What we learned from the Chicago Bears loss to the Packers

Despite having two weeks to prepare for Brett Hundley, the Chicago Bears lost to the Packers 23-16. Let’s see what we learned from the game.

When you search the synonyms for “awful”, this is what appears: disgusting, appalling, horrific, horrendous, repulsive, ghastly and depressing. These are all terms that you can use to talk about the Chicago Bears losing to the Green Bay Packers by a score of 23-16.

The Chicago Bears went into the game as 5.5 point favorites at home. Of course, they were playing competitively and the Packers had been awful without Aaron Rodgers at quarterback. Then, you factor in that the Bears were coming off of a bye, and you have yourself a “must win” if you are John Fox and the Chicago Bears.

As the week progressed, my confidence in the Bears winning this game was beginning to waver. I was worried that they may be too overconfident. Then, you factor in that coming into the game, Fox was 0-5 as the Bears’ head coach when they were favored to win a game.

Unfortunately, these nightmarish thoughts came to fruition on Sunday at Soldier Field. It seemed like the team did not show up, at all. They looked lost on both sides of the ball, which is usually only the case on offense.

Now, let’s see what we learned from the Chicago Bears brutal loss to the Green Bay Packers.

Despite a bye week, nothing changed on offense

Run-run-pass. run-run-pass and run-run-pass is the endless cycle of ignorance by the Chicago Bears. They have to change up their style of offense, in order to see any type of improvement towards the end of the season.

Not only was the play-calling bad, but everybody on the offense made mistakes. The offensive line was inconsistent and they gave up five sacks, now some of that was Mitch Trubisky holding onto the ball for too long, but most of it was just bad protection.

Kyle Long was active, and he even played on the field-goal unit, but he did not play on the starting offensive line. Instead, Hronnis Grasu was at center, while Cody Whitehair shifted over to right guard.

Grasu is one of the worst centers I have ever seen. Let me sum up his performance in one tweet.

As far as running the ball, it is hard to put much blame on the line in regards to opening up running lanes. Jordan Howard had 15 carries for 54 yards, but it is hard to run the ball when you are facing stacked boxes. Packers’ linebacker Clay Matthews talked about how one dimensional the Bears are:

In the passing game, Trubisky had his best game of the year. He completed 21 of 35 passes for 297 yards and one beautiful touchdown, which was to Josh Bellamy.

Sure, he had some plays that were frustrating, but I thought the good plays outweighed the bad ones. There were some overthrows and plays where he holds onto the ball for too long, but he is a rookie quarterback.

Dontrelle Inman really helped the offense today. He had six catches for 88 yards.

For as good as he looked all game, he did drop a third down pass in the final minute of the 4th quarter that would have been a first down. Hopefully, we do not see much of that going forward, but he is clearly the best receiver on the team.

The defensive performance was not to standard

The Chicago Bears’ defense was not horrible, but they should have played a lot better. They gave up the big plays today that they have not given up the past few weeks. When they needed to make a stop in the fourth quarter, they failed.

I love the attitude that Pernell McPhee plays with, but he is so slow. He also broke containment by crashing towards the inside, which allowed Brett Hundley to escape the pocket for a first down. This eventually led to a touchdown reception by Davante Adams, which made it 23-13 in the 4th.

Speaking of that touchdown by Adams, the defender on the play was Kyle Fuller. I have been so happy for Fuller, because he has been playing so well. However, the game he played today was ugly.

https://twitter.com/NFL/status/929816551665975296

He dropped an interception, gave up a touchdown and he gave up a deep pass to Adams late in the fourth quarter, which could have sealed it (Mason Crosby missed the field goal).

Fuller has played extremely well up to this point, so hopefully today was just a small bump in the road.

This defense clearly missed the presence of linebacker Danny Trevathan. Nick Kwiatkoski and Christian Jones were not bad, but they are not the pro bowl level caliber of Trevathan. He was certainly missed on this 37-yard touchdown run by Ty Montgomery. By the way, Jordy Nelson should have been called for a hold on safety Eddie Jackson.

All in all, it was not the defense’s best day. However, they were good against the New Orleans Saints last week, and were at an elite level against the Carolina Panthers and Baltimore Ravens.

This is too large of a sample size for us to give up on this defense. Let’s see how they look next week against the Detroit Lions.

John Fox dug his own grave

I can not say enough about how brutal of a loss this is for John Fox. As I said earlier, you factor in that the Bears were coming off of a bye, and you have yourself a “must win” if you are John Fox and the Chicago Bears. His team had two weeks to prepare for Brett Hundley, for crying out loud. The Packers were playing on a short week!

Not to mention, the Chicago Bears were favorites against the Packers for the first time since 2008. Think about that.

Also, the way he makes Loggains call the games is just wrong. It would benefit Trubisky and the offense to throw more on first down. This was something they finally did towards the end of the game.

I recall Fox broadcaster Chris Spielman saying that if he were Dowell Loggains that he would be pleading with Fox to allow him to throw more on early downs. Now, Loggains has been bad too, but all of this stems from Fox.

The worst part of the game, was when running back Benny Cunningham was marked just short of a touchdown on a screen-pass. Fox thought it was just a dandy idea to challenge it, because he thought it was a touchdown. After review, it was deemed that Cunningham lost possession and the ball hit the pylon, which resulted in a touchback. Fox shot himself in the foot!

Not only that, but Fox’s team looked completely unprepared and undisciplined.

You can not win in the NFL, with performances like this. Under John Fox, the zero-accountability and lack of focus has become standard. The Chicago Bears are in dire need of a new head coach. Fortunately, Benjamin Allbright has heard that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

So, keep your heads up Bears fans. Change is on the horizon. Black Monday can not come soon enough.

Next: Chicago Bears Week 10 MVP: Mitchell Trubisky

I feel like this year’s Bears are the 2016 Los Angeles Rams, who had an older, washed up coach and a rookie quarterback. We have half a season left to watch Trubisky grow, and then we may finally get our Sean McVay!