This Sunday the Chicago Bears forced three turnovers, Mitch Trubisky amassed over 400 total yards and came one yard away from forcing overtime against the class of the NFL, but overall, it was another disappointing game against an AFC East opponent.
Considering how terrible the defense looked, it was impressive how close the Bears came to forcing overtime against such a great team and fans can take solace in the effort to the end, but they shouldn’t.
The biggest issue is in the area we all felt most secure about: the defense.
The monsters that we fell in love with the first four weeks of the season have become a shadow of themselves as Khalil Mack being hindered with a hurt ankle appears to have impacted the other ten men on the field.
What would this team look like without Mack?
You’re seeing it.
There is no speed to the ball, the tackling is putrid and the pass rush is nonexistent. We know what this defense can do, but it seems like the team itself forgot.
This wasn’t all on the defense though, as the special teams were absolutely pathetic. A kick return and a blocked punt returned for a touchdown will deplete any momentum and that’s exactly what happened in Chicago Sunday.
Stopping Tom Brady is a tall enough task and giving the Patriots 14 points without him even having to step on the field is going to make that task nearly impossible. You can point the blame at Trubisky for his two bad turnovers, which easily could’ve been four, but just like in Miami, this loss isn’t on him.
For the Bears to be elite he’ll have to play better, but he got little to no help by the rest of the team and that must change. Despite these inexcusable mistakes, the Bears came this close to beating the New England Patriots, or at the very least forcing overtime, and fans are rightfully upset about it.
That’s a great sign, folks.
This team has come such a far way in a very short time and that’s exciting for the future, but this team can be good right now. The 2018 Chicago Bears shouldn’t be a make or break team. Most of us would’ve taken a 3-3 start with losses to the Packers, Dolphins and Patriots, which most experts likely picked before the season, but they can also very easily be 6-0.
That’s the painful part of this.
It seemed that the Bears were “back” faster than anyone anticipated and that caused the expectations to reach dangerous levels.
Just like with Trubisky, fans need to be patient with this team as a whole. It would be nice for this team to be able to figure it out at the same time, and that’s still possible, but as of week 7, this team is far from complete.
That’s not the end of the world.
Trubisky and the rest of the offense are very young and inexperienced together and should improve as time goes on.
The defense has shown how elite they are and underperformed in dreadful heat and against the best quarterback of all time, so a bounce back against the New York Jets is to be expected. Just like how the fans shouldn’t have overreacted with optimism after their route of Tampa Bay, the fans shouldn’t be pessimistic after two bad weeks.
A lot can happen over the course of the season and the Bears have shown that.
It’ll be crucial to see how this team responds to its first real test of adversity and fans should be excited to see what comes next.
This team is hungry and their greatest critic, and betting against them with their backs up against the wall would be a mistake.
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