The Chicago Bears played a snooze fest against the Carolina Panthers on Thursday Night Football in Week 10, where they barely beat them 16-13. With Justin Fields not fully healed yet, the Bears wisely sat him and Tyson Bagent started his fourth game.
Throughout the game, Bagent looked timid and was out of sync. The offense struggled against the lowly Panthers, who actually took the lead when ex-Bear Ihmir Smith-Marsette returned a punt for a touchdown to give them the lead. Of all the players in the game, who would have thought that the Bears were going to get burned by a former Bear player like Smith-Marsette?
Eventually, though, the Bears figured things out as D'Onta Foreman, ex-Panther took over in the second half and scored the only touchdown of the game in the third quarter. Despite the Bears' offense struggling the entire game, the defense led by newly acquired Montez Sweat, kept them in the game as Carolina was even worse offensively than the Bears.
So the Bears record is now 3-7 after almost embarrassing themselves nationally, where the attention was more on the 2024 draft order than the game itself. The Bears own the Panthers' first-round pick after the trade with them before the 2023 draft, which enabled the Panthers to move up to No.1 and draft QB Bryce Young. Their loss means the Bears have their first overall pick for now.
Justin Fields returned to practice and as expected was named the starter against the Detroit Lions this Sunday. With only 7 games left in the 2023 season, there should be a heightened sense of urgency about the future of this team with everyone playing for their jobs for next season starting with Justin Fields.
Here are my 4 Bears thoughts entering Week 11.