I’ll have a few things posted here by lunchtime. Go Bears!
Wednesday Open Thread
I’ll have a few things posted here by lunchtime. Go Bears!
Oh yes, that'll do nicely pic.twitter.com/esZ9PCOeMX
— Robert Schmitz (@robertkschmitz) October 3, 2023
According to ESPN Analytics, the Chicago Bears had a 98.1% chance of winning Sunday afternoon’s game with 4:11 remaining in the 4th quarter. Despite these odds, Chicago bravely managed to wrestle defeat from the jaws of victory and ruin a record-setting day for their Quarterback.
After finally cracking 300 yards passing for the first time in his career, after throwing 4 touchdowns in the first 3 quarters, and just before he watched all of that effort turn to ruin before his eyes, Fields and the offense finished out their a banner day with a crippling 4-drive sequence that, when combined with Head Coach Matt Eberflus’ defense, ultimately doomed the team:
In the span of just 20 football minutes, the Broncos turned two touchdown drives & a single deep pass to Marvin Mims into a 24-point rally that brought them back from a 7-28 deficit. Soldier Field & the Chicago Bears were stunned.
Reportedly, Chicago’s young signal caller did not take this well. How could he?
Justin Fields looked stunned in the locker room. Still had his uniform on about 30 minutes after the end of the game. Most of his teammates were gone. Fields was sitting at his locker just staring off.
— Sean Hammond (@sean_hammond) October 1, 2023
Is this rock bottom? With the Bears’ current losing streak now extended to 14 games, it’s getting hard to tell. But with the Commanders on the horizon of a short week, there’s no time to mourn what might have been — Justin Fields, DJ Moore, and the rest of the offense will be needed against a Commanders team that’s consistently scoring points. And if there’s any hope of turning the season around, it’ll have to be on Thursday Night.
It’s hard to believe we’ve gotten to this point in only Week 4, but only one of the Broncos and Bears season will survive this weekend’s game.
The Bears and Broncos, both winless, will surely look at each other and see an opportunity to pick up their first win of the season. For Denver, this is a game Sean Payton needs to energize his locker room and kick-start a a season that need wins to justify massive offseason investment. For Chicago, this is a win that would end the longest losing streak in Bears history and keep the emotional bottom of the organization from falling out.
Of the 356 teams in NFL History that have started their season 0-3, only 6 teams have made the playoffs. Of the 103 teams to start 0-4 since 1990, only the 1992 Chargers battled back to a playoff berth. Statistically speaking, this game represents both organizations’ last hope at achieving their coaches goals.
Two seasons enter, one season will leave. It should make for a thrilling, high-stakes game.
But how will the game itself play out? Which matchups favor the Bears? What can Chicago do within their offensive and defensive game plans to take advantage of Denver’s vulnerabilities? Nick Whalen & I put together a hell of a game preview on today’s episode of Bear With Us — check it out and let me know what you think. Go Bears.
Your Turn: How are you feeling about this weekend’s game?
Before the season, I wondered how Matt Eberflus was going to change up his defensive game plans to account for his new personnel. After spending 3 top 70 draft picks & millions in FA, I assumed that surely the Bears weren’t planning on trotting out the same defensive game plan that had made them the NFL’s worst defense in 2022. There’s no way they’d do that… right?
As it turns out, that’s exactly what they did. In last night’s All-22 stream, I dove into many of the issues present within Eberflus’ scheme, detailing:
Check it out and let me know what you think!
Your Turn: How would you fix Matt Eberflus’ Cover 2 scheme?
The 2023 Bears season hasn’t started the way anyone wanted it to, especially on offense. At times, the play has been downright ugly.
But Chicago’s issues aren’t as simple as a Quarterback, an OC, an OL, or anything else — it’s an ‘everyone’ issue. And in today’s Dissecting a Drive, I take you through 11 great examples of exactly what is (and isn’t) going wrong across the board.
Check it out and let me know what you think!
Eventually, we may point back at September 24th, 2023 and see the day the Chicago Bears’ fortunes changed for the better.
On that day, the Houston Texans and Arizona Cardinals willed their way to surprise victories over better opponents while veteran quarterback Andy Dalton failed to push the Carolina Panthers over the Seattle Seahawks in a tight game on the road.
Thus, as the Chicago Bears fell to the Kansas City Chiefs, the Bears began to separate themselves in the most important football race that nobody wants to win — the race to the top of the 2024 NFL Draft, where Chicago would own the #1 & #4 overall picks if the season ended today.
For an organization in desperate need of talent at all positions (including quarterback), picks like these could be a godsend.
They could be the Bears’ ticket to a generational quarterback (Caleb Williams/Drake Maye) and a generational receiver (Marvin Harrison Jr.) or left tackle (Olumuyiwa Fashanu).
They could be the fuel behind a near-instantaneous Cincinnati-like turnaround, with Williams and his draft-classmate forming the bedrock of an offense that will define Chicago as they push to compete within a few years’ time.
It’s possible that eventually we may see things that way. But today is not that day.
Because what we saw yesterday was, in a word, unacceptable. And it has to change.
In a game where Chicago managed to fall behind 34-0 at halftime, three things became clear:
(1) The Chicago Bears have a Defensive Head Coach that currently leads one of the NFL’s worst defenses. Details are sloppy, there’s no plan in place to supplement poor pass-rushers, and through three 2023 games we’ve yet to see an opposing QB look bothered in the pocket. Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid only needed one set of adjustments to pick this scheme apart on Sunday and once their offense started rolling they never stopped.
Happy Birthday Ryan Poles, the Chicago Bears are on fire.
When Jeff recruited me to run DBB, I expected a 2023 NFL season with a single clear direction: up. The 2023 Bears weren’t a fully complete team on either side of the ball, but they seemed like a group that was disciplined, developing, and hungry to win 7-8 games against a relatively soft schedule.
Instead, somehow, every arrow within the franchise feels like it’s pointed straight down — and we’re not even through Week 3 yet.
On today’s episode of Bear With Us, Nick and I broke down everything from the impact of yesterday’s news to the matchups we’ll see this weekend. Throughout the show we discuss:
Check out the show and let me know what you think!
Today and tomorrow I’ll try to keep things light and positive — or, as positive as they’re going to be.
Andrew Billings was incredibly fun on Sunday:
New #Bears DT Andrew Billings has been sensational through 2 weeks. He stuffs the run, he rushes the passer, & he hustles like crazy.
The big man won 38.5% of his pass rush snaps snaps on Sunday — it's early, but Ryan Poles should think about an extension if he keeps this up. pic.twitter.com/AyD2aHHNvR
— Robert Schmitz (@robertkschmitz) September 19, 2023
Looking to get a similar reel (maybe video) done on Wright & Carter, hopefully I’ll have them posted later.
The short version: Fields struggled mightily on Sunday, though the Bears’ offensive line and offensive coordinator certainly made their fair share of mistakes. But we’ll talk more on that later this evening.
The slightly-less short version: Justin Fields is struggling to consistently get to his 3rd (sometimes 2nd) read without running into timing issues, and there’s no pair of plays where that was more evident than Fields’ 1st sack of the game, where he missed DJ Moore wide open on the play’s backside…
