Chicago Bears Haven’t Hit Rock Bottom Yet

After a frustrating 17-16 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday dropped them to 1-5, the  Chicago Bears haven’t hit rock bottom yet.

Fasten your seat belts, Chicago Bears fans.  If you think the Bears’ 17-16 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars that dropped them to 1-5 on the 2016 season is rock bottom, you’re in for a turbulent ride.

With a quick turnaround for a Thursday night game in Lambeau Field against the Packers followed by a Halloween Monday Night Football game against the undefeated Minnesota Vikings, the Bears have a pair of prime time games for the nation to watch them plummet to new lows.  It’s a very realistic possibility the Bears head to their Week 9 bye with a 1-7 record.

The Bears have dropped games in every way you can imagine, the latest blowing a 13-point lead to open to the fourth quarter against the AFC South’s worst team, the previously1-3 Jaguars.  The Bears led through most of the game while dominating time of possession, but too many drives have been capped off with field goal attempts – and I say attempts because, you know, Connor Barth – rather than touchdowns.

Chicago Bears franchise player, wide receiver Alshon Jeffery said it best after the game…

That about sums up the Chicago Bears offense regardless of who’s been playing quarterback.  It amuses me how everyone is ready to anoint Brian Hoyer as the savior of the Bears offense when he’s led them to exactly one win.  Who cares if he piles up yardage when he can’t punch it in?

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Pointing to injuries would be an easy out for the Bears, but look at the Minnesota Vikings.  They lost their starting quarterback Teddy Bridgewater toward the end of the preseason and then lost all-world starting running back Adrian Peterson just two weeks into the season, yet they’ve managed to start out 5-0 when they hit their bye this past week.  Injuries haven’t phased them in the least.

As you look beyond the bye week, the schedule seems to lighten up a bit, but don’t you think these teams have the Bears circled on their calendars as a chance to get right.

Nov. 13 at Bucs (2-3)

Nov. 20 at Giants (3-3)

Nov. 27 Titans (3-3)

Dec. 4 49ers (1-5)

Dec. 11 at Lions (3-3)

Dec. 18 Packers (3-2)

Dec. 24 Redskins (4-2)

Jan. 1 at Vikings (5-0)

Circle the dates against the Bucs on November 13th (coming off a bye) and the 49ers on December 4th as the Bears’ best chances for wins in the second half.  The games against the Titans, Lions and Giants are coin flips in my mind.  That puts the Bears at somewhere between three and five wins on the season by my count.

So much for the quick turnarounds by John Fox teams, eh?  He turned a 1-15 Carolina Panthers team he inherited into a Super Bowl team in two seasons.  He took the Denver Broncos to the Super Bowl in his second season, with a little help from a guy named Peyton of course.  It sure looks like Foxy won’t get that turnaround this season, but will he get another season to try to turn it around?

If they can only muster three wins, that would make them the worst Bears team since the 3-61982 Bears in a strike-shortened season.  If you look on the bright side, the 1983 NFL draft put the final puzzle pieces together for the Bears Super Bowl team just a couple years later.

The Bears managed just four wins a handful of times, the worst being a pair of 4-12 seasons in 1997 and 1998 that ended the Dave Wannstedt era and ushered in Dick Jauron in 1999.  Jauron stunned many experts with a 13-3 season just a couple years later with the 2001 Chicago Bears.

If you’re an optimist, maybe you get the Bears to five wins.  The last time they only reached the five win mark?  The 2014 Bears, who waved good bye to Marc Trestman and Phil Emery and ended that ill-fated and short-lived era.   At least you could say that that five win season ended well.

Any way you slice it, this Bears season hasn’t seen rock bottom yet.  But maybe this dark cloud will have a silver lining too?

BEAR DOWN!!!