Chicago Bears: Team’s sloppiness catches up to them

The Chicago Bears have been sloppy all season and it finally caught up to them.

A wise man once said, the Chicago Bears would need to clean up their penalties or they would come back to bite them against a tougher opponent.

Alright, it wasn’t a wise man — it was me. And it wasn’t a tougher opponent against whom it cost them. Rather, it was the lowly Oakland Raiders who had absolutely no business beating the Bears, and yet, here we are.

So how did we get here? Well, the defense getting man-handled at the line of scrimmage throughout the entire game didn’t help. Neither did Chase Daniel’s two interceptions (should have been three but for a bad call against the Raiders), the second of which put the nail in the coffin.

While we’re at it, the offensive line’s inability to create enough space for flatulence to pass through, let alone an NFL running back, did them no favors either.

But despite all of that, the Bears still could have (and should have) won this game by at least a touchdown, if it wasn’t for the undisciplined penalties.

And I’m not even putting the blame on the running into the kicker penalty. Granted, Kevin Pierre-Louis shouldn’t have been anywhere near the punter in that scenario, but he did seem to get pushed a bit. And it’s lazy to put all the blame on him just because it was the last penalty.

There was plenty of blame to go around. There were the countless holding, false start, and offsides penalties — two-thirds of which are more a result of a lack of discipline than anything.

Perhaps no penalty hurt worse than Anthony Miller’s taunting call after the Bears scored to go up 21-17. At that point, the Raiders looked lifeless and ready to pack it in. Miller’s penalty led to a long return since the Bears had to kick off from their own 20-yard line. While the Raiders didn’t score, they flipped field position and the Bears took over at their own 1-yard line following a fantastic forced fumble from Sherrick McManis.

It halted some of their momentum at a time when the Bears simply had all of it, but it was a microcosm of how undisciplined this squad has been. Look, I know it was just a player having fun after his team scored. I also think the league’s rules on that kind of stuff can be archaic, but at the end of the day, they’re the rules and players must know better.

I’d also like to say the penalties were uncharacteristic of this team — and maybe that is true compared to last year’s team — but not this one. Unfortunately, they’ve happened all too frequently this year. If the team doesn’t get the penalties under control, it’s going to cost them more than just Sunday’s game.