Chicago Bears: 3 Duds from the Week 7 loss to the Buccaneers

Chicago Bears Week 7 Loser No. 2: The Offensive Line

Another week, another tragic performance from the offensive line. I am about ready to title these weekly articles “Chicago Bears: 3 Losers besides the offensive line.” It really is frustrating watching Justin Fields run for his life on most plays, especially on third down.

Early in the year, we wanted to use the excuse that they were inexperienced together and going against a stout pass rush. Now, seven weeks in, the line just consistently cannot get the job done.

To be fair, the front office tried to improve the line. They drafted two tackles and signed some depth for the position. Unfortunately, none of those acquisitions have panned out so far, and the offense is struggling because of it.

Week in and week out they produce well in the run game. In fact, the offensive line has helped the Bears to the top of the league in terms of yards per carry. That is great, but at what cost?

They cannot pass block at all, and even the cornerstones in Cody Whitehair and James Daniels have been off their game this year. Most of the blame is on the tackles, but what are we to expect with 39-year-old Jason Peters and Lachavious Simmons/Alex Bars as the starters there.

An offense is only as good as its offensive line allows them to be. The Bears must address this in the offseason or next season will have the same story. Obviously, the offensive success does not solely rely on how the line plays. Many teams with bad blocking find ways to game-plan around that weakness, but Matt Nagy and company have not figured out how to do that.

Nagy’s offense will only work if the quarterback has time to throw. This was an embarrassing effort from the offensive line in pass protection and it has been for pretty much the whole year now.