Chicago Bears: 3 surprises coming out of Bengals game

You’re tearin’ up my heart

Alright, so I’m not sure what’s worse — the Bears first team offense last night or my lame N’Sync reference. Ok, it’s definitely my reference, as the Bears offense wasn’t awful. However, it was pretty disappointing. It was certainly a surprise how out of sorts they looked at times.

Now I’m certainly not one to overreact to a meaningless preseason game where the starters barely break a sweat. Yet, there were some very discouraging signs in the first two series, regardless of what point in the season the team is in.

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For the last few days of camp, the word has been how sharp and crisp the offense — especially Trubisky — has looked. It appeared he was starting to get very comfortable with the offense. Still, in my earlier piece, I cautioned that we still wanted to see him get the play, get to the line of scrimmage cleanly, and snap the football.

However, on their very first drive — which included a holding penalty and a sack — they had to call a timeout to avoid a delay of game penalty. Again, it’s their first live game action, and while expectations were low, eight clean plays shouldn’t be too much to ask for.

Another discouraging sign was that Cody Whitehair still seems incapable of going a game without an errant snap. On a third down and long deep in their own territory, Whitehair’s snap was high. While Trubisky was able to recover, he had to climb the ladder for it, throwing off the timing of the whole play.

The good news is there is still plenty of time to get these issues under control, so there’s no need to panic. But, it was surprising to see the offense incapable of executing the basics, even if it is early.