Maybe, if what the leaders at Halas Hall are promoting has substance, the Chicago Bears might really be able to enter the on-ramp towards significant progress.
If, as Bears common supervisor Ryan Poles asserted, coach Matt Eberflus is the precise chief for this second, a head-down grinder with excessive integrity and a knack for unifying, then the Bears can stand up to one other bumpy week and emerge with larger power.
“I know it looks like we’re far away,” Poles stated Wednesday. “But this dude comes in every day and just keeps chipping away.”
And if, as Eberflus stated, the tradition is really, to borrow his description, “outstanding,” then the Bears ought to have deep reserves of ambition, resilience and concord to gasoline them by the second half of the season.
“These guys work hard every single day,” Eberflus stated. “The relationship piece is there. We care about each other. We’re working diligently to get this thing turned. We really feel we’re turning the corner.”
If so, November needs to be as defining as any stretch the Bears will face. Starting Sunday in New Orleans and persevering with with a quick-turnaround residence recreation Thursday in opposition to the Carolina Panthers, the Bears have an opportunity to do one thing they’ve but to perform below the present regime: win consecutive video games.
After that, they’ll dive again into division play with a pair of highway contests: Nov. 19 at Detroit and Nov. 27 in Minneapolis. Those video games will give the Bears an opportunity to unlock a brand new achievement by securing their first NFC North win(s) in two seasons — with eight consecutive division losses and counting throughout that span.
For now, Poles has painted Eberflus as an image of stability throughout a time of turbulence.
“The way he holds everything down is incredible for how loud it is, how tough it is,” Poles stated. “With this staff, you watch them they usually battle. You can’t watch that staff and be like, oh, they’re going to fold. Most groups fold they usually’re not folding.
“It’s been really hard, especially from where we started last year in trying to build this and do it the right way. But what I see from (Eberflus) on a daily basis and how he gets this team ready on a weekly basis? To me, I see a grown man who has leadership skills to get this thing out of the hole.”
But now it’s time for motion. For manufacturing. For significant outcomes.
It’s time to assist all that hopeful rhetoric with on-field proof of momentum and success.
The diploma of issue stays elevated because the Bears try to regular themselves after one more chaotic week. It began with a blowout loss on the prime stage in Los Angeles final Sunday, continued with cornerback Jaylon Johnson requesting permission to hunt a commerce the subsequent day and veered sideways once more with the Wednesday’s firing of operating backs coach David Walker for what’s believed to be unacceptable conduct.
The halfway level of the season will formally arrive at halftime Sunday on the Superdome and the Bears will land there with as many departed assistant coaches from Eberflus’ employees (two) as they’ve victories.
They will land there with beginning quarterback Justin Fields nonetheless injured, promising younger security Jaquan Brisker coping with severe concussion points, the offensive line nonetheless unsettled, playoff hopes all however useless and with little or no proof to indicate they will persistently compete with higher groups.
On Wednesday, Eberflus was requested to explain from his vantage level the path of a 2-6 staff that has had way more turbulence off the sector than success on it. “Over the last four games we’re 2-2, right?” he stated. “And the direction is good. Obviously we had an injury to our starting quarterback. We had a backup (Tyson Bagent) come in and win a game for us. The defense is on the rise.”
Eberflus went on to laud the Bears’ enchancment in stopping the run and the offense’s means to ascertain a dependable floor assault. Then he harassed the necessity to have higher leads to the turnover battle.
“When we get that right, we’ll be right,” he stated. “The guys are positive, upbeat and looking forward to New Orleans.”
To a lot of the skin world, it felt like synthetic optimism.
‘We’re all dissatisfied’
When coaching camp opened in July, Poles was requested to set a bar for the yr and articulate a imaginative and prescient for a way this season may very well be certified as a hit. The Bears’ forgiven failures of 2022 have been within the rearview mirror, a free go granted as Poles executed a roster teardown, secured the No. 1 general choose after which traded that to the Carolina Panthers for a haul of future draft capital plus receiver DJ Moore.
But 2023? Progress appeared crucial. A present of development and path felt like an affordable ask.
“I think great teams have high expectations and they go chase those. That’s what we’re going to do,” Poles stated. “I don’t want to put a ceiling on what we can be. But I know our goal is always to win the division and be a championship-caliber team.”
That the Bears aren’t. They are nonetheless a bunch whose 2024 draft standing is mentioned excess of its present playoff hopes. And if it have been simply the repetitive shedding, Chicago’s edginess won’t be as sharp.
But the Bears all the time by some means appear to search out new banana peels to slide on, new manholes to fall into. And the dialogue across the staff too usually facilities round transactions and transgressions as an alternative of tangible soccer success.
As is incessantly famous in league circles, it may be straightforward to determine a staff’s path by evaluating its most important triumphs to its notable embarrassments. On the previous, the Bears have simply two wins this season: convincing victories over the Washington Commanders and Las Vegas Raiders. But these two successes should be correctly framed given the present state of each opponents’ franchises. The Commanders simply held a fireplace sale with a few of their higher gamers on the commerce deadline. And the Raiders fired each common supervisor Dave Ziegler and coach Josh McDaniels Monday evening after falling to 3-5.
As far as embarrassments? The Bears have misplaced six occasions already, together with a 38-20 trouncing by the rival Green Bay Packers in Week 1, a 41-10 beatdown by the Kansas City Chiefs two weeks later and a late loss to the Denver Broncos that noticed them blow a 21-point second-half lead.
