Chicago Bears: Lifeless and broken in demolishing loss to Green Bay

The Chicago Bears came to Lambeau Field riding a four-game losing streak, but despite Mitchell Trubisky starting at QB again, the Bears were blown out again.

The Chicago Bears were 5-1, they had just come off a nice win against the Carolina Panthers. Now it has been 42 days since that 23-16 victory. The Bears sit at 5-6, broken offensively. Yet it shocks nobody since they have been offensively putrid since the 2018 wild card game against the Eagles.

It is beyond time to admit it. This team is stuck in purgatory. The offense is putrid and it drains the joy of watching this defense out of the fans. The defense is stellar, but when the offense is this inept, this team has no chance of winning a playoff game or even making the playoffs.

Last night was no different, as the Bears got obliterated 41-25 by their hated rivals, the Green Bay Packers. Mitchell Trubisky looked solid for a few plays, but his final stat-line does not tell the full story. The offense showed up in the 4th quarter! Well if only the game was not over by that point.

Trubisky went 26/46, with 242 yards, three touchdowns, and two ugly interceptions. The first drive was quite pleasant, despite the drops by Cole Kmet and Allen Robinson at the goal line and in the endzone, respectively. But then the usual “Bears offense” came back.

Poor management in the pocket, terrible mechanics, and awful decisions. He continued to work around the pocket, continued to retreat, and continued to throw the ball too high and too far. The first interception was an overthrow into double-coverage, which apparently head coach Matt Nagy was not upset with. But then the second one, an underthrow into triple-coverage.

The receiver should have made a better play on the second interception, but regardless, there is no reason for a quarterback to force that ball. The same issues remained. The Bears were supposed to be jolted and fired up with Mitchell Trubisky coming back into the lineup, but they were not. The box score will show that the offense had great stats, but as usual, the stats sheet does not tell nearly the whole story with this team.

Now the defense had its struggles as well. Aaron Rodgers shredded them like paper as he has grown accustomed to doing in his 25 matchups with them. The defense gave up 34 of the 41 points scored by Green Bay, (one of the touchdowns was a fumble return). Despite rookie Jaylon Johnson‘s huge hit on Allen Lazard, the defense could not get any momentum. The broadcasters said it too, the defense “gave up.”

Nagy said he “disagreed with that” regarding Dungy’s comments about the defense giving up. Nagy has always been a coach who fights for his guys, which is respectable, but there is no way to understate the embarrassment that this game was.

This was an all-around joke of a performance by the team. Despite the defense’s poor showing, it is more excusable than the offense, not that either should be free of harsh criticism. The offense was supposed to get a spark by Mitchell Trubisky, and the only player who was a bright spot was David Montgomery, who ran for 103 yards on 11 carries, including a 57-yard run on his first carry.

Read that again. He ran for 57 yards on his first carry of the game, and only got 10 carries afterward. Sure the Bears were playing from behind, but the passing game was not effective. The running game was working, and Matt Nagy again shied away from it. What is the reason for this? It is mind-boggling that this team continues to shy away from the ground game, even when it works.

The blocking was actually pretty solid, compared to the rest of the season at least. The Packers only managed to get three sacks, and six QB hits. But once again, the Bears passing game failed to do anything until it was too late.

Matt Nagy’s team had two weeks to prepare, two weeks to get ready for their most familiar opponent. This lackluster performance begs the question, what on earth were they doing during those two weeks?

It also begs the question, what is going on in the minds of George and Virginia McCaskey? How angry must they be that they cannot seem to ever beat their hated rivals?

This goes back a long time. Since 1994, the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers have played 54 times, and the Bears have won 13 of those games. Before 1994, the Bears were 82-59-6 against the Packers. Now they are 100-95-6.

But back to the current mess of a season at hand, the Bears are sitting at 5-6, on their first five-game losing streak since 2017. They are now in third place in the division behind the Minnesota Vikings and Packers.

Matt Nagy said in his post-game press conference that he was not concerned about his job security. Fair, but he should be, this is a loss that the Bears were likely to take, but the way that it happened was inexcusable.

There is nothing left to say about this game besides this: new week, same ugly performance. Trubisky and the offense (besides Montgomery) were horrible, the defense looked lifeless, and the team gave up. This team making the playoffs would be not only a nightmare for their future, but ugly for the fans.

On the bright side, however, the Bears are finally done with their primetime games for the season. So it seems like there might not be anymore nationally televised embarrassments, for now at least.