Chicago Bears: 2019 felt way worse than their record showed

The Chicago Bears were as disappointing as they can be in 2019 but their record felt way worse than 8-8 so they have a lot of work to do.

The Chicago Bears had a loud offseason. A lot of people thought that the way 2018 went was a sign that some great moments were on the way. They had the league’s best defense and an offense that is growing every day. They made a few additions in the offseason that they believed were going to put them over the edge. It was pretty clear that from the first week of the season onward that they were not going to live up to the hype.

They ended up with a .500 8-8 record. That is a record that isn’t anywhere near the playoffs in the NFC North but it isn’t a putrid NFL record either. They were the middle of the pack team but it felt like their record made them look way better than they are. They had an impressive win over the Dallas Cowboys but they proved to be a pretender and they had two wins over the Minnesota Vikings who are going to the playoffs. Other than that, their wins were very underwhelming.

The team saw a serious regression in just about every fashion. Their defense was still really good at keeping the opposition from scoring but the turnover rate was way down. The biggest issue this season was the offense. Head coach Matt Nagy looked clueless out there at times calling plays while quarterback Mitchell Trubisky looked lost under center. Whatever could go wrong did for the Bears in 2019 and the playoffs are going to be missed as a result.

The thing that makes this annoying is that there is no clear favorite in the NFC playoffs. The Seattle Seahawks, San Francisco 49ers, Green Bay Packers, and New Orleans Saints are all good football teams nut none of them look like locks to be in the Super Bowl. It would be really fun to have the Bears in that mix but it just wasn’t meant to be. They don’t deserve it.

So the hope is that they don’t use their record being .500 as an excuse to not make any big changes this offseason. If they don’t, it will be more of the same from them in 2020. They need to make sure that whoever is under center next year is much better and the playcalling matches it. It feels like it should be a worse record but it is what it is. This is an important offseason for this team