Chicago Bears: What we learned from loss to Packers

Offense has a ways to go

When the offense first took the field and ran what was mostly likely a 15-play script, they looked fantastic, for the most part. The creativity was there. The ever-changing personnel was there. What I liked most about the offense to begin with was the usage of both Jordan Howard and Tarik Cohen on the field at the same time. This was something you never really saw from John Fox.

As time went on, though, and the offense went away from script, things became quite shaky. On 3rd-and-short situations, you saw Mitch Trubisky throw the ball to guys who weren’t even running routes past the first down markers — this happened on two occasions where it was 3rd-and-1. Dion Sims was the culprit both times, and Trubisky should have never even went his way.

Let me get this off my chest — get Sims off the field, period. Unless he’s blocking, get him off the field.

In those situations, you could have handed the ball off to a guy who would get you a yard easily. It’s Howard. It should always be Howard. There is no question, here.

Another part of the offense that struck me was the lack of involvement of tight end Trey Burton, who ended the night with one catch on six targets, for 15 yards. Most of the targets were either bad decisions or off-target passes. On one occasion, Trubisky missed Burton wide open in the end zone for a touchdown.

Burton needs to be involved for this offense to reach its potential, and one catch isn’t going to do it. Though he was targeted six times, he was not featured as he should have been.

Lastly, later in the game, Nagy got away from running the football. The Bears ended up punting on multiple occasions because the offense went away from running the ball. With a double-digit lead, there is absolutely no reason to continue to pass or try and get cute with the play calling. Run the football with your Pro Bowl running back and take hold of the game. It’s not difficult.

The Bears have a ways to go in multiple facets, but there were also some good things to come out of this game. It is a long season and this is a young football team led by a young, first-time head coach. Give it time, and I believe a lot of the negatives will be corrected. The Bears are a much-improved football team from a year ago, you can at least bank on that.