Chicago Bears vs. Green Bay Packers team grades: Bad all around

Offense

Offensive Line: F

The five sacks look pretty bad, but not all of them were entirely on the line. I’ll give them that.

Truthfully, I’m more irritated by their inability to open up running lanes against a rush defense that really isn’t that good, Mike Daniels aside.

And don’t get it twisted: their pass protection was subpar at best today. Trubisky took more than a few shots delivering from the pocket, and on a few plays, he had next to no chance to escape pressure. It clearly affected him as the game went on.

I really hope Kyle Long can play soon because I don’t think I can bear watching Hroniss Grasu try to block people any longer.

At this point, I think the Bears really need to draft a quality interior lineman next year. If they end up with a top-ten pick, perhaps they should consider Notre Dame’s Quenton Nelson.

Still, personnel aside, this unit will keep struggling if opposing defenses know exactly what they’re going to do all the time.

Running Backs: D-

I’ll give Jordan Howard this at least: he ran as hard as he could. He always does.

But that was about it; 54 yards on 15 carries won’t cut it for this miserable offense. Not that it’s really his fault, but the production is what it is.

Tarik Cohen barely touched the football in this one, with his highlight being a 10-yard catch and a few kick returns. He continues not to have a well-defined role on this team despite his electric abilities.

Then, Benny Cunningham, bless his soul, almost made a huge play for the Bears, taking a screen pass to the 1-yard line. Unfortunately for him, John Fox ruined everything and tried to challenge that Cunningham reached the pylon.

He didn’t, and, as the officials ruled, he fumbled the ball when hitting the pylon. As such, the officials ruled the play a touchback, and the Packers got the football.

Bears running backs don’t get to have nice things, apparently. Not that it’s all their fault.

Still, you have to work with what you’re given, and they didn’t manage much of anything today.

Wide Receivers/Tight Ends: B

Overall, this was a far better performance from the Chicago Bears’ pass catchers than arguably any we’ve seen this season.

As I mentioned a while back, Dontrelle Inman isn’t going to set records, but he’s an actual NFL wide receiver.

He had a late drop with the Bears making a last desperation drive, but other than that, he displayed good hands and even beat Packers corners in man coverage a few times en route to recording six catches for 88 yards.

Now, Kendall Wright (five catches, 46 yards) isn’t the only receiver that can. How refreshing.

And perhaps even more encouraging, Adam Shaheen did stuff today! He only had two catches, but the Bears clearly wanted to get him involved early. I expect we’ll see more of him in time with Zach Miller out for good.

Also, I’m not really sure why Josh Bellamy was playing so much, given that he can’t consistently catch the football. But I guess we should give him that long touchdown catch he had. He won his matchup and made the play. That’s all you can ask for, I suppose.

They still struggle to beat man coverage, ’tis true. But more than at any point this year, this unit actually did its job today. I’m not blaming this loss on them.

Quarterback: C-

I don’t believe Trubisky was as good as the stats suggested he was (21-of-35, 297 yards, 1 TD) or as bad as some of his in-game struggles suggested.

In the end, though, it seems clear that the situation he’s in is starting to tell on him.

Yes, he threw the ball more, but again, 20 of those pass attempts came in about four minutes of game time at the end of the first half and in the Bears’ last two drives. At that point, you have no choice, and the defense knows it’s coming.

The rest of the time, the Packers just took away the run and then brought the house on passing downs. As usual, it worked pretty effectively. The offensive line couldn’t protect Trubisky at first, and then he started playing with an unusual hesitance in the face of pressure, at one point just refusing to throw a wide-open route in the flat on a roll to the left.

However, he still continues to show his obvious talent, including an improved feel for deep balls. You can’t do it much better than this.

When he’s protected and playing decisively, he’s got every earmark of a really good quarterback. For now, though, let’s remember that he’s still just a rookie on a bad team.

I’ve said it before: we won’t see what he really is until this team gets a new head coach. For his sake, I hope that comes soon.