What on the planet are we purported to do with this one, this newest embarrassment from the Chicago Bears, the group’s record-setting ninth consecutive loss that went into the books Sunday as a 41-10 pummeling by the Detroit Lions?
“I don’t know, man,” Bears middle Sam Mustipher stated inside a worn-out guests locker room at Ford Field. “It was just an ass-kicking, to be honest with you. Disappointing for sure.”
This wasn’t simply an ass-kicking, although. This was the Bears enjoying the position of Scut Farkus in “A Christmas Story” proper in regards to the time Ralphie took a snowball to the glasses and blew a fuse.
With little warning, the Bears endured a seemingly countless flurry of punches — proper to the kisser and with no assist in sight.
The 504 yards they gave up have been probably the most a Bears protection has allowed in a four-quarter recreation since Week 16 of 2013 in Philadelphia. Matt Eberflus, architect of the present protection, wasn’t happy on his method out of the stadium and sure shall be much more discouraged when he critiques the video for all of his group’s flagrant violations of his H.I.T.S. precept.
Eberflus received’t have any takeaways to interrupt down. He’ll be hard-pressed to seek out a lot hustle, depth or situational smarts both.
“It doesn’t sit well,” Eberflus stated.
And the Bears’ abysmal displaying on offense, which produced simply 9 first downs and 10 factors in opposition to the league’s worst protection? That was fairly discouraging, too, with the Bears having an equal variety of punts, sacks allowed and cross completions. (That quantity was seven for these questioning how far their jaw ought to drop.)
Consider this probably the most troubling offensive displaying in a bumpy season.
“It’s really frustrating,” stated tight finish Cole Kmet, the one Bears participant to achieve the top zone within the group’s thirteenth loss. “It’s hard not to be frustrated. Every level I’ve ever played at, I’ve been a winner. I want to win. That doesn’t go away.”
The Bears went proper down the sphere on the opening possession. Nine performs, 75 yards, landing. Looked good. Felt good.
On a gadget short-yardage play the Bears had been hoping to get to for weeks, Kmet went beneath middle on third-and-1 for an obvious sneak. Instead he took the snap and pitched to quarterback Justin Fields within the backfield. Fields turned that right into a 31-yard achieve as a part of a primary quarter wherein he ran for 105 of his 132 yards.
“It’s nice just carrying out a fake and then watching Justin run,” Kmet stated.
Fields returned the favor three performs later, hitting Kmet for a 13-yard landing to place the Bears forward 7-0.
Said Mustipher: “Anytime you come out like that, you score on the opening drive and you really move it, you do think you’re going to have success moving forward.”
From there, although, over the ultimate 55 minutes and 54 seconds, the Bears have been outgained by 344 yards and outscored 41-3. Their embarrassing moments appeared to triple their massive performs.
Things already have been slipping away early within the second half with the Bears behind by two scores and needing a complete lot to go proper to jump-start a rally. But on the Lions’ first possession of the third quarter, the Bears had them backed right into a third-and-18 nook inside their 20.
That’s when D’Andre Swift broke free on a draw play for 35 yards with linebacker Joe Thomas getting Velcroed to a block, Dominique Robinson and Nick Morrow lacking tackles and nobody within the secondary coming to their assist.
“Missed tackles,” Eberflus stated. “One of our defensive linemen missed a tackle. (Swift) spun out of that and then our corner lost leverage and our safety lost leverage.”
On the subsequent play, rookie receiver Jameson Williams erupted for 40 yards on an finish round, and the Lions capped the drive with a 2-yard landing run by Jamaal Williams.
Story of the day, proper?
Swift had two touchdowns, a 17-yard run within the second quarter and a 21-yard reception within the third. He wasn’t touched on both — and barely impeded.
Lions quarterback Jared Goff, in the meantime, was decisive and environment friendly, finishing 21 of 29 passes for 255 yards with three touchdowns and a 133.5 passer ranking.
In its first seven sequence, the Bears protection gave up 5 touchdowns and a discipline aim.
Fields and the offense weren’t any higher. Coming into Sunday, no NFL group had allowed extra factors or extra yards than the Lions. With the sport indoors and the Bears offense coming into the day as wholesome because it had been in weeks — with receivers Chase Claypool, Equanimeous St. Brown and Dante Pettis and offensive linemen Cody Whitehair and Teven Jenkins all capable of play — issues appeared arrange for a productive day.
Instead, the league’s worst passing assault had its worst outing of an abysmal season with simply 30 web yards. Fields accomplished solely 7 of 21 passes for 75 yards. He fumbled within the second quarter as he tried to take off on a scramble however held the ball out along with his proper hand.
And on the ultimate play of the primary half, he threw an interception to Aidan Hutchinson on a play that appeared all kinds of discombobulated because the Bears tried to squeeze one thing out of a possession that started on the Lions 45 with 7 seconds left.
That was only one snapshot in a collage of ugliness. The offensive line was shaky all day. Fields didn’t appear very settled within the pocket. And throughout one lengthy, agonizing, maddening stretch, the Bears went 9 consecutive possessions with out creating a number of first downs.
Jenkins was misplaced to a different neck damage on the primary drive. Bears large receivers mixed for 3 catches and 36 yards. Running backs David Montgomery and Khalil Herbert totaled 55 speeding yards on solely 11 makes an attempt.
By afternoon’s finish, the Bears had little to construct on and a lot extra to wash up. Included in that course of shall be an effort to calm Claypool, who had extra sideline outbursts (one) than receptions.
The veteran receiver, upset with the offense’s struggles, was visibly upset on the Bears bench.
“It’s good to have emotion in a game,” Fields stated. “But you just have to know how to control it. And you can’t let it come out like that. Because at the end of the day, that’s not helping anybody.”
Fields tried to set a gradual and centered tone as he processed the continued ineptitude of a passing assault that has been held beneath 100 web yards 4 instances this season whereas topping 200 yards simply as soon as.
Sunday’s struggles have been pronounced.
“This isn’t going to kill me on the inside,” Fields stated. “It’s simple. You learn from the mistakes and get better from them. I’m not the type of person to (groan) on this and that. I’m not that type of person mentally, spiritually. I’ve been through tough times before. My only response is to keep working, keep getting better, keep learning, keep growing.”
For probably the most half, Bears gamers appeared extra agitated than accepting of Sunday’s failures, conscious of the embarrassment they’d suffered.
“Every man has to look himself in the eye and decide how they want to finish this season,” Morrow stated. “If you’re a man who wants to finish and try to compete, then you’ll compete. If not, you’ll lay down.”
But that goes solely up to now. And with one week left in a last-place season that has confused a big section of the fan base, the Bears appear to have far more to fret about than they should be assured about.
In 103 seasons, no Bears group has misplaced extra typically or gone this lengthy and not using a victory. To downplay that as trivial or insignificant to the long-term targets can be silly.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com