next: Inman not special, but does help Bears offense

Thankfully, they get the Brett Hundley-led Green Bay Packers next week. That might cure their ills. I mean, it has to, right?