5 Chicago Bears takeaways from the Week 8 loss vs. the Chargers

The Chicago Bears were improving on defense before Sunday Night Football happened.

2. Olé! Who knew the Chicago Bears defense signed matadors?

In a turn of events that I should’ve seen coming, the Chicago Bears defense reverted right back to their bottom-of-the-barrel status on Sunday Night Football.

After the last few weeks provided a glimmer of hope that this defense was taking strides, the Bears did what they do best: stomp that hope out.

As soon as the Chicago Bears faced a team with elite talent at skill positions, they crumbled. Justin Herbert torched us and made us look foolish for believing we had a chance of stopping him with a near-perfect first half that essentially put the game into cruise control for the Chargers.

It didn’t matter that Herbert and the Chargers had struggled mightily this season. It didn’t matter that Matt Eberflus was calling plays. It didn’t matter that Austin Ekeler hadn’t been Austin Ekeler for weeks.

The latter proved that on the first Chargers possession when he caught a screen pass, easily dodged a brutal tackle attempt by T.J. Edwards, and sprinted to the end zone as Bears fans groaned worldwide.

Edwards did rebound to make some nice plays the rest of the evening, but his teammates were more than willing to put on a missed tackle clinic with him. If you can stomach to relive it, the clip below is a perfect example.

Yes, that’s Quentin Johnston dismissing three Bears defenders in quick succession as if they were college football players. Maybe that’s what our defenders mostly are since Johnston hasn’t had success like last night since he played for TCU.

Sure, Johnston was a first-round pick, but he has been unable to get anything going this season… until he played the Chicago Bears. Color me skeptical of a coincidence.

Meanwhile, did anyone call the police to report a missing person? Because Yannick Ngakoue has completely disappeared. At least now, he has something in common with the rest of our pass rush.

To make matters worse, Tremaine Edmunds left the game with an injury that was initially feared to be season-ending. Luckily for the Bears, it’s not, but he will miss several weeks at the least.

At least the run defense is really good, for whatever that’s worth. Thank you, Andrew Billings.

3.  Can we trade Velus Jones Jr. to the XFL?

I’m disgusted that I’m writing about Velus Jones.

He should not be here. I don’t care where he was drafted. Accountability on this team is a bad joke while he remains a Chicago Bear.

All I will do is recap the three bone-headed plays he made during this game. That may not seem like a lot, but it is when he barely sees the field in the first place.

Velus Jones Jr. began the game in typical Jones fashion by choosing to take a kickoff out of the endzone when he should not have. The result of the decision was a net loss compared to taking a touchback.

His second mistake was the most rage-inducing. In a rare appearance on offense, Velus Jones somehow found himself wide open streaking down the field.

Bagent launched it to him, and Jones promptly looked like a fish out of water as he clumsily tripped and fell to the ground in the endzone. Despite this, the ball landed squarely in his gut while lying down… and when he tried to squeeze it, it slipped right through his hands onto the ground.

His third strike came on a Chicago Bears punt where he ran into the punt returner who had called a fair catch, giving the Chargers great field position when they had a big lead already.

Velus Jones Jr. had the gall to comment that his dropped touchdown was partially a result of the underthrown ball by Tyson Bagent. He isn’t wrong that the ball was slightly underthrown, but the ball hit him right in the chest and he choked. It’s nobody’s fault but his own.

Jones being on the Chicago Bears roster as I type this is criminal. This man has to go. How can we preach accountability while he remains a Bear?