The Bears losing streak continues and has reached five now, the team now stands at a 3-7 record giving fans another disappointing season in the making. They gave this game away, they had a legit chance of beating a Lamar Jackson-less Baltimore team but the story keeps ending the same way over and over again, too little points to back up a defense that keeps them in the hunt but cant do it for a whole game which is expected, this team entered this season with more questions than answers at defense and promise at offense that would struggle with a weak OL. The OL got help and the rookie QB has taken steps forward but everything else just hasn't gotten better, one could argue it has gotten worse be it by injuries, planning and/or coaching. The changes have come too slow and too little as has been the help from new players on the team aside from a few like rookie Larry Borom saving the right side of Justin Fields and expectations are that Teven Jenkins can do the same, still there are WRs and CBs that could be tested right now to see what the team has in store for next season, but the waiting continues.
The offense this year has been a different type of frustrating, its a bit less disappointing and lot more heartbreaking, they manage to move the ball more than on previous seasons creating more scoring opportunities but they keep finding ways to to miss on them and not even getting FGs out of them, how do you manage to be better and still be a team that cant score? One way to see it is that the improvement overall has been so small that even that quantity is enough to perceive a difference on this teams performances, which in result is so sad to know how bad your team has been and still is. Against Baltimore the Bears on their first series got to FG range but were frozen in place because David Montgomery continues to refuse to stretch running plays outside, instead he continues to slide inside trying to split the defense like hes Moses or Mike Alstott, Montgomery is strong but come on! bounce it outside once in a while, so in comes Cairo Santos who decides to create his own streak by missing the FG and increasing his number to two, hope he isn't trying to break the record. Next visit to Ravens territory, they decided to leave the effective running attack aside and instead have Jason Peters wiff a block that gets Fields sacked and striped for a loss fumble. for the second half Fields gets injured and in comes Andy Dalton who did a great job AS A BACKUP, he should not I REPEAT! SHOULD NOT be replacing Fields if not because of injury. Dalton scored two TDs, one was because Darnell Mooney put the defense on skates on a bubble screen and the other was a HE SHOULD BE THERE toss to Marquise Goodwin on a zero blitz, he was not accurate enough and made Darnell Mooney look bad, my point being that he is not better than Fields but I am glad to have him as the Bears Backup, he is mobile and is QB smart enough to go in and give the team a winning chance, but he should not be considered the starting Bears QB ever again, do not give me this Chase Daniels, Brian Hoyer, Matt Barkley, Josh McCown, Caleb Haine BS again, Dalton is a reliable backup and nothing more. I was disappointed to see Khalil Herbert limited in this game, I demand to see a more balance load between him and Montgomery, they do not play the same but are equally tough and can disrupt a defenses playing scheme, for some reason the coaches forgot how to take advantage of Fields and lessened the PA and screen plays until Dalton hit the field for some reason. Getting the thanksgiving spirit early, I would like to thank Matt Nagy for showing me what a HC should not necessarily be and what really should be, which is someone that has his team and coaching staff ready for any moment that should happen in the game. Nagy is not a good HC, he might be a good play designer and leader of men but hasn't shown he can call plays which is not a necessary responsibility for the HC, what is necessary however is managing situational football, properly managing the clock and the timeouts, communicating with anticipation what to do if a first down is made or not made after a 3rd down attempt or if going for one or two points when scoring, these were misses this past weekend. So again, Matt Nagy has shown he is not a good HC and has shown little knowledge of evolving a football team.
Upside players at mid season: Justin Fields, Larry Borom, Khalil Herbert, Cole Kmet, James Daniels.
Downside players at mid season: Allen Robinson, Jimmy Graham, Cody Whitehair, Sam Mustipher.
The defense is still being asked to win games and this group is not solid enough to do it like in other past seasons, it has a massive weak link in Kindle Vildor as their CB2 who is just getting man handled by big receivers and burned by speedy ones, he was talked to being a potentially good NB and for some reason was the best option to plug at CB when Kyle Fuller was let go, the coaches are still waiting for him to click but I believe it has reached a point where it has to be called a failed project, be it because of lack of physical attributes or bad coaching, maybe both. Vildor cost the defense a much needed stop to win the game due to the continued lack of points on offense, for this reason I don't blame Sean Desai for these loses who is pushing his players to continue fighting and keep games close, his inexperience has taken a toll against good teams that have talented players and/or are better coached resulting in allowed 4th quarter comebacks by the opponent. This group needs the offense to respond and it hasn't done its part leaving the defense constantly against the wall. The loss of key players is just insult to injury but it gives young guys like Khyiris Tonga and Trevis Gipson chances to show their skills and grow. How I see it, the defense is what it is and probably wont get much better even if they sit Vildor for someone else, but they really should start trying it out immediately.
Upside players at mid season: Robert Quinn, Jaylon Johnson, Roquan Smith, Alec Ogletree.
Downside players at mid season: Kindle Vildor, Mario Edwards Jr., Danny Trevethan, Bilal Nichols.
With the rumors going around about Nagy getting fired after concluding the Detroit game, there are some that say its stupid to tell him beforehand he is no longer going to be employed, for me the problem is not the way it is supposedly handled by setting things straight instead of coming in bluntly, but the decision coming at a very bad moment for the team being on a short week, on this I agree. What I would presume happened was something in the lines of the team talked to Nagy and put the options on the table to finish preparing for the upcoming game and establish a transfer of power or for him to leave immediately, which the professional thing to do is to do your job and support your colleagues. For me, the most important thing to establish would be that even if the Bears won against the Lions, the result would have not mattered in the decision to let Nagy go making it clear that his performance in that game wouldn't impact in the decision and its about the evaluation of everything before this. If Nagy loses this game because he was more focused on his future dismissal than winning the game, that tells me more about Nagy's character more than the decision made by the team and if the Bears lose because of it so what? It would put an end to a disappointing season and himself so the team can move forward and evaluate the present state for next season. Now Nagy has been interviewed and has negated these rumors, after this it was said that he met with ownership and then proceeded to basically ignored everyone. This tells me that the rumor spread before Nagy could be told about the ownerships plans, that there was no intention of firing him prior to the end of the season or he was lying of not knowing anything. Either way this has gone from an organizational decision to a dramatic mess because rumors could not be controlled inside the organization, them being true or not does not matter, the damage is done and now the Bears are mixed in an internal scandal which doesn't make them look good.
The Bears have one lost game more than I expected which was the stolen game against the Steelers, so by my calculations they aren't going to reach the playoffs. Statistically they can still make it even if they still lose two more games not being the Vikings and this next one against the Lions but a lot would need to go their way and winning against the Vikings is not a given. If they manage to win the Vikings series, tomorrows Lions game, against the Giants and one of the Cardinals, Seahawks and Packers games, then there is a very slim chance that the Bears could give fans some ugly and stressful postseason hopes but first, and I cant believe I'm saying this, we need to wait the outcome of tomorrows thanksgiving game against the winless Lions and see if the Bears are capable of beating them with Dalton at the reigns, so hard to be thankful for football right now.
