3 Chicago Bears Stats That Every Fan Must Know From Their Week 11 Loss

Catastrophe has once again come face to face with the Chicago Bears, who now sit at 4-6 thanks to a devastating one-point home loss to the Green Bay Packers. In a game that could have brought the team back to .500, the Bears again failed to execute at a high level with the game on the line and subsequently extended their post-bye week losing streak to four games.

After making a change at the offensive coordinator position earlier in the week, the current Bears regime is running out of people to point the metaphorical finger at, and Sunday served as another reminder that this team has a way of finding ways to lose games.

Still, the Bears showed strong signs of improvement despite the final score, turning in a nearly complete performance in all three phases of the game. Of course, it still did not go their way in the end, but to examine exactly how the Bears' first divisional game of the season went down, it is important to understand these three important statistics:

179

In their first game under interim offensive coordinator Thomas Brown, the Bears offense looked more alive than ever, ending the contest with an impressive 179 rushing yards, their second-highest total of the year.

Led by D'Andre Swift and Roschon Johnson, who combined for 104 yards and two touchdowns on 24 carries, the Bears' rushing attack did a great job of controlling Sunday's game, leading to an overpowering 36 minutes and 21 seconds of ball control. While Brown, a former running back himself, was expected to lean on the team's powerful backfield duo, the emergence of Caleb Williams as a rushing threat was a pleasant surprise from Sunday's loss.

Finishing with 70 yards on nine attempts, Williams was lethal and creative with his legs against Green Bay. Picking up three third-down conversions on the ground, the rookie was a real threat on outside rushes, and perfectly complemented Swift and Johnson, who are more dangerous in between the tackles. As long as they can protect Williams for the long haul, continuing to infuse him into the rushing attack will not only pick up yards on the field but could even help the young QB find some rhythm outside of the passing game.

150

Defensively, the Bears returned to elite form against Green Bay, outside of their coverage of wide receiver Christian Watson, who burned the secondary for 150 yards.

The most receiving yards the Bears have allowed to a single player this season, Watson's 150-yard outburst is made more alarming by how the receiver reached this total. Watson hauled in just four receptions against the Bears, two of which went for over 45 yards. Even worse, both of these plays came in the fourth quarter, with the latter ultimately setting up the Packers' go-ahead touchdown on their final drive.

Without Watson's big play ability, the Packers had a rough go against the Bears' defense, which remains a stout unit at home. Watson's 108 fourth-quarter yards accounted for 29.5% of the Packers' total offense, and runningback Josh Jacobs was the only other Packers player to finish with 25 or more all-purpose yards. Still, preventing these momentum-swinging plays has been a struggle for this unit, and Sunday was clearly no exception. For the remainder of the schedule, the Bears will face an explosive offense weekly, and they must do a better job of preventing the home run plays down the field.

46

After 59 minutes and 57 seconds of game-time, the 207th regular season installment of the Bears-Packers rivalry came down to a 46-yard field goal attempt coming off the foot of Cairo Santos.

Getting the ball back down one point with just under three minutes to play, the Bears' offense started their drive by allowing their second and third sacks of the game. On third and nineteen, Williams and Rome Odunze connected to set up a fourth and three. There, the two connected for a 24-yard gain, which Williams followed up with a well-placed first-down pass to Keenan Allen. With just 30 seconds on the clock, Williams had brought the offense all the way down the Packers' 30-yard line, and the offense was on the roll.

However, the call came in to shut down the operation, drain the clock, and set up Santos for a 46-yard field goal attempt. Instead of continuing to push the ball down the field (or on the ground), Eberflus and company elected to put it all on the line. With the outcome well known, it seems foolish to not have attempted to set Santos up with something a little closer. In his current five-year stint with the Bears, Santos has never missed a kick of 40 yards or less and has been reliable in the clutch in general.

The entire end-of-game sequence is just the most recent example of poor situational awareness of an apparent fear of losing that overpowers a desire to win. Ironically, just a few hours later on Sunday Night Football, Los Angeles Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh elected to run the ball in a very similar situation, and running back J.K. Dobbins broke off for a game-winning 29-yard touchdown. Perhaps even more ironically, the Chargers coach also elected to call a timeout prior to the Cincinnati Bengals' Hail Mary attempt, which they successfully defended. Compared to his colleagues around the league, Eberflus and his staff are not only not putting their players in good positions to win, but they are almost actively setting them up to lose, and Sunday's final play was a textbook example.