GREEN BAY — Chicago Bears normal supervisor Ryan Poles left his seat within the Lambeau Field press field at 5:58 p.m. Sunday, within the last minutes of his crew’s season finale, within the top of the feelings that got here from an intense recreation in opposition to the rival Green Bay Packers.
Poles stood up instantly after Aaron Jones’ win-sealing 10-yard run with 1:52 to play. The Bears GM didn’t say something, didn’t make an expression, simply grabbed his work bag and sauntered out.
Poles was on his strategy to the Bears locker room, caught within the aggravation of his crew’s tenth loss, this one a gutting 17-9 defeat that despatched the Packers into the playoffs whereas pushing the Bears right into a multi-stage interval of upcoming reflection and analysis.
First, although, Poles was on his strategy to survey the instant temper of gamers and coaches, trekking by means of the stadium concourse on a cold January evening solely made colder by the chant-filled celebration the locals have been having for his or her crew’s triumph.
Most considerably, Poles was on his means towards an offseason that can check his nerve and decision-making expertise as they’ve by no means been examined earlier than.
This is his stage now, his alternative to outline what issues most for the Bears, to obviously outline his expectations and set up whether or not he’s intent on elevating the bar. (And, in that case, by how a lot.)
We all know what’s coming, beginning first with the group’s crucial choice on what to do with coach Matt Eberflus and his employees. That evaluation, which can take days to complete, will probably be adopted within the coming weeks and months by what guarantees to be a landmark check of the crew’s quarterback analysis expertise.
Poles, although, first has to course of Sunday’s defeat for all its disappointment and ugliness, a loss that proved as soon as once more the present Bears simply aren’t adequate but. Not to constantly win big-moment video games in opposition to high quality opponents. They are actually 2-12 over the previous two seasons in opposition to groups that reached the postseason, together with this 12 months’s 1-6 mark.
Sure, the Bears closed the hole this season. But there’s nonetheless an apparent hole.
How else do you clarify them being outgained 432-192 on Sunday, a staggering discrepancy that appeared each bit as jarring as the ultimate numbers?
Quarterback Justin Fields? His last begin of the season ended with simply 11 completions and 148 passing yards in a three-field purpose efficiency that left rather a lot to be desired. By distinction, Packers quarterback Jordan Love turned in a 316-yard passing effort, fired two landing passes to Dontayvion Wicks and completed the common season with 4,159 passing yards and 32 TDs, numbers that may be single-season franchise data at Halas Hall.
Whoa, proper? Isn’t that what it’s alleged to appear like? In the primary season following Aaron Rodgers’ exit, Love and the Packers nonetheless grinded out a profitable file and earned the No. 7 seed for the NFC playoffs. (So a lot for the notion that rebooting at quarterback is a harbinger of failure.)
So what occurs subsequent for Poles as he lets all of this sink in whereas receiving suggestions and course from crew president and CEO Kevin Warren? Will he proceed to endorse Eberflus as a steadying chief and the proper commander to propel the Bears to a run of success that hopefully ultimately consists of championships? Or will there be a temptation to discover different choices, to presumably substitute “good enough” with “much better”?
Eberflus stated Sunday night he was planning to sit down aspect by aspect with Poles all day Monday at Halas Hall, able to conduct 9 hours of significant exit interviews with gamers. But Eberflus wouldn’t say whether or not he had been given any assurances that he would stay the Bears coach. Nor, did he dismiss the suggestion that a number of days would possibly move earlier than he had any readability on his future.
“I’ll have those conversations with ownership here coming forward,” Eberflus stated. “It’ll be midweek in there somewhere I’m sure.”
Eberflus additionally reiterated his eagerness to fulfill with Poles and Warren and Bears possession to have his say in his efficiency assessment. “I do know this,” he stated. “The foundation has been set for how we operate. And I do know the locker room. We’re standing on solid ground — of hard work, of passion and enthusiasm for the game. And we’re just going to keep working together to improve this.”
As for Fields, his saga is definite to unfold far more slowly over weeks and presumably months because the Bears mirror on his 2023 efficiency whereas concurrently doing a deep dive into the 2024 draft class to see if there could be a prospect — like Southern California’s Caleb Williams, maybe? — who would qualify as a long-term improve.
With maturity and self-awareness, Fields acknowledged his uncomfortable actuality Sunday evening and promised to deal with it as gracefully as he might.
“It’s not like we didn’t have the No. 1 pick last year,” he stated. “It’s going to be the identical factor. Like I’ve stated, I management what I can management. I’m going to get wholesome this offseason, spend time with my household and get higher.
“We went through the same thing last year. We had the No. 1 pick and everybody was asking ‘What if? What if? What if?’ And nothing happened. I’m not saying that nothing will happen (this offseason) because, shoot, we all don’t know. But I’m not going to let the potential (scenarios) or ‘What if? What if?’ stress me (and keep me) from enjoying life.”
Fields additionally expressed satisfaction inside the development he made in his third NFL season. “I think I’m headed up,” he stated. “I felt growth this year, each and every game.”
But on the tail finish of his postgame information convention, the quarterback provided a “just in case” goodbye, too.
“Whether (I’m) here or not, I have no regrets,” he stated. “Shoutout to you guys (in the media) for making my job a little bit harder. To the City of Chicago, I love y’all. I appreciate the fans and the support from all the Bears. And in case this is my last rodeo with you all, I appreciate y’all for everything.”
Then he too marched by means of the season’s exit, unsure of what’s forward. That destiny rests in Poles’ arms. And the Bears GM should reconcile all of the constructive vibes that got here with the crew’s run of 5 victories over seven video games late within the 12 months with the silent and dejected temper that was suffocating the locker room Sunday as a 10-loss crew was hit with its newest reality-check loss.
In an interview aired in the course of the Bears’ official pregame program Sunday, Poles didn’t present any of his playing cards because it associated to his quarterback analysis however expressed optimism about discovering a constructive decision earlier than coaching camp.
“We’re working from a position of strength and just going to continue to keep an open mind and look at all options,” he stated. “I’m excited for that opportunity.”
He appeared extra glowing in his assessment of Eberflus’ management, crediting the Bears coach for displaying “the mental toughness and the steady hand to really captain the ship when the seas are rough.”
“And they got rough at certain times,” Poles continued. “Certainly final 12 months and early this 12 months. There was some sudden change and he was regular on the wheel. He fought to get us again above water and get issues to the place they have been.
“His ability to adapt and adjust, really take input from the players to get this thing on the right path was incredible where I think a lot of people would have been in really bad shape and crumbled to the pressure. He got better with the pressure. And so did our football team.”
That felt like agency assist.
But these feedback have been made earlier than Sunday’s recreation; earlier than the Packers kicked the Bears out of their means on a surge into the playoffs; earlier than Eberflus dropped to 10-24 general as Bears coach; earlier than Fields was so totally outplayed by Love; earlier than 5:58 p.m.
That’s when Poles left his seat within the Lambeau Field press field and walked out with a whole bunch of prospects for reconfiguring the Bears this offseason and, probably, 1000’s of ideas on the right way to choose the perfect ones.
He should now ask himself, with each choice that’s forward however particularly the high-profile, high-stakes ones, what qualifies as excellence. And how shut are the Bears to attaining it?
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Source: www.bostonherald.com