The Chicago Bears lost to their division rivals, the Green Bay Packers, 41-25 on Sunday Night Football. The game was even more of a blowout than it appears on paper, as 15 of the Bears 25 points were scored in garbage time. Here are three Bears takeaways from the Week 12 loss.
Prior to the game against the Packers, Bears fans and media were calling for general manager Ryan Pace and head coach Matt Nagy to be fired. The poor performance of late, especially on offense, is a major source of dissatisfaction. After losing to the rival Packers in such a fashion, people are even more angry.
The McCaskey family, owners of the Bears, have yet to make adjustments within the organization. This could change soon.
After Chicago lost to the Tennessee Titans in Week 9, a source reported that Bears Chairman George McCaskey was “frustrated” with the team’s results.
This goes all the way back to a Bears media conference with McCaskey at the start of the year. During this interview, McCaskey said “The goal every year is to win the Super Bowl…. So we need to find out which team that is.” The Bears Chairman seems dedicated to win, and him saying that they “need to find out which team” will overcome Chicago’s challenges seems like he might be willing to shake things up.
George McCaskey’s lofty expectations of winning the Super Bowl have been crushed by Pace’s decisions and Nagy’s coaching. McCaskey’s frustration, desire to win and an embarrassing loss to their rivals means Pace and Nagy are on thin ice.
The Bears’ offense was much better in the 2018 season when they went 12-4. That is because they were able to establish a successful running game. They had the 11th most rushing yards and the seventh most rushing attempts. This caused the opponent to expect the run and get fooled on play action passes.
However, in the past two years Chicago has been unable and frequently unwilling to run the football. It is no coincidence that their offense has struggled.
It is true that their offensive line is not as good, and quarterback Mitch Trubisky has been disappointing. However, to be even semi-successful on offense, the Bears need to get running back David Montgomery involved.
(John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)
Montgomery has proven to be a strong runner, ranking third in the league with 18 broken tackles and eighth in rushing yards after contact. When involved, especially with strong blocking, he can make things happen. He proved this against the Packers with a 54 yard rush on the Bears first drive. In total, he ended with 11 carries for 103 yards and five receptions for 40 yards and a touchdown.
Montgomery’s statistics against the Packers prove that he is an above average running back that should get more touches. It is true that the Bears were down early and they felt the need to pass the ball, but the offense is clearly most successful when Montgomery is involved.
For a long time, Chicago’s defense has been holding the team up. While the offense struggles mightily, the defense keeps the Bears in most games. However, it was a completely different story against the Packers. The defense was lazy and demoralized, and it showed.
The defense gave up 34 points and only forced two punts. They not only never sacked Aaron Rodgers, but had 0 quarterback hits. For a defense that is supposed to be special and have a great pass rush, that is just depressing. Chicago also had 0 takeaways, one tackle for loss and only three pass deflections.
(Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)
Chicago’s supposed strong suit heading into the game was on conversions. However, they allowed the Packers to convert 6/11 3rd downs, 3/3 4th downs and gave up a touchdown every time they were in the red zone.
The Bears defense was just atrocious against the Packers. The Green Bay offense led by Aaron Rodgers completely embarrassed them. Bears players gave little effort, missed an absurd amount of tackles and let the Packers run all over them.
There is little explanation for the sad performance. However, with the way the Packers dominated them, it was clear that the Bears defense is very disheartened.
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