The Bears defense played nearly perfect football for 55 minutes, again. And again, they faltered over the final five to allow an improbable comeback for their opponent.
Yes, the defense is technically on the hook for allowing 10 points over the last five minutes and change in the team’s 20-17 loss on Sunday. But they shouldn’t be held accountable for the result. For weeks the defense has put the team in position to win games. The offense needs to start meeting them halfway.
“It’s about rising up to the challenge,” said head coach Matt Eberflus.
That’s something the offense hasn’t been able to do, more often than not. This year, the Bears offense has scored 274 points, which comes out to just 19.6 points per game. They’ve racked up 4,469 total yards, or 319.2 per game. That’s not good enough to win in today’s NFL where high-flying offenses churn out yards and points aplenty.
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“Our goal as an offense is to put up 28 points a game,” said Justin Fields. “The way our defense is playing, that’s usually more than enough points. Yeah, we’ve got to be better.”
The biggest problem for the Bears offense is that they have a lot of problems. When the run game isn’t working, they don’t have another answer to get ahead of the sticks on first and second down. When DJ Moore is banged up or bottled up, another receiver can’t come through to pick up the slack. When the unit has the opportunity to hit on an explosive, there’s an execution error. When they take on an elite defense, they can’t cook up a game plan to mitigate the damage. When they have a lead in the fourth quarter, they can’t put together a long drive to seal a victory.
Sometimes only one or two of those issues pop up during the course of a given week. On Sunday, each was a problem. Robert Tonyan dropped what appeared to be a surefire touchdown. The plan to stop Cleveland’s talented defensive line wasn’t adequate. Darnell Mooney arguably had the worst game of his season with two catches for 14 yards on eight targets– and that doesn’t count the dropped Hail Mary pass that would’ve won the game. Fields came up one yard short on a fourth-and-one run to start the fourth quarter. The offense gained two or fewer yards on 16 of their 24 first-and-10 plays. They went backwards on six of those plays.
Chicago Bears
As a result, only one of the Bears’ 15 drives went for 50+ yards, and that was their drive to end the first half that ended in a Hail Mary interception. The Bears went three-and-out on eight of their 15 drives. They only scored on two of their 15 drives, and they got the ball on the one-yard line for one of them.
That’s 15 opportunities to change the narrative. That’s 15 opportunities to make a change, make a play, make a moment. And the majority of the time, they didn’t just come up short, they couldn’t even gain 10 yards.
“We’ve got to have some sustained drives there to get in scoring position,” said Eberflus. “We were always behind, whether it was TFL or they found a way to get us behind. Felt like there were a lot of third-and-longs in the fourth quarter there. We have to do a better job there, for sure.”
Over the course of the year, the Bears defense has taken advantage of an improved roster, made some tweaks to their scheme and steadily improved. They’ve gone from one of the worst units in the league over the first four games of the year, to one of the best over the last four games. It’s clear they’re on the right track.
The same can’t be said on offense. There have been flashes of success, but nothing consistent. Adding Moore as a true No. 1 wide receiver is the only clear improvement that shows up week after week. With only three games remaining, time is running out to show that things are getting better. And if the team can’t do that, they’ll have to seriously consider making serious changes over the offseason.