In Week 3, in the meantime, defensive coordinator Alan Williams abruptly resigned below mysterious circumstances. (Multiple sources instructed the Tribune that was a conduct-related departure.) Sixteen days later, the staff grew so fed up with moody and inconsistent receiver Chase Claypool that they traded him to Miami for what basically amounted to a bag of Peanut M & M’s, taking an enormous loss on what was a big midseason commerce in 2022.
Walker’s dismissal Wednesday solely added to the notion that Eberflus’ teaching employees is failing to fulfill expectations as his staff falters concurrently.
“We’re all disappointed,” Eberflus stated. “It’s never good when this has to happen.”
There are additionally harm points with seven gamers having frolicked on injured reserve. Six totally different beginning offensive line combos already having been used. Fields’ return timetable remains to be cloudy. And there’s vital uncertainty nonetheless lingering across the long-term well being of Brisker, Tremaine Edmunds (knee) and, to some extent, Eddie Jackson (foot).
(Don’t overlook additionally that promising guard Teven Jenkins missed the season’s first month after injuring his calf throughout a conditioning exercise on an August off-day in Indiana.)
Deal or no deal
This week the Bears additionally discovered themselves within the middle of contract drama with their prime cornerback. Johnson’s wishes for an extension have performed out in a really public method and included this week’s exploration of a attainable exit. So why was Poles inclined to grant that permission?
“It’s the respect I have for Jaylon,” he stated. “If that’s in your coronary heart and also you need to verify that out, go verify that out and see what comes again.
“If everything lines up perfectly, if you want to go somewhere else, then that could happen. And if that brought (back) the (draft) pick where I thought we could get another Jaylon Johnson, then we could do that too.”
Poles continues to state he needs Johnson as a part of the defensive core for years to return. But the GM and his entrance workplace have but to indicate Johnson and his representatives a passable path to creating that occur. And when Poles traded a 2024 second-round choose to Washington on Tuesday for standout go rusher Montez Sweat, he did so with confidence he might signal Sweat to a long-term extension.
But Sweat, upon arriving at Halas Hall, didn’t appear to be in a rush to make an immediate dedication to a corporation he knew so little about and to a staff with apparent uncertainty.
“I just want to consider everything around me before I make a decision,” Sweat stated.
The Bears’ difficulties to find widespread floor with Johnson additional cloud the dialogue. The staff’s divorce from star linebacker Roquan Smith through a midseason commerce in 2022 have additionally heightened a notion in some league circles that the staff has flaws in its negotiation processes and struggles to handle homegrown expertise.
The QB curler coaster
Fields’ unsure standing — each health-wise and developmentally — stays on the middle of the uneasiness. The third-year quarterback has proven flashes of brilliance this season. He had his first profession 300-yard passing recreation in opposition to the Broncos final month and threw a complete of eight landing passes in back-to-back video games in opposition to Denver and Washington.
His chemistry with Moore has been spectacular. Currently, Fields’ 91.6 passer score ranks 14th amongst certified quarterbacks.
But Fields’ first six begins have been additionally outlined by worrisome inconsistency. Of his eight turnovers, three have been returned for touchdowns. He didn’t ship in late game-on-the-line moments in opposition to the Buccaneers and Broncos, has a troubling 61.2 passer score within the fourth quarter and has but to indicate any semblance of high-level pocket poise or subject imaginative and prescient.
With a 12.9 % sack charge in his six begins, Fields’ struggles to do away with the ball on time have been magnified with Bagent having solely a 3.6 % sack charge within the two-and-a-half video games he has performed.
Coincidentally, Fields dislocated his proper thumb whereas falling awkwardly on a Week 6 sack in opposition to the Vikings. Sunday will mark his third consecutive missed begin (and the tenth in his profession) in a season the place the group was wanting to measure his sturdiness alongside his efficiency.
Few groups with this degree of quarterback instability can moderately declare they’re turning a nook. Thus over the ultimate two-plus months, the Bears must attain some fairly necessary conclusions with regard to their subsequent steps and whether or not they need Fields to stay for a fourth season. If not? Well, the quarterback reboot handbook at Halas Hall is effectively worn and normally useful.
What now?
For everybody concerned — gamers, coaches, execs, followers — this may turn into an exhausting existence. Flimsy hope. Empty guarantees. Head-scratching off-the-field developments. And so many losses frequently piling up.
The final time the Bears received consecutive video games, Matt Nagy was nonetheless the coach with Nick Foles and Andy Dalton have been the beginning quarterbacks.
The final time the staff received a playoff recreation, Barack Obama nonetheless had two years left in his first time period as president.
The final time the franchise loved three consecutive profitable seasons, the worth of gasoline in Illinois was 94 cents per gallon.
With that perspective, Bears followers are forgiven for not enthusiastically lapping up Eberflus’ presentation of an keen staff feeling upbeat on the best way to New Orleans. (By the best way, the Bears’ final victory on the Superdome got here in 1991.)
Bears followers are forgiven for searching Eberflus’ shiny brochure promoting an bettering staff with a 2-2 file in its final 4 outings and promptly rolling their eyes.
Bears followers are forgiven for wanting greater requirements and proof the franchise is really heading in the right direction.
Who is aware of? Maybe this upcoming stretch of November video games will really be a turning level. Maybe the Bears will stick collectively and maintain chipping away to make plain progress of their quest to turn into the championship-caliber staff Poles envisions.
Maybe all these current complications and stumbles and dismissals will fade and get replaced by significant constructive momentum.
Maybe, simply possibly, proper?
One approach or one other, November ought to show defining in numerous methods for lots of people.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com