5 adjustments the Chicago Bears need to make right now
By Todd Welter
It was supposed to be the dawn of a new era for the Chicago Bears in their rivalry with the Green Bay Packers.
Instead, it was more of the same when these two foes matched up as the Packers put a 38-20 beat down on the Bears at Soldier Field.
Aaron Rodgers is finally gone, but Jordan Love appears to have taken over the ownership of Chicago that Rodgers left behind.
Green Bay is now 49-15 over the Bears since 1992. The Chicago Bears have beaten the Packers just five times since 2008 and are in the middle of a nine-game losing streak to their rival.
The Bears’ regular-season losing streak is now at 11 with no end in sight as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Kansas City Chiefs are the next two matchups.
Head coach Matt Eberflus and his staff need to go back to the drawing board to come up with solutions to get the team’s first victory since last October. However, it will be hard to trust this coaching staff after the team looked unprepared on Sunday.
The staff could make a few simple adjustments that could improve the team’s chances.
Get D.J. Moore the ball more.
General manager Ryan Poles traded the No. 1 overall pick to the Carolina Panthers for a boatload of draft picks and D.J. Moore. Moore is supposed to be the top receiving target Justin Fields has lacked during his first two seasons.
Two targets were all Moore got against Green Bay. Jaire Alexanders is an excellent cornerback, but Moore torched him and Green Bay’s secondary for 131 yards in their last matchup in 2020 when Moore was with the Panthers. However, Eberflus is going to give credit to the Packers’ defense (and sort of blame Justin Fields).
Matt Eberflus on @ESPNChicago this morning was asked by @thekapman about the rationale behind DJ Moore's lack of targets.
— Courtney Cronin (@CourtneyRCronin) September 11, 2023
Eberflus: "I think some of it was what Green Bay did. They took him away with rolling up coverage to him some, doing some different things defensively. But…
Two catches for 25 yards is not the production you should get out of your No. 1 wide receiver. Moore got the ball in those two instances and it provided a spark.
Moore disappeared after that.
Part of that is the offensive line–we will get to that unit later–did not provide Fields much time in the pocket. A lot of that was the conservative playcalling (we will cover that in a moment). Fields attempted just four passes over 10 yards and 14 screen passes.
It is coaching malpractice to not call more plays that target Moore. Although, maybe Fields missed seeing him open.
.@BradBiggs: “You look at the tape, and DJ Moore is open. There are opportunities to get him the ball. The idea that Moore wasn’t the first read on a whole bunch of plays that didn’t go to him is poppycock.”
— 670 The Score (@670TheScore) September 12, 2023
Listen to full interview with @mullyhaugh: https://t.co/5UYbFOtfun pic.twitter.com/5N3EPB3upt
D.J. is a playmaking machine. It was the reason he was brought to Chicago.
DJ Moore got compared to Stefon Diggs and AJ Brown going into their new offenses all offseason long. Here were their opening games:
— Brendan Sugrue (@BrendanSugrue) September 11, 2023
Diggs (2020) - 8 catches on 9 tgts for 86 yds
Brown (2022) - 10 catches on 13 tgts for 155 yds
Moore (2023) - 2 catches on 2 tgts for 25 yds
His strength is getting yards after the catch. Yet, during all those screens, Chase Claypool and Darnell Mooney nearly got the same number of targets. That cannot happen.
Either way, It is time to target Moore more (no pun intended).