Which Chicago Bears laid duds vs. the Seahawks?

Chicago Bears Week 16 Dud No. 3: Offensive Line

The offensive line has been one of the most up and down groups on this team this year. One week they will absolutely kill it in run blocking, and another week they will get mightily outplayed. This week they got outplayed on both ends of the job as the Bears were not able to run the ball well and Foles did not have the protection he would like.

Teven Jenkins went down early with an injury, which made Larry Borom enter the game at left tackle. It was an interesting decision to not start Borom, as Nagy went in favor of Germain Ifedi at right tackle instead. Borom ended up playing most of the game anyway, but Ifedi was struggling all night. If Jenkins is back next week, it would be smart to have him and Borom as the tackles not only because they are rookies and need the reps, but because Borom is probably better than Ifedi already.

Another thing that the Bears have struggled with is penalties. They have been one of the most penalized teams this year, and a lot of that has gone on the offensive line. Obviously with some rookies starting that will be an issue, but it has carried over to some of the veterans too. A well-coached team would have solved this problem a while ago and we would have seen the team become more disciplined over the year, but the Bears are not a well-coached team.

This offensive line obviously needs work in the offseason. Depth will be needed at tackle as well as possibly looking a different direction at center because Sam Mustipher has not been great this season. He has not played poorly, but his lack of size has caused some problems when facing good interior linemen.

The Bears are winding down to the end of an unsuccessful season. While a win like this feels good, there were some poor efforts by both sides of the trenches that need to be fixed going forward. The defensive line needs to step up after one of the worst efforts of the season and the offensive line needs to find some consistency.