Chicago Bears Dismantled by New England Patriots: A Mostly Unbiased View
It can be hard being a fan of an NFL team. The rollercoaster ride from week to week can be exhausting. One week your team looks like they could take on anybody, but just a week later they could be taken apart by a team that you don’t think they should have any trouble defeating. It’s never as good or bad as it seems, and certain problems will persist throughout a season while others can be worked through. That’s why we here at BGO have decided to bring you “Bear and Balanced: A Mostly Unbiased View of your Chicago Bears”. I can find the silver lining to any cloud, but also find areas of concern in the most convincing victory. Each week I’ll try to bring you the facts from the game from an unbiased standpoint to help you, the fans, get a better feel for where the season is going.
I’m having a hard time this week. I know I’m supposed to find the silver lining in this situation, but the Bears are in a bad place right now. After being thoroughly dominated by the New England Patriots last weekend, it seems as though the Chicago Bears are doomed to NFL obscurity this year. Is the coaching staff to blame, or the players? It’s most likely a mixture of both, but it’s still frustrating given how little has changed since last season. Since there was so little positive to take away from that game and the Bears have a bye week coming up, I’ll be focusing more on the future than this week in particular. That having been said, there are still some positives to look at but I’m kind of grasping at straws.
The defense is continuing to improve. I know the stats don’t show it, but the Bears’ defense put up a decent fight this week. The New England Patriots are on fire right now, and I’d be willing to bet they make a few more defenses look silly before all is said and done. The Bears had no answer for Rob Gronkowski and that opened up some other things in the passing game, but missing their two best coverage linebackers likely didn’t help much. They also had a really nice goal line stand at the beginning of the second quarter where they would have turned the ball over on downs, had New England not committed a false start on the play.
Bye week adjustments could happen. Don’t be too quick to judge the Bears’ coaching staff until they’ve had time to adjust. Not every plan works, but Trestman and company should use this week off to fix the problems. If the Chicago Bears can come out of the bye and upset the Green Bay Packers in week 9, then everyone will be singing a different tune. If they can’t, however, it may be time to push the panic button and consider whether or not Marc Trestman is the right man for the job.