Chicago Bears Week 16: Takeaways
There isn’t much to say about the Bears 54-11 loss to the Eagles on Sunday night. They got whipped in all three phases of the game. The Bears had a chance to clinch the NFC North and came out flat and unprepared. It was embarrassing and painful to watch. On the bright side, it’s over and the Bears still have a chance to win the division with a win over the Packers on Sunday. Le’ts hope Sunday night’s loss was a wake up call.
Sorry for the delay in posting. Traveling for the holidays and airport WiFi screwed me again.
Jay Cutler: Guess there is still some rust. Cutler showed some flashes of competency, but his accuracy and decision-making were inconsistent all night. It didn’t help that he was under pressure all game.
O-Line: The line was coming off three solid games in a row and we’re playing their best football of the season until Sunday night’s disaster. The left side of the line actually played pretty well. Bushrod gave up 1 sack, but besides that the Bushrod / Slauson / Garza side only gave up 2 hurries the whole game. Unfortunately, the right side of the o-line was brutal. The rookies just didn’t show up Sunday. They gave up 7 QB hurries, got no push in the run game, and just looked over-matched.
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Matt Forte: The line wasn’t helped by Matt Forte having his worst pass-blocking game of his career. In my opinion, Forte has been solid in pass pro most of the season but he looked lost out there Sunday. Collinsworth was brutal in his assessment of Forte, but was accurate on Forte’s blown blocking assignments. Forte didn’t look like himself in the run game either. It was a strange performance from a guy who has been one of the ten best players in the NFL this year. He looked like a different guy Sunday night. Let’s hope it was a fluke and there isn’t some underlying issue we don’t know about be it injury or personal.
DTs: The D-line had been showing sings of improvement the last few weeks, but they were back to their embarrassing ways on Sunday night. This was as bad if not worse than the debacle against the Rams. The Bears gave up 100 yard games to two Eagles RBs, McCoy (133) & Brown (115), and at least some of that blame goes to the D-line. They missed 5 tackles combined and failed to put much if any pressure on Eagles QB Nick Foles. After reviewing the film, this one can’t be blamed on the DTs. Ratliff and Wooten actually played decent against the run. They clogged the middle on multiple occasions only to watch the Eagles RB bounce outside and evade the Bears DEs and LBs. The DT position has gotten plenty of blame this season, but they have actually played well the last 2 weeks.
Defensive Ends: Does Shea McClellin know what contain means? Does David Bass? It seemed like every run or QB scramble bounced outside with no Bears DE in sight. McClellin, Bass, and even Peppers on occasion either were stunting inside or pushed there by Eagle blockers. Maybe this was part of the Bears scheme, but if so it was a bad one. The DEs were only part of the problem, but were pretty worthless as the Bears first line of defense. McClellin did record a sack and two QB hits, but was a liability against the run as usual. David Bass was even worse with only 1 QB hurry on the day despite playing over half the defensive snaps and missed 3 tackles in the run game. Peppers got 2 hits on Foles but was a non-factor as well. Overall it was a terrible game for the Bears DEs.
Linebackers: Maybe Briggs should have sat out 1 more week. I understand there is a little rust after begin out for 7 games, but that was the worst I have ever seen Briggs play. He looked slow and was out of position on multiple plays. Briggs played 58 of the 65 snaps on defense and only managed 1 tackle on the day. Ugh. Jon Bostic made a couple of nice stops, but struggled to disengage from blocks for most of the game and the majority of his 7 tackles were after an Eagles RB had gained significant yards.
Chris Conte / Major Wright: Gross incompetence. Both safeties were consistently burned in pass coverage by wide receivers, tight ends, running backs, basically whoever the Eagles put out there. They combined for 17 total tackles, but they were all down-field after giving up big chunks of yardage. Whatever happens in the off-season, let’s hope neither of these guys is in the starting lineup or better yet a Bears uniform next year.
Devin Hester: His fumble was devastating, but Hester has looked more explosive the last few weeks than he did early in the season. It’s a reach, but just wanted to end on a positive note.
That’s all I got. I don’t want to ruin my Christmas vacation reliving this nightmare of a game. Happy Holidays! Go Bears!
Twitter: @MikeFlannery_